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

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

#221

Post by marcosdumay »

fxtentacle wrote: post #63

1. Verify that co-founders are emotionally committed to stay. For my first startup, I lost half the founding team when things started getting stressful. Needless to say, that made things even more stressful. 2. Don't trust big companies to take you seriously. I've been burned by "lets use market leader XY" and then later "why won't market leader XY return our calls" and then "we're offline due to market leader XY not…

About #2, 3, and 4, yes, quality starts at the supply line, and the supply line is all abut relationships. You should vet those carefully, and if you can't get enough quality from the immediate market you want, go into their suppliers and do it yourself (or co-start with somebody that can meet your expectations).

Hamming, as always, is quite insightful.

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

#222

Post by bwb »

anonymousDan wrote: post #185
bwb wrote: post #169

23 years exp... My #1: Get really good at user testing so that you minimize risk every step of the way. I can't say this enough as it has totally changed how I approach startups, new features, and core assumptions (and weirdly my personal life). My #2: If you have co-founders, make weekly rituals to ensure you stay in sync over everything else. When you get out of sync, bad things happen. This can also be applied to…

How do you suggest to get good at user testing?

Yep

Step 1: Buy 3 to 4 books and read those -> https://shepherd.com/best-books/understanding-user-research

Step 2: Map out one, do it, and instantly you will understand the power and how to do it better. Then just keep evolving. I am so much better at doing these now than when I started. I better clarity of what I am testing and how to ask to ensure non-biased answers.

ie, read and just start doing it.

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

#224

Post by systemvoltage »

dragonwriter wrote: post #202
systemvoltage wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oregon state has destroyed my good friend’s entire life. Child taken away, only get 4 hours a week of time with his kid. My friend is smart, kind and nicest person you’ll ever meet. Personal net worth fucked. One of the reasons for me to consider leaving California.

> Oregon state has destroyed my good friend’s entire life. Sorry to hear that. > One of the reasons for me to consider leaving California. You do realize that California is not an administrative subdivision of Oregon, but a completely different state, right?

No, I didn't know California was a separate entity. But, what I know is that it is worse than Oregon.

Instead of HN constantly defending California, I want us to take a hard look at what's wrong with this state and improve it; but I see a bad future and looking out for myself. I want California to be the best place on the planet to live. It is regressing at an ever increasing pace. I was talking to a SaksFifth employee in SF – he is working there since 1995. I talked to him for good 30 mins talking about how things were in Bay Area specifically. It is night and day compared to 90's.

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

#225

Post by reubenswartz »

XCSme wrote: post #82

- The cheaper you price your product, the cheaper customers you attract. I get a lot more support tickets for customers that paid $45 than those that paid $1500. Discounts often lead to the same issues. - Your competition is not better. Even if your competitor has 1000 employees, that doesn't make them better, they more likely work a lot slower and less efficient than a smaller company. Also, a big company is more li…

These are all good, but I want to reiterate the 3rd point about refunds. It happens occasionally. And it's wrong. And it drives you crazy because it's wrong. Consider it a cost of doing business, and move on.

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

#226

Post by codeptualize »

thyrox wrote: post #44

Mine is a bit meta, but don't take advice from random people about creating million dollar businesses. Always check the profile of the person giving the advice first. Same applies for people teaching about SEO and marketing. It's very important to check who is giving the advice as a lot of advice seems to make sense in theory but doesn't translate that well practically.

This is so true. I would say it applies to all advice. Advice can be great, but you have to understand where it comes from and how/if it applies to your situation.

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

#227

Post by ehnto »

ironlake wrote: post #198
ehnto wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep peddling this idea, but if tech wages came back to reality it would be affordable for small to mid sized companies to hire software developers to truly empower their specific businesses with software. The reason for that is the same reason your idea works, most businesses outside the tech bubble stand to gain a lot form software. Currently they have no way to act on it except to hobble together a ruby goldberg…

>if tech wages came back to reality it would be affordable for mid sized companies to hire software developers to truly empower their specific businesses with software. Most mid-sized companies don't have the skills to manage and deploy software developers that can solve their problems. Those skills tend to be expensive, and the software project, historically, has a high chance of failure. So, yeah, the high price of…

I wouldn't mind pointing out that your argument is really just that talent is expensive. But my question is, what makes a software developer so much more special than a plumber, a mechanic or carpenter? You can teach yourself software on youtube, we aren't -that- special. There are dozens of highly skilled positions out there that don't get payed nearly as much.

The answer that I think is a hard pill for some to swallow, is that for a long time we have been the tool required by special kinds of high return business ventures, so we can command high wages. The same is true of remote miners in Australia, the difference is there is no use for a miner in the rest of the community so there is no loss since no one is competing for their wage anyway.

My argument is simply that the rest of the economy could really use software developers, but they are too expensive due to the distortions on commandable salary that the tech bubble has created. It would be nice if software developers returned from the high heavens and integrated their skills more readily with the greater community.

I am a software developer, and I understand the audience I am talking to is the very audience benefiting from the status quo. I don't expect it to be a popular view but I do hope people give it a thought. Think of ways your talent could help your community, and then that is what I am hoping to see more of.

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

#228

Post by notdonspaulding »

XCSme wrote: post #82

- The cheaper you price your product, the cheaper customers you attract. I get a lot more support tickets for customers that paid $45 than those that paid $1500. Discounts often lead to the same issues. - Your competition is not better. Even if your competitor has 1000 employees, that doesn't make them better, they more likely work a lot slower and less efficient than a smaller company. Also, a big company is more li…

Regarding your last point: One thing I did in my B2C startup that helped tremendously with this is to have all customers pay monthly up-front, with no contracts and no free trials. I think most folks avoid this because it "leaves money on the table" but it does 2 important things:

- Brings clarity to your relationship: "If you aren't finding value in the product, or think you can find better value elsewhere, you can leave at any time." - Keeps you honest. Because you can't hide your failure to deliver a valuable product behind contractually-obligated revenue.

I'm not against contracts at all, and the larger your customer or the more involved your customer relationship gets, the more necessary they become, but even in bigger engagements I shoot for the contract to be payment up-front or in regular installments with easy offramps should the customer stop seeing value in the engagement. The important bit is that if a customer wants out, you should let them out, and it should not cause _you to lose any money or any sleep_.

I don't know how widely applicable that is to other businesses, but for mine, it's a helpful way to structure the relationship.

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

#229

Post by armc »

rileyphone wrote: post #162
samatman wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The commenter with the advice clearly mean "sales" as the department or role. To a founder or CEO the word "revenue" is used where you're using "sales", it isn't wrong except in context but the intention was unambiguous to me.

IMO "sales" in OP referred to revenue generating transactions.

OP here... I didn't realize how literally the words would be taken, so:

Few problems (a/k/a most problems) can be solved with more sales (a/k/a sales as a P&L line item equating to revenue); but OF COURSE its what you do with the increased revenue/sales that matters. Buying a Bentley isn't going to solve the business problem.

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

#230

Post by armc »

JohnWhigham wrote: post #127
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…

11. Get a prenup. No, really, do get one. While true, unfortunately in many (blue-leaning) states, they're starting to become at the judge's discretion. Absolutely sickening to be honest.

A good prenup is a reasonable/minimalist one. The more aspirational the prenup, the less likely it is to be enforced.
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