

Ask HN: Whats the Biggest Lesson You've Learned With Your Startup? - pirri


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oythesehurt
1\. Do _not_ stick to your vision. Stick to your users's vision. Even if you
disagree with it. Success with some "compromise" is far sweeter than failure
without it. That doesn't mean you have to do whatever anyone wants, it just
means you cannot afford to have sacred cows. If the vast majority of your
users want something then it is _right_ and they should get it. No one was
more arrogant than Steve Jobs, and even he allowed himself to be pushed by his
users on a regular basis. You should too.

2\. Change Your Fucking Idea. You have 6 months to figure out if this is a
good idea and there's a very objective test: you are growing rapidly on
revenue and/or users. If that is not the case then pull the fucking plug while
you have time. Do not worry about what investors will think. Do not worry
about what _anyone_ will think. Better to have been the guy that changed his
idea and succeeded than the guy who didn't and failed. Sticking with a failed
idea is the dumbest thing you can do.

3\. Make money. Consumer startups that will make money "later" are for people
who are really lucky, happy to fail, or already rich. Creating a business
whose primary objective is to _earn revenue_ makes it extremely easy to know
if you're succeeding or not. Either you're profitable or you are not. If you
are not then you are still failing.

4\. Do simple businesses in industries you understand. Stick to what you're
good at. Spent 10 years in finance? Create a damn finance product. Used to be
a doctor? Do something in medicine. Solve a real problem you had or have in
the field you have the most passion and experience for.

5\. Keep up development momentum. Do not let more than a day or two go by
without improving the product. Don't let anything get in the way of you
improving the product. Don't let old decisions block forward momentum. If you
have to temporarily make the product worse in order to keep going, then just
take the hit. You can't afford to stagnate on product development.

6\. If you have money then hire people that are good. When you hire good
people you should be saying to yourself "Holy shit, I don't know what we would
have done without <person>". Be unapologetic about having people do things
you're bad at. Make people work hard. Hold yourself to a high standard and
everyone else too. Better to be a hardass that succeeds than a softy that
fails.

------
meerita
\- Ship earlier, measure impact, validate, iterate. \- Delay = death.

------
revorad
Don't work alone.

