Real Founder Lessons
The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.
Think differently about procrastination
(at minute 2:56)
Founder Lesson
Startups are creative exercises. This is true because the path to creating a tool/brand/mission to solve a problem isn't known. If it were known/correct/big, it would already exist.
If you've ever done much long-form writing, it's like that. The basics of your story are in your head (eg a new college . . .
Startups are always messy
(at minute 4:56)
Founder Lesson
I’ve wrestled with a topic behind the scenes in writing my blog over the past two years…should I speak about startups topics cleanly (but less exact) or be as exact as possible (and risk watering-down the message)?
In writing about startups it has struck me that most “educators” or "advisors" on topics . . .
Why take funding if you are successfully bootstrapped?
(at minute 2:03)
Founder Lesson
Last week I had the opportunity to meet-up with Bryce and the Indie.vc team during their quarterly retreat in Atlanta. I’ve been a fan of their approach since they launched, but hadn’t gotten a deep dive into their model until then.
In a nutshell, the Indie approach is to give a founder options. If they push hard . . .
What's your unique insight?
(at minute 14:01)
Founder Lesson
The more time I spend around startups the more I value the origin story of the founding team. And I’m not alone here. Pay attention to the VCs that you most respect. When you listen to them interview startup founders and the founders immediately launch into a product demo or describing traction, you’ll often hear the . . .
Pivots can be executed very quickly
(at minute 19:29)
Founder Lesson
Every startup pivots.
If you are founder - particularly if it’s your first startup - this is an incredibly daunting statement. You are smart. You’ve had this problem for a long time. Your initial product solves your problem. Plus you’ve been thinking about and working on this idea for 6/12/18/24 months (or longer). . . .
Founders need to lie (especially to themselves)
(at minute 15:20)
Founder Lesson
Startups are tricky business for many reasons. One of the trickiest of reasons is the notion of “truth.”
When you have a new idea that you think will make lots of people much happier, but you haven’t built anything yet, you have to weave such a dream that you make everyone believe in your vision. Then you have to . . .
The pit of despair
(at minute 30:49)
Founder Lesson
The common belief is that you become a founder the day that you leave your day job to focus full-time on a new startup idea.
I’m beginning to believe that the path is more like this...
Step #1 You start off with a problem that you want to solve.
Step #2 You have a vision of what the future with . . .
