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Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

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Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#11

Post by jroseattle »

A friend of mine manages a TechStars outpost, and many of these slides reflect a common point driven into the TechStars community: focus on users. It's a great point as well.

The only point I might take issue with would be the talk-to-customers-before-you-write-code scenario. It depends on the circumstance, but it's been my experience that sometimes you need write some code in order to talk to customers. In our particular market, we won't get in the door without having something to put in front of a customer, simply as a talking point to start a conversation.

If there is one point that's understated, it's the notion of a marathon and not pivoting too fast. It's obviously a fine line, but it's a fine line between beating your head against a wall and working to find a breakthrough or secret sauce or whatever the model is that suits your product. Use the knowledge you find, but the less sexy approach of slogging it out is great advice.

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#12

Post by zeroami »

I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount. Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that round.

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#13

Post by wes-k »

jmtai wrote: post #9

Question: "So why didn't anyone tell me?" Answer: "Because it wouldn't have mattered." Before I made the plunge and decided to form a startup, I read everything I possibly could about the process... what to do, what not to do, etc. I knew all the mistakes first-time founders make, and I was pretty sure I'd be able to recognize the issues and avoid making any of the really big ones. I didn't expect to get it all right…

They can help give a slight leaning but I agree that experience definitely helps.

I knew working with customers was important but it wasn't until going through the experience myself that I realized just HOW important it really is. Reading these articles after the fact, help to solidify what I've learned and how I should approach my next startup/business.

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#14

Post by mikeg8 »

zeroami wrote: post #12

I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount. Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that round.

But raising the round doesn't mean success whether you want to think it does or not. It may relieve internal pressures on a team/founder but that's because they foolishly value it as a "success metric". For me, the slide is one of the more important ones to remember.

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#15

Post by gtaylor »

zeroami wrote: post #12

I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount. Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that round.

He's not really making any controversial claim here, he's just saying taking money isn't a guarantee of "making it".

Also, you don't always have to take investments at all (which the author may or may not have been alluding to). We bootstrapped Pathwright out of an existing consulting agency.

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#16

Post by mbesto »

randall wrote: post #4
mbesto wrote: post #2

Every single point is spot on from my own experience. Subsequently many of the points won't sit well with the techie crowd.

"Subsequently many of the points won't sit well with the techie crowd." I'm not sure what you mean? Why wouldn't battle-tested well-worn advice work with the techie crowd? And who is the techie crowd? Programmers? Tech lovers? I'm just confused by your comment.

Good point. I should have explained.

Things like:

"Stop writing code"

"Don't worry about engineering"

"It's a marathon"

Won't sit well with technical people (mainly programmers, CTO co-founder, etc)

Re: Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago

#20

Post by yesimahuman »

zeroami wrote: post #12

I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount. Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that round.

From what I can tell, you guys are agreeing on that point.
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