
The Biggest Mistakes First-Time Founders Make [video] - chrisa
https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-biggest-mistakes-first-time-founders-make/
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lubujackson
For a counter-mantra to cover most of these: "Directly solve at least one
person's real world need."

If every startup could work with one customer from the idea stage through
prototype and beta, so many problems would be averted. And if that one
customer leads you down a narrow path, it is far easier to broaden the scope
of useful product than pivot an unwanted idea.

~~~
nivertech
_" Make something p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ somebody wants"_

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m0zg
I've been at a startup which made (and continues to make) nearly all of these,
except for "don't do it with a founder you don't know well" mistake. It
remains to be seen if they succeed, but they aren't really hurting either.
Business is growing, albeit slower than they (or their investors) would like.
Their secret? Two super-deep-pocketed customers that pay them about a million
dollars a month each. Because of this steady revenue stream, it's also much
easier to raise money. As Eric Schmidt (then the CEO of Google) used to say,
"revenue solves all problems". The crazy part about this is, those customers
came to _them_ because they knew a couple of prominent dudes who work there,
bizdev was not involved.

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skosch
> Two super-deep-pocketed customers that pay them about a million dollars a
> month each.

This sounds like a perfectly legitimate way to earn a living, and more mature
and wise than chasing some unvalidated unicorn dream and running out of cash
after a year of exhilarating misery.

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m0zg
Certainly. But VCs don't like this situation one bit. Pump and dump is the
name of the game.

~~~
guywhocodes
Who cares what they want? You already beat them, you don't need them and they
need you to need them.

Just keep growing your business sideways, try to reuse as much as possible of
your IP and experiences.

You are on the right track

~~~
m0zg
Well, investors sit on the board. So you sorta have to care.

~~~
guywhocodes
As in they have effective voting majority? Otherwise make them provide enough
proof that you can trust their suggestions. Because the original message
sounds like they want you "just behave like everyone else in the valley".

That is lose control of your company, take in money faster than you can use it
and lose it all with over 90% probability.

As mentioned by `icu` in the other response, smart money can be great. Just
make sure it's SMART and not SF-herd mentality BS.

