Real Founder Lessons

The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.

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Mentoring founders is hard

(what's your superpower?)

Background
When my startup was growing like crazy and I felt like we had product-market fit, for the first time in my career I tried to mentor some startup founders. In 2012 I reached out to a half-dozen founder/CEOs with a simple offer...

If you agree to meet with me for coffee every month and tell me everything, I'll advise . . .

Posted in: advisors all counterintuitive things delusion domain expertise mentoring mentors process product market fit raising capital

It takes 3 years to know what you have

(at minute 2:24)

Founder Lesson
I'm talking weekly with a very good founder who's working on a startup to disrupt hiring. He checks all the boxes. He loves the problem...check. He's a visionary...check. He's smart with a strong work ethic...check. He has very relevant experience...check. He has a proven track record of building . . .

Posted in: advisors all business model validation counterintuitive things execution hustle joelle steiniger matt goldman michael sacca mvp persistency pivot podcast process product market fit purpose resiliency rocketship.fm solving a problem time timing unique playbook

Everything you always wanted to know about validating B2C startups (but were afraid to ask)

(at minute 8:57)

Founder Lesson
Yesterday I was talking with a first-time founder about the process of validating her B2C startup idea. Before she even decided to pursue her idea she did a survey with a bunch of consumers asking basic questions about the space and their habits.

People responded as she expected, so she decided to go all-in.

. . .

Posted in: advisors all bootstrapping business model validation counterintuitive things customer discovery engagement execution first principles focus how i built this lean startup marketing micromanagement mvp my favorites podcast process product product market fit traction unique playbook value proposition

Why founders don't heed good advice

(at minute 00:49)

Founder Lesson
I don't have all the answers. No one does.

Your best advisor doesn't have all the answers. The best VC on Sand Hill Road doesn't have all the answers. The best founder doesn't have all the answers. That's why startups are so tricky...every straight-forward problem has been solved. So what's . . .

Posted in: advisors all business model validation counterintuitive things execution focus founders my favorites optimal living daily podcast process product market fit solving a problem unique playbook

Thank you David Cummings

Founder Lesson
On Saturday morning I was going through email and noticed the latest blog post from David Cummings...

Silvrback blog image
Like many founders in Atlanta, I read almost every post from David. Besides finding personal nuggets that I've been able to use over the years, I've lost track of the number of founders who have . . .

Posted in: advisors all execution first principles founders pattern matching persistency process purpose vision

Are you working on the right thing right now?

(at minute 19:48)

Founder Lesson
I left my last startup about two years ago. Ever since then the topic that has most fascinated me is how disruptive companies are launched from the earliest moment that the founder has a special insight...what I call the "idea stage."

In order to focus full-time on this problem, I joined a long-time . . .

Posted in: advisors all business model validation counterintuitive things first principles focus founders hustle joelle steiniger matt goldman michael sacca persistency podcast process product market fit rocketship.fm solving a problem timing

The importance of having experienced founder/CEOs as advisors or board members

(at minute 26:16)

Founder Lesson
One thing that I’ve come to realize recently is how rare it is to come up with an idea for a new venture and have it get to a reasonable size.

Think about all of the people that you interact with on a daily/weekly/monthly basis - how many of them have ever written an idea on a napkin and then grown that idea into a . . .

Posted in: advisors all founders podcast stanford university team