Non-technical CEOs can probably add the most value by focusing the majority of their energy on building a strong culture.
Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
251–256 of 256 posts
Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
#252Here’s one that is counterintuitive. As you start to scale yourself, hire first for the things you know/do best. You will only be able to identify what good looks like if you understand the job. It will be tempting to keep doing those things yourself, because you want to feel competent. Startups are all about allowing yourself to be incompetent, but overcoming it.
Intriguing one since I often hear the opposite advice.
Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
#253- 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…
A good client can provide more than revenue. All the staff that have contact with them will be exposed to their expertise, inspired by their high standards, and bring back their good business practices. A bad client can poison a company culture with their own problems and cost more than money. It's as important to have good clients as it is to have good employees.
That's true, but that being said, most of the bugs/issues are reported by low-paying clients that like to complain, so they also do provide extra value (apart from revenue).
Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
#2541. 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…
> 1. Verify that co-founders are emotionally committed to stay. Thank you for saying that. I would also add that being a solo founder has many advantages including avoiding flaky cofounders and dealing with painful equity negotiations.
Yes :https://founderscafe.io/ They are actually nice solo-founders (Experienced and newbies are there too). Felt comfortable meeting them the first time I joined the community. :D
Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
You strike me as a genius, Gumby. I literally said "oh my god" out loud while reading the free pilots paragraph
If I am a genius (thanks!) it's only because I initially failed to do this and was screwed each time until I figured out why. Don't be like me; make your own mistakes instead.
Don't be too hard on yourself. Over the years I've come across a few folks who never figure out how not to smash their thumb with that hammer (and never figure out that what they need is a screwdriver).
Re: Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That mild-mannered A/R clerk is the real difference between paycheck and no paycheck. What's A/R?
Accounts Receivable, one assumes.
Almost certainly. Though the music industry's "Artists and Repertoire" (sometimes abbreviated AR, sometimes A&R) is a not-particularly-close second.
To make matters worse, I have seen A&R being used to mean "Accounts and Receivables", which is just WRONG (except in the context of tertiary education institutions).