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- If you are bootstrapped, you can build dual use technology. - All of this is predicated on the idea that building software is hard, you need 8 years to build a product that people like. Maybe this is all going away in the AI world in a couple of years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will add a section. Pay yourself a salary at the very latest the moment you've raised funding. If a VC objects to you doing that, get a different VC. You're in for the long run, and support from your family etc. is important, and you're already taking on a huge risk by pooling all your risk in one company, vs. the VC who is happily diversified. Investors who imply you shouldn't take a salary are no bueno.
How much of a salary do you pay yourself? Like equivalent to what your developer salary would be? Less? More because you’re a CEO now? I basically have minimum $ amount I would accept for “developer job I absolutely love” that I know sustains my family comfortably without much extra fun or savings. Is that a good bar?
And if there are liquidity pressures a few years into the process, and you have traction at Series B or C - don't hesitate to think about a small secondary.
Great article. Few suggestions: - If you are bootstrapped, you can build dual use technology. - All of this is predicated on the idea that building software is hard, you need 8 years to build a product that people like. Maybe this is all going away in the AI world in a couple of years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will add a section. Pay yourself a salary at the very latest the moment you've raised funding. If a VC objects to you doing that, get a different VC. You're in for the long run, and support from your family etc. is important, and you're already taking on a huge risk by pooling all your risk in one company, vs. the VC who is happily diversified. Investors who imply you shouldn't take a salary are no bueno.
How much of a salary do you pay yourself? Like equivalent to what your developer salary would be? Less? More because you’re a CEO now? I basically have minimum $ amount I would accept for “developer job I absolutely love” that I know sustains my family comfortably without much extra fun or savings. Is that a good bar?
I started off making significantly less than I did as a dev (~30-50k + I had spent months with 0 salary before raising), within ~2 years I was making a bit more and I capped out around there.
This is really well written and clearly from someone who has loved through it. I think just about all of their observations are correct (except for getting a coach - incredibly detrimental in my experience).
Author here. I'd be curious what went wrong in your case? (Also, happy to soften that advice further if there's strong evidence that people find the advice detrimental).
So I guess spot and avoid sweet talking charlatans (this applies to all business relationships though).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Author here. I'd be curious what went wrong in your case? (Also, happy to soften that advice further if there's strong evidence that people find the advice detrimental).
Not OP, but when I did my startup I also tried coaches, and the first one I talked to was kinda like what gold diggers would be in a relationship context (asking high price, since he knew we raised, and in the demo sessions provided superficial value), then I finally went with one who actually had business experience and uni degree in psychology and provided modest but solid advice for a fair price, that was quite he…
Also - I use the term "coach" broadly here. Many people react very poorly to the term "therapist", and "coach" is a much broader term encompassing both therapy or just people that have significant experience in a field. Or just an older relative or acquaintance that is willing to provide regular advice/feedback.
There's definitely charlatanism, particularly when people advertise themselves as "business coach" or "startup coach".
I see a pattern where companies end up becoming consulting firms with a bit of proprietary tech. Then all their efforts are put into a handful of clients. The companies call them “design partners” but they’re basically clients. Seems like a particularly risky trap for bootstrapped companies desperate for revenue. At the same time the best companies I see out there are relentlessly customer focused. How do you draw th…
Apple famously ignored users on lots of fronts: can't manually add RAM, mouse has 1 button, etc. They didn't serve one type of user specifically so they could appeal to a larger market. You can't serve everyone.
Is that something you factor into your playbook? Or do you simply not find it relevant to judge whether to enter a certain space?
> there are two separate personas that you need to “create”: The user persona and the buyer persona. Even more important: stop using personas, start using actual people. I've experienced many startups make unforced errors by conflating people into personas. A better way is to tag people with attributes, such as specific interests, explicit concerns, tasks to be done, usage goals, learning preferences, and the like. W…
Personas are useful for developing a general character that you can refer to. But you still have to be able to say "Alice Robertson, who is a demand-gen marketer at $CUSTOMER, is a prime example of this persona and someone we should talk to during product research." If you can't speak to an actual human and validate your ideas, then you are at risk of creating a fake persona who sounds just plausible enough to convince you to make wrong decisions.
I resonate a lot with these reasons. I definitely know I am not the most optimal employee, but often times the people I clash with are people that I cannot respect. Either - They think they're higher than me (you cannot collab like that) - They want it their way, despite there being multiple ways to Rome, and will cut off the conversation with orders, not arguments - They pretend to be technical and are only making t…
I don't know about your experiences, but insisting on this point can be a death sentence. I've spent most of my career as "technical lead", carefully building an approach that works for what my team does based on an underlying theory that is very difficult to verbalize. I've found through experience that when I feel like the project is aligned with this theory, the project goes very well, and when it's not, it doesn't. I've considered thousands of small tradeoffs over 15+ years of developing these ideas.
At this point in my career, I've found that trying to explain the rationale behind my decisions is a losing game. It's a careful balance of a thousand factors that I'm constantly weighing and adjusting. If people share my goals and are interested in learning, great! I'll make some time to talk through parts of the theory with them. But it's not always during project time -- sometimes you just have to trust me.
Yes, you thought of six different ways to do it -- I probably also thought of those ways. I'd love to live in a world where we can have a quick conversation about them and then all agree on the path forward, but that's not how it works. In reality, whoever I'm talking to goes into "argument mode", focuses on irrelevant details, argues about the names of things instead of their substance, takes things personally, feels ownership of whichever idea they came up with first, etc. They say they just want to learn, then they expect me to transmit 15+ years of thinking into their brains in a short conversation, while they argue with me on every little point.
There are a thousand ways to do anything, which means it's critically important to reject most ideas immediately. That often means hurt feelings. It's just better to have the person with the vision making the decision. If you don't want to go with my vision, my theory, that's fine: go with someone else's. One other person's vision, and then don't argue with that person either.
Of course there is room for discussion, feedback, learning, and debate, but this may be better done "off cycle".