Real Founder Lessons
The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.
Even startups that rely on a network effect can be validated early
(at minute 1:04:56)
Founder Lesson
I was meeting with a very successful local founder this week and he was describing his current strategy - after years of honing it - of finding a group of initial "happy customers" for a new product. Like this founder, over the past year it seems like I'm constantly telling founders...
"Distill . . .
The best founders combine vision & micromanagement
(at minute 42:50)
Founder Lesson
It’s common wisdom that startups are defined by their limited resources. The actual definition of a startup could be “a new business that grows quickly despite limited resources."
While this startup rule-of-thumb is known by most everyone, very few people have been in the trenches enough to truly understand . . .
The best founders eliminate risk
(at minute 36:16)
Founder Lesson
The notion of “risk” in new businesses has always fascinated me. The best founders that I know believe passionately in their idea and space, but they spend most of their time/energy/creativity removing risk to increase the likelihood that they will succeed. And if they can’t property remove/mitigate risk then they don’t . . .
What angel investors want to see
(at minute 41:46)
Founder Lesson
As a group of investors, angel investors fall into a tricky middle ground that founders should understand and appreciate. Angels are typically individuals who are able to invest $10,000 to $100,000 personally. Most angels that I encounter act like friends & family investors - they focus on the people and idea. Like your . . .
Who are your real competitors?
(at minute 21:54)
Founder Lesson
Over the years I’ve struggled with how to think about competition. There are obvious competitors in your industry that you can find with a simple Google search, but I’ve found that the best founders think more deeply about this topic.
The best founders fixate on their primary customer value proposition and who else . . .
A good startup education for anyone
For this post, I decided to switch things up a bit to give a little backstory on where I get most of the content for my blog.
I frequently have coffee meetings with first-time founders where they ask for advice on how to learn the basics of startups.
Here are the best four ways to learn about startups...
1) Best way . . .
The whole concept of a startup is that the business model isn’t proven
(at minute 30:01)
Common Founder Issue
Just a few years ago I had an epiphany regarding how the very early participants in a startup - particularly founders and initial “friends and family” investors - should feel about the likelihood of success of a new venture. Prior to this moment, I considered every phase to be pretty much the same as a startup grew. . . .
