The things that no one tells you about beginning a startup
14. That business books and courses and forums are there NOT to just read and put away. Success only comes when you take action from the material that you just learnt.
13. That your girlfriend or wife would be mad at you for working late nights “10” days a week.
12. That your mom and dad would be clueless. And more worried would be your in-laws.
11. That you need to make money right from day 1 to pay your employees and contractors. I am not talking about having the cash in your bank right on day one, but atleast doing the necessary outreach and market research for your products
10. That you cannot keep relying on someone else’s money (read: venture capital) forever to pay the bills.
9. That you could be doing Sales on Day 1, Marketing on Day 2, Customer Service on Day 3, be the Janitor on Day 4, Product Development on Day 5, and all these things, I just mentioned, again over the weekend.
9a. That Product Quality > Customer Service > Sales and Marketing > Technology. Always remember, it takes more money to acquire a new customer than to retain a happy paying customer.
8. That you need to spend money to make money. (Not everyone ends up making a Facebook.)
7. That you might not end up where you think you want to end up when you started the business. Your goal could be selling A, but you might end up selling B. Because, heck, that is what the customer wants and because that is what pays the bills.
6. That you need to be 3 steps ahead of your competitors in the business.
5. That you need to automate most of your business processes so that your time is spent in what actually matters for the company’s future
4. That you need to hire people who are better at different things than you and hire fast.
3. That you need to accept you cannot be at 3 different places at the same time.
2. That you need to measure the effectiveness of every business decision you take and monitor new changes like a hawk.
1. That you know when to quit and when to not giveup
0. That even if nothing works out, you still win - by having dealt with so much crap, you become stronger and smarter for your next challenge.
1 comment:
Become shameless. Be OK with failure. Your pedigree and your background does not matter. Your ‘great network’ does not matter. (Unless you are a first time massively successful entrepreneur) You will be treated as a literal nobody by your suppliers, by your potential hires, by potential partners etc. Latch on to people who trust you, and repay that trust really well when you do well.
It takes a lot of time to build out all the ideas you have. And smart driven entrepreneurs are usually filled with ideas. Even with a lot of money and people, at any point in time, you are going to have to super prioritise what you can build. And say ‘No’ to a lot of things. Most startups win by doing fewer things really well, than trying too many things.
Be a people person - whatever you are doing (unless you are selling yourself as the brand!, and even in that case you are going to have to work with people), will involve getting in people who are smarter than you. Be ready to spend a lot of time in recruiting, motivating, having tough conversations, giving feedback, networking to understand best practices etc.
Understand & appreciate technology. You can’t escape it in the current world. It could be a deep skill like engineering, product management or user experience design. It could be a broader skill which is following a ton of products across different categories, understanding tools and techniques, using tech productivity and process tools etc. What you surely cannot afford to do as a founder is to be tech afraid or tech aloof.
Work out your co-founder dynamics. If you are starting out with friends, assume there’s going to be a lot of friction that may test the core of the friendship. Be objective enough to split personal and professional interactions. If you are working with people for the first time, ensure your vision and values are aligned, since strategies and solutions usually differ anyway over time. One person’s neck needs to be on the line - and that is the CEO. And all other ‘equal’ founders also report to this person in the ideal structure.
Brutally prioritise your personal time. And get the buy-in of the required people. Everyone would have told you that 70–80 hours of time a week building your startup is the norm. No one would tell you that the remaining 40+ active hours (if you remove 45 hours for sleeping) - will mean that you will have to brutally prioritise your other interests. Health usually gets neglected - do not! Amongst the remainder - hobbies, fun, relationships, etc. - choose the 1 or 2 at max that you want to keep strong. And have open conversations for what it’s going to take first 3–4 years at the least.
End of the day, understand that your job is that of a movie director or a music conductor. You have to bring in the best of investors, team members, partners, suppliers etc. to go solve the problem that you set out to solve. In the best possible manner. In a way that you are building the company to be something of meaning and substance. Keeping customers happy. And if that means that at some point in time, you need to move out, be ready for that. The startup is bigger than your own professional ambitions always!
It’s just #Onelife. Despite (or because!) of all this, I would still urge everyone of you who has that ambition, to start up!
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