A lot of the advice provided to startups is tactical and it’s supposed to be useful on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. Some though is more fundamental. Here is our list of the most essential and transformational startup tips. The advice provided here will assist most entrepreneurs in finding their way to success.
Table of contents
- Begin immediately
- Create something that others want
- Determine the 90/10 solution
- Write code & interact with clients
- Identify 10-100 consumers that admire your service
- Development is the outcome of a good product, not the cause of it
- Don't expand your game until you've created something that people desire
- Avoid lengthy transactions with large clients whenever possible
- Know that at some time, every startup backfires
- Value does not necessarily imply success
- The funds you raise are not your own
- Maintain your sanity and your startup out of chaos
Begin immediately
The first word of advice we usually provide to entrepreneurs is to launch their product as soon as possible. This is the only way to understand consumers’ problems and whether the solution fits their demands. Delivering a poor product as quickly as possible followed by user feedback and iteration is far superior to waiting to develop the “ideal” product. This is true as long as the product has a “quantum of usefulness” for buyers whose worth outweighs any flaws.
Once a company is up and running, we advise entrepreneurs to avoid doing things that don’t scale. Many startup advisers encourage businesses to expand up far too soon. This will cause the development of technology and procedures to enable scalability, which, if undertaken prematurely, will be a waste of time and effort. This technique fails and even the demise of a business. Rather, we tell companies to obtain their first client by whatever means required, even physical labor that could not be managed for more than ten consumers, much alone 100 or 1000.
Create something that others want
At this point, entrepreneurs are still determining what needs to be created, and the best way to do it is to speak straight to the customer. For example, the Airbnb founders first offered to “professionally” photograph its earliest customers’ houses and flats to make their listings more appealing to renters. Then they went and took their photos. Their site’s listings improved, conversions increased, and they had fantastic discussions with their consumers. This was completely unadaptable, but it was critical in learning how to establish a lively marketplace.