Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#111

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

tnolet wrote: post #46

armc wrote: post #33

Here's 30 years of experience for you: 1. Few business problems can't be solved by more sales. 2. Cut expenses when the storm is approaching, not when you're soaking wet. 3. You can't eat assets or inventory. Don't get emotional about what you own, only about your cash balances. 4. Banks are your friend only when you don't need them. Corollary: One bank for borrowing, one for cash balance accounts. 5. 70 completed ca…

Sales fixes everything. Very hard to learn for engineers and designers often.

Yes, but I feel this is somewhat of a tautology: of course lots of revenue makes things easier.

But the important part is to diagnose why you have low or declining sales. Sometimes it's because you don't have good sales people. But other times it's because the product you have isn't a good market fit, or it's really buggy, or your salespeople oversold and now your customers are unhappy with the actual functionality of your product.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#112

Post by shantnutiwari » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:12 PM UTC

What I found after a few failed businesses:

1. Just because others are making money, doesnt mean you will

2. People like, and show a a very small part of their success. "Oh I just worked 70 hours, helped the community, they gave back to me". Not mentioned will be their friends who secretly helped promote them, their rich daddy who bankrolled them while they worked on the "startup", or the dodgy things they did to get sales.

3. Its hard whatever field you choose, so make sure you choose something you love, else you will quit at the 1st sign of trouble.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#113

Post by nullspace » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:12 PM UTC

tnolet wrote: post #46

armc wrote: post #33

Here's 30 years of experience for you: 1. Few business problems can't be solved by more sales. 2. Cut expenses when the storm is approaching, not when you're soaking wet. 3. You can't eat assets or inventory. Don't get emotional about what you own, only about your cash balances. 4. Banks are your friend only when you don't need them. Corollary: One bank for borrowing, one for cash balance accounts. 5. 70 completed ca…

Sales fixes everything. Very hard to learn for engineers and designers often.

I don't know... I might be having a reverse-survivor bias seeing, being in and contributing to failure, but I've _never_ seen a case where "let's increase our sales headcount" strategy actually did anything (EDIT: i.e. when things are bad. Of course, if things are good, sales is a key driver to growth)

If you need "more sales" to fix it, the problem often lies somewhere else.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#114

Post by cynusx » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:14 PM UTC

- don't ignore critique but instead aim to understand it; the person providing it is taking a social risk to give it to you.

- there is no substitute for solid user research (no competitor research, sales, marketing, ...); you need to understand the clients journey before you can start to think about how to add value

- the emotional journey of your client is the only thing that matters

- get rid of everybody who doesn't understand that; you want the organization to value making your (potential) clients happy and look beyond the numbers.

- your cash cycle will dominate your life, don't start a business without understanding rough CAC and earnback times.

- competition is not just companies that do similar things to you; it's every possible alternative way to solve the clients' problem. Make sure you actually have an advantage.

- seniority is the ability to deal with uncertainty; some people are senior just by their attitude alone and teach themselves how to succeed. Others will always ask for more definition and are terrified of admitting they don't know something.

- only senior people add value to startups; you can bring in more junior people when you are a scale-up and there is a lot of clearly defined work to do.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#115

Post by smoe » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

andi999 wrote: post #91

arethuza wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming the product that has been sold actually exists!

Even if it doesnt. It generates cash (you can borrow against a p. o I think) and pressure to ship the product.

Assuming what has been already sold is actually possible to build

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#116

Post by tnolet » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

nullspace wrote: post #113

tnolet wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales fixes everything. Very hard to learn for engineers and designers often.

I don't know... I might be having a reverse-survivor bias seeing, being in and contributing to failure, but I've _never_ seen a case where "let's increase our sales headcount" strategy actually did anything (EDIT: i.e. when things are bad. Of course, if things are good, sales is a key driver to growth) If you need "more sales" to fix it, the problem often lies somewhere else.

I meant “sales” as transactions, not “sales” as in the department or role.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#117

Post by tootie » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:18 PM UTC

armc wrote: post #33

Here's 30 years of experience for you: 1. Few business problems can't be solved by more sales. 2. Cut expenses when the storm is approaching, not when you're soaking wet. 3. You can't eat assets or inventory. Don't get emotional about what you own, only about your cash balances. 4. Banks are your friend only when you don't need them. Corollary: One bank for borrowing, one for cash balance accounts. 5. 70 completed ca…

The sales thing is super important but the channels and investment really depend on the type of business. B2C won't scale with phone calls you need marketing organization.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#118

Post by tnolet » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:18 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #111

tnolet wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales fixes everything. Very hard to learn for engineers and designers often.

Yes, but I feel this is somewhat of a tautology: of course lots of revenue makes things easier. But the important part is to diagnose why you have low or declining sales. Sometimes it's because you don't have good sales people. But other times it's because the product you have isn't a good market fit, or it's really buggy, or your salespeople oversold and now your customers are unhappy with the actual functionality o…

This is encapsulated by that simple statement. Do whatever you need to get sales.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#119

Post by domenicrosati » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:18 PM UTC

In 10+ years of startup experience on the science and engineering side.

Sales fixes everything and is the hardest thing.

If sales can execute then there is no problem. It seems obvious but it's really not and people make the business about the mission and product - that stuff is secondary seriously secondary.

As a founder and early employee - you need to know if you can execute on sales or not and make it clear to both yourself and your coworkers.

Sales isnt something you can learn to do my biggest lesson is i cant do it no matter how hard I tried. If your employees / boss / cofounder are not closing sales you seriously need to get someone who can as your companies top priority.

Closing means money in the bank and nothing else. Paper is meaningless.

A contradictory learning is the best startups I've been at are ones where folks are ideologically fanatical with mission.

Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?

#120

Post by skeeter2020 » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:19 PM UTC

nullspace wrote: post #113

tnolet wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales fixes everything. Very hard to learn for engineers and designers often.

I don't know... I might be having a reverse-survivor bias seeing, being in and contributing to failure, but I've _never_ seen a case where "let's increase our sales headcount" strategy actually did anything (EDIT: i.e. when things are bad. Of course, if things are good, sales is a key driver to growth) If you need "more sales" to fix it, the problem often lies somewhere else.

>> I've _never_ seen a case where "let's increase our sales headcount" strategy actually did anything

no one said hire sales people; rather if you've got a problem, first look at increasing sales before you put your efforts elsewhere. This will either fix the problem or explicitly identify it.