What I'd tell myself about startups if I could go backfive years?

Original post written by: Ben Dixon also @talkingquickly Catch up with him at http://www.talkingquickly.co.uk/

You're definitely going to end up

building too much and shipping too late.

Be obsessive about avoiding this

Someone's always already working on the

same idea and that's not a bad thing

Always refuse if someone asks you to sign

an NDA before hearing their idea

Like it or not, most networking in London

is focused around drinking. Find a way to

deal with that without having a constant

hangover

The people who are really getting

somewhere aren't the people who are

always out for drinks

Linear growth can be

worse than

no growth

Most people who talk about failing fast,

aren't actually practicing this

It's really easy to kid yourself that you're

"doing customer development" when

actually you're finding ways to make what

your customers are saying fit with what

you want to build

Everyone has a hidden stash of domains

they've never used

It's really easy to become hyper-critical

and respond to every idea with "yeah but

that won't work because of x". This is

lazy, don't do it.

Be especially careful to avoid the above

when talking to people who are new to

the scene. Call out other people who do it

It's really hard to listen to someone

pitching an idea you've seen fail several

times already and focus on working out if

there's something slightly different and

interesting there

Someone being a technically competent

developer does not mean they know how

to ship things. I'd always rather work with

someone who ships over someone who's

technically brilliant

The programming language/

framework wars are great fun in the

pub, but of limited value in real life

A good developer can pick up any

language or platform in a few weeks

I still don't know any real investors

Constantly exaggerating how well

you're doing can be very tiring. It

makes it harder to publicly celebrate

the real victories

It's really hard to build a product if you

don't have a big personal investment in

the problem it solves

Falling in love with a product (rather

than the problem) is really dangerous

You can get away without knowing how

a hash table works, but it's really

satisfying when you eventually learn it

Same goes for Big O notation

Overnight success isn't a thing. The

Social Network is still a great movie

I still don't understand PR

Most technical solutions are trivial

compared to how you get the product

into peoples hands

Make something people want is

probably a less useful heuristic than

make something you want

But you wanting it doesn't mean

enough people want it for it to be a

business

If you don't have first hand experience

of an industry, you're probably wrong

about how it works, what problems they

have and so how they should be solved.

Talk to people

"Ads" are where business models go to

die.

‘We'll monetize the data’ is the new

"Ads"

The people you end up wanting to work

with (and help) are the ones who

always try and work out how they can

help you. Be more like them

But get really good at asking for things.

Most people will give you a discount for

no reason other than you asked. If you

see someone important and influential,

introduce yourself

Get good at saying no to things, from

people asking you for discounts to

interesting projects you really don't

have enough time for

Think hard about a pivot which makes

good business sense but leads to a

product you no longer care about

Writing (blogging, books, journaling) is

a really positive experience

Don't pay too much attention to

internet comments about something

you've written, there's always someone

who didn't like one particular sentence

(see point about trolls below)

One troll can wipe out a hundred

positive interactions, be ruthless in

keeping them out of your communities

If you end up pitching to someone over

coffee, ask to hear their pitch

afterwards

Only say you're going to introduce

someone or send them something if

you're actually going to do it. People

quickly get a reputation for never

following through

Show don't tell. "I'm going to build this

amazing thing" is a LOT less interesting than

"I've built this slightly crappy thing that

actually does something". EVERYONE is

GOING to build something, most people never

do

Building things is awesome, don't get

too caught up with the whole "Lean

Startup Landing Page" mindset

Lean Startup is awesome, but it's a

pamphlet not a book, read the first few

chapters and you'll get the idea. Four

steps to the epiphany is more technical

and probably a better book

Most startup advice is terrible and the

good advice is usually obvious.

Everyone will give different advice,

trust your gut

Except when it comes to what your

customers want, then ignore your gut

and trust them

No-one has ever used a Bitcoin ATM for

practical reasons

Do back of napkin financial forecasts

for every potential business model you

come up with, just to see if it's in the

right ballpark to a couple of orders of

magnitude

It's really easy to automatically dismiss

everyone who starts a conversation with "I'm

looking for a technical co-founder". Doing this

means you miss talking to some interesting

people. But be upfront that you're not that co-

founder so no-one feels like their time is wasted

Trying to raise money and apply to

accelerators is a full time job. You're

probably either building or fund

raising. Not both. If in doubt, choose

building

The solution to many, many problems,

is not technical. That won't stop people

trying solve them with apps

Facebook is the Facebook for X

The idea you laughed at when you saw

them pitch at a hackathon may well be

the one that's still alive and kicking

long after whatever you pitched fails

If there are people who genuinely like

failing, I've never met them

That was not "your idea" unless you

shipped something, otherwise I

invented Facebook, Nest and Oculus

Rift

People don't steal ideas. Tell as many

people as possible. Never ask someone

to sign an NDA before hearing your

idea, you'll instantly lose all credibility

Being friends with somebody is not the

same as being able to work well with

them

Small teams can move VERY fast, be

really careful getting extra people

involved in any project where agility is

important

Multi-tasking isn't a thing, switching

costs are huge, do one thing at a time

and do it really well. Find a way to

block out interruptions

Read every essay Paul Graham has

written

Tech news (and news is general) has a very low

return on time invested. Prefer books and

conversations

Read Founders Stories, Fooled By

Randomness and The Four Steps to the

Ephiphany

The logo doesn't matter at the start,

find a simple text based logo you can

re-use for different projects

If you possibly can, open source and

write up any side project. Every now

and then you'll meet somebody really

interesting as a result

Regularly working 12 hour days is

probably never a good idea. If this is

happening a lot, find a way to optimise

Talk to everybody

Original post here: http://www.talkingquickly.co.uk/2015/04/what-id-tell-myself-about-startups/

That’s it!

Let’s get working

Compiled into a edible presentation by: @sia_steelFounder, Product Designer: www.finchreviews.com