* Build for your customer, not for yourself. * Make one thing very good, ignore trying to do hundreds of features at launch.
Do you mean these were mistakes, or these are correct?
Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
21–30 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#22My take on this
http://codemonkeyism.com/6-reasons-why-my-vc-funded-startup-...
1. We didn’t sell anything
2. We didn’t sell anything
3. We didn’t sell anything
4. The market window was not yet open
5. We focused too much on technology
6. We had the wrong business model
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#23I made many mistakes, the common pattern in all mistakes was WISHFUL THINKING. I think a really good businessman operates without ANY wishful thinking. I came to the conclusion that a good business plan (which by the way should be typed up and hung on the wall so that it is explicit) contains no more than one "wishful" part. VC money might allow for more, I don't know. Anyways, for me it was: * not doing customer dev…
I think pretty much everyone interested in startups knows what "customer development" is by now :)
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#24Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#25I made many mistakes, the common pattern in all mistakes was WISHFUL THINKING. I think a really good businessman operates without ANY wishful thinking. I came to the conclusion that a good business plan (which by the way should be typed up and hung on the wall so that it is explicit) contains no more than one "wishful" part. VC money might allow for more, I don't know. Anyways, for me it was: * not doing customer dev…
I think pretty much everyone interested in startups knows what "customer development" is by now :)
Counterexample: myself 2 years ago.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#26What I should have done: Focus on Task 1 exclusively. Task 1 = the basic core product (what the customer really wants). Only do other tasks if they are absolutely required by Task 1.
What I did: A million tasks, only 14 of which were absolutely required by Task 1.
What I did right (that many others don't): Find out from prospective users what Task 1 should be. (Although it still hurts when you find this out but still don't do it.)
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#27Trying to ram my cool idea down the customers' throats. (Instead I should be asking them what they want me to build)
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#28Listening to advice from experienced and accomplished people who were just repeating standard advice or telling the story of their own experiences.
If you're doing something complex and different, you have to rely on yourself and largely ignore everyone else unless they've spent a long time thinking about your exact situation.
Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#29Trying to ram my cool idea down the customers' throats. (Instead I should be asking them what they want me to build)
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Re: Ask HN: Which of your start up mistakes has taught you the most?
#30The biggest lesson I learned was this : really consider the long term viability of a co-founder. You need someone to work with initially, but that may not be the same person who will last out in the long-term. So be very careful when collaborating with anyone. Also, I've found it very difficult to predict what will work well and what will not. Use intuition, but find out as quickly as possible if your ideas were correct.