

Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago - shlomiatar
https://speakerdeck.com/giladvdn/ten-things-about-being-a-founder-i-wish-i-knew-two-years-ago?x=1

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jmtai
Question: "So why didn't anyone tell me?"

Answer: "Because it wouldn't have mattered."

Before I made the plunge and decided to form a startup, I read everything I
possibly could about the process... what to do, what not to do, etc. I _knew_
all the mistakes first-time founders make, and I was pretty sure I'd be able
to recognize the issues and avoid making any of the really big ones. I didn't
expect to get it all right on the first try, but I was certain that I wouldn't
get it all wrong.

Guess what? I still made pretty much every mistake in the book. Almost every
single thing that I'd read about basically went out the window as soon as I
began.

Why? Because once you and you alone own something and put it out to the world
to be used, judged, loved, hated, it becomes a very emotional and very
personal experience. And once emotion enters the picture, it's very hard to
step outside of yourself and assess the situation logically and pragmatically.

When you work for a large company, it's very easy to distance yourself from
the product you're building, because most of the time you are not the only one
involved in building it. You shipped a buggy piece of crap? Yeah, it sucks,
but it's management's fault because they set an unreasonable schedule. And
that contractor that worked on that one part didn't know what the hell he was
doing. My stuff worked great.

But now this product is _your_ baby. And when someone tells you it's ugly,
you're almost certainly not going to be able to take a good hard look, and
say, "You know what? I can see where you're coming from."

This presentation is great. Every single point is true. But speaking from
experience, having someone tell you about lessons learned isn't the same as
actually learning those lessons yourself.

~~~
ikonst
It's been said that stupid people learn from their own mistakes and smart
people learn from others' mistakes.

However, this is untrue. Smart people learn from their own mistakes, and
stupid people never learn.

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jroseattle
A friend of mine manages a TechStars outpost, and many of these slides reflect
a common point driven into the TechStars community: focus on users. It's a
great point as well.

The only point I might take issue with would be the talk-to-customers-before-
you-write-code scenario. It depends on the circumstance, but it's been my
experience that sometimes you need write some code _in order to_ talk to
customers. In our particular market, we won't get in the door without having
something to put in front of a customer, simply as a talking point to start a
conversation.

If there is one point that's understated, it's the notion of a marathon and
not pivoting too fast. It's obviously a fine line, but it's a fine line
between beating your head against a wall and working to find a breakthrough or
secret sauce or whatever the model is that suits your product. Use the
knowledge you find, but the less sexy approach of slogging it out is great
advice.

~~~
kareemm
> In our particular market, we won't get in the door without having something
> to put in front of a customer, simply as a talking point to start a
> conversation.

Would wireframes not work? In my experience, telling a story about how your
product solves a potential customer's problem with wireframes will get you a
lot of conversations, IF the problem you're proposing to solve is important
enough.

~~~
jroseattle
That's a practical answer and good suggestion. For us, wireframes don't quite
work -- we need a little interactivity (customer base, plus existing market
entrants, require _something_...mostly for appearance of progress.)

But yes, I can think of plenty of scenarios where wireframes would do the job.

------
hashtree
Echoing what I have learned myself. If you are an entrepreneur and you haven't
read "Nail It then Scale It", do so now. No, really. There are few books I
solidly recommend, particularly for business, but this book is the one I have
found most valuable time and time again. When you finish reading it, go back
to these slides and see how many were addressed. Absolutely zero affiliation
with the book or authors, just a big fan.

[http://www.amazon.com/Nail-then-Scale-Entrepreneurs-
Breakthr...](http://www.amazon.com/Nail-then-Scale-Entrepreneurs-
Breakthrough/dp/0983723605)

------
zeroami
I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught
up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount.
Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of
tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that
round.

~~~
gtaylor
He's not really making any controversial claim here, he's just saying taking
money isn't a guarantee of "making it".

Also, you don't always have to take investments at all (which the author may
or may not have been alluding to). We bootstrapped Pathwright out of an
existing consulting agency.

~~~
redguava
Whilst not controversial, I think a point that needs to be made. A lot of
people have their sole focus/goal on raising money. They then raise money and
their next sole focus/goal is raising more money.

I think more people need to realise it's an option and a choice, not a
required stepping stone.

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mbesto
Every single point is spot on from my own experience. Subsequently many of the
points won't sit well with the techie crowd.

~~~
randall
"Subsequently many of the points won't sit well with the techie crowd."

I'm not sure what you mean? Why wouldn't battle-tested well-worn advice work
with the techie crowd? And who is the techie crowd? Programmers? Tech lovers?

I'm just confused by your comment.

~~~
mbesto
Good point. I should have explained.

Things like:

"Stop writing code"

"Don't worry about engineering"

"It's a marathon"

Won't sit well with technical people (mainly programmers, CTO co-founder, etc)

~~~
nona
As a tech co-founder, I thought this deck was spot on. Maybe it's because I've
been through that experience that I don't feel threatened at all byt hat
slide.

"Stop writing code/did you talk to your customers yet?" - he's so right. I've
had to trash a lot of iterations of our code because we didn't heed (or grok)
this advice.

I still think code is very important. But coding the best thing ever and it
not being used is a nearly 100% waste of effort.

I can imagine that developers who haven't gone through such an experience
might feel different, though.

------
kriro
Maybe I'm naive but I have to wonder how you can raise a decent clip of angel
money and none of the angels told you any of this. Seems like you should add
"get angles that are interested in the business and can provide more than just
money"

Either way, nice read. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned :)

~~~
jchonphoenix
Have you done it before? Just curious what you're experience was. I've always
found that the angel who's willing to put in a lot of time (not just at the
inflection points a la every angel group) is really hard to find.

A good metric on this is the number of investments they've made. More than 4
and you're probably not getting any time.

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joebeetee
Love this. Thanks for posting this and helping us (hopefully) avoid similar
pitfalls.

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scott_meade
This is a good deck. Thanks for sharing. I'd be really surprised though if
really no one had told you at least some of these tips before you had to
discover them for yourself.

------
wasd
Pretty solid deck. A lot of stuff you read in different places consolidated in
one place.

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mattryanharris
I loved it and helped me re-evaluate how I'm running my startup, cheers!

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ptvan
"For God's sake, no NDAs please."

amen brother!

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shivaas
great stuff Schlomi. hit the nail on the head..

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rscale
The only thing I'd consider changing on this deck is point 6 about hiring and
firing.

The point has validity, but I've seen more (and larger) problems caused by
likable but not-quite-qualified employees than I have by unlikable but
qualified employees. A good board of advisors and broad feedback can help spot
this problem and offer appropriate prescriptions.

~~~
redguava
There's a lot a people around, I wouldn't settle for anyone that doesn't meet
both criteria.

~~~
rscale
My unproven theory is that assholes are less of a problem, because it's
relatively easy to identify assholes and avoid hiring them in the first place.

Likeable B/C-players are tougher because if you lack domain expertise (and
aren't getting good advice) you might not realize they're a B or C player
until it's too late.

