

When starting a company, don't count on anyone but yourself. - akalsey
http://egoist.blogspot.com/2010/08/when-starting-your-startup-dont-count.html

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sunir
Take a step back and look the inconsistency in this statement and the original
post.

A startup founder has to rely on people other than themselves. They rely on at
least their customers. Many, including Chrometa, rely on partners and
employees as well.

The difference is that you have successfully sold the promise of the company
to your current customers and your partners and employees. With the other
partners or aides, you have not made a compelling offer.

There are two major reasons why this could happen.

1\. Sell side. Your pitch was not sufficiently compelling, or you were not
ready to deliver on your promise.

2\. Buy side. You're not selling it to the right person at the right time.

The overarching reason is that you were unable to establish an exchange of
value. That happens. It will get easier once you build your company up.
Eventually your company becomes 'magnetic.' It will attract interest rather
than you having to persuade others.

But yes, _you_ will have to hustle.

~~~
brettowens
Hey Sunir, those are all excellent points you make. Let me see if I can
clarify what I was initially going for on my initial rant.

The mistake I made in our early days, and one that I still see amongst early-
stage entrepreneurs (of course always easy to see in hindsight!) is that they
put too much weight in how much somebody else can help their venture,
particularly in those embryonic stages.

Let me pick on myself here, which is pretty easy to do. I had a lot of
misconceptions about what made startups successful. I thought that building a
great advisory board could take you to the promised land. I thought finding
the right angel/VC could do it.

Which goes back to #1 that you point out above - the sell side - in the very
early stages of Chrometa, my sell side value prop was not strong enough. You
hit the nail on the head.

Hence, I wasted a lot of time trying to "sell" potential partners and such -
when I should have been focused internally. These people were kind enough to
take a meeting, and kind enough to act interested - that wasn't their fault,
it was mine.

I got a little fired up here - partners are of course important. What I
learned early on perhaps is don't get your hopes up on partnering before
you've got your own house in order.

------
dolphenstein
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Don't count on anyone's website either! :-)

