Learning from your faults is critical. Adapting with necessary adjustments can be powerful. Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
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Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#2start market validation exercise early on
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#3* Not having multiple clients lined up (in Round 1 of my company I made this mistake and had to get a "real job" for a while).
* Not starting early and having to pull all-nighters as deadlines approached.
* Not communicating with clients on a daily basis (this also helps to keep you from procrastinating).
* Not starting on your crazy side ideas/weekend projects as soon as possible. The longer they sit on your to-do list, the more they'll bug you but also the less likely they'll get done. If you at least get them to a prototype stage, you won't feel like you missed out even if you decide not to finish them.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#4Never waste time pursuing Indian VC's.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#5All of them. If you learn only from one mistake, you've failed. Most likely in your first few businesses you will make numerous mistakes.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#6You absolutely, 100% cannot get angry at your users. If they misuse your product, it's your fault. If they don't understand something, it's your fault.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#7Never waste time pursuing Indian VC's.
Agreed. but that's something you have to go through to shatter naive illusions about what building a startup means.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#8* Build for your customer, not for yourself.
* Make one thing very good, ignore trying to do hundreds of features at launch.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#9* working with an investor who wants to do all of your customer relations for you
-> This leads to a situation where you see customers asking questions in a forum and you (as a developer) are not allowed to answer because this is what the investor's support team is supposed to do. Thus, answering will be slow and of low quality. This builds a bad reputation. I will never do that again.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#10Never waste time pursuing Indian VC's.
Could you elaborate on this?