A few things I tell all first-time startup founders to help accelerate revenue.
This is a follow up to “things I’d do differently next time around”. I’d recommend reading it first.
- Launching something good now is better than launching something perfect later (or never)
- Your first idea will probably be wrong
- You need to collect and use customer feedback ASAP, especially around user experience
- You don’t need the best idea, you need the best execution
- You’ll work more than you ever thought possible — and you’ll love it
- Your team will doubt you along the way, but use your vision as a guard rail
- It will take longer than you thought to break even
- You want to build something in a market with existing competitors — otherwise there’s (probably) no market for what you’re building
- Marketing is equally as important as product
- You need a story about why you created your product that the media will be interested in and that people will remember and talk about
- Pay peanuts, get monkeys
- It takes 7–10 years to build anything important
- Lead by example when it comes to working hard and being efficient
- You will probably fire someone early on — and they could be a friend
- Share your idea with everyone and ask for feedback — no one will copy you
- Stick with it, it does get easier as you get a few wins under your belt
- Iterate on your product as fast as humanly possible
- Your product is the only thing that matters for the first few months, then it’s product and distribution
- Your mindset will determine how far you go
