

Things we've done wrong with our startup - willwashburn
http://blog.willwashburn.com/post/23430029949/5-things-we-done-wrong

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maybird

      I wrote exponentially worse and worse code as the hours
      went on and then pushed right as I left for the “real
      life” component. None of that code ended up working.
    

If only my boss would understand this.

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crusso
He said he worked a "50 hour day". I guess he pulled a couple of all-nighters
straight?

I'm all for crunch time pushing myself, but I learned the hard way back in
college that all-nighters weren't very productive.

Does your boss ask you to pull all-nighters? If so, that's not very bright of
him.

~~~
maybird
My boss is a workaholic. I didn't think much of it at first. It's his company,
I understand why he's putting so much effort into it.

But it didn't take too long to start feeling the pressure from everyone to put
in crazy hours like he is.. even if he's the sole owner and no one else but
him will profit from it directly.

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j0n0
_They say that you learn more in your failures than you do in your successes.
I think that’s just what people say when they fail._ Fair enough, so you would
go with the 37signals philosophy - that failure is overrated? I've always
looked at failure as the fastest path to long term success. An investment. A
humbling, yet necessary tool for startup people to learn and move quickly. I
might even argue that I sometimes seek it out.

~~~
PhrosTT
A fun story about failures:

fora.tv/2009/05/30/MythBuster_Adam_Savages_Colossal_Failures

~~~
willwashburn
"failure is always an option"

thanks for the link

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christianbryant
I definitely commend the self-review, the clearly defined points and being
left with the sense of future fixes. Assuming Social Blendr does well, will
you continue to be as reflective? And, what type of development process have
you in place to aid in avoiding the same pitfalls? Even the most lean Agile
Scrum process and tools can aid in the framework to support future success.

Kudos.

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edw519
_Incubator infatuation...We ended up getting attention, but we never had the
product ready because…we were too busy trying to get their attention._

You raise an interesting issue. Whenever you do something, you should ask, "Am
I doing this for my customer or for my investor?" The answer may surprise you.

I bet both your customer and your investor would prefer if you focused all of
you attention on your customer.

~~~
willwashburn
I definitely was told not to, and we did it anyways. I guess it's one of those
"watch out, the pot is hot" type of scenarios ... I had to touch the pot to
really "know"

I am making an effort now to keep asking myself the hard questions.

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sparknlaunch12
Thanks for sharing. Some commonly spoken about issues. Good you have
acknowledged these earlier rather than later. Liked the 7000 pivots comment.

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willwashburn
Thanks. I recognize now that I've heard all these before and yet we still made
the same mistakes. Hoping to take some steps now to correct that, one of which
being acknowledging them!

~~~
crusso
The most important/useful item on your list was #5.

Once you have a good Mentor, he or she can help you to avoid the other 4
problems in your list.

Find a Mentor who has a track record of success who can articulate how she
achieved her success and learned from her failures. Buy that Mentor lunch
every week or so, and get her thoughts on your pivots, the hours you're
working, and your whole business model.

Informally commit to some goals in front of the Mentor and stick with them. If
you get some other ideas like you want to pivot on your product, change your
sales strategy, or dramatically alter your work schedule; try to satisfy your
need to change by writing down the changes you're thinking about and then
putting them aside to get back to the goals you set with your Mentor. At your
next Mentor lunch, bring up the change ideas and get her feedback before
deciding on your next short-term goals.

I'm not saying to let someone run your business or rule your life. All I'm
suggesting is that you increase the speed that you're learning how to succeed
by capitalizing on the successes and failure of someone else.

Like the saying goes, "A fool learns from his mistakes, but a truly wise man
learns from the mistakes of others."

