Essential advice for mobile startup founders

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.

Determine the 90/10 solution

Talking to users results in a large, difficult list of features to create. In this scenario, one piece of advice that we often provide is to seek the “90/10 answer.” That is, search for a technique to accomplish 90% of what you want with 10% of the work/effort/time. There is always a 90/10 answer accessible if you look hard enough. A 90% solution to a genuine customer problem that is immediately available is far superior to a 100% one that takes decades to create.

Write code & interact with clients

As a company grows, there is a multitude of possible distractions. Conferences, meetings with venture investors or corporate development executives from major corporations, pursuing press coverage, and so forth. We often tell entrepreneurs that the most crucial responsibilities for an early-stage firm are to write code and communicate to customers.

This means that to create something people desire, any firm, software, or otherwise, must first launch something, then talk to your users to determine whether it meets their requirements, and then take their input and improve. These duties should take up all your time and attention. This cycle never stops for excellent firms. As your company grows, entrepreneurs will be forced to pick between numerous routes for their firm. It is almost always better to pursue the more ambitious option; it is remarkable how often entrepreneurs manage to avoid dealing with these types of challenges and instead focus on other things.

Identify 10–100 consumers that admire your service

Whenever it comes to customers, most entrepreneurs don’t know that they get to pick theirs, as much as their customers do. We remark that a small number of customers who appreciate you is preferable to a huge number who only tolerate you. In other words, acquiring 10 consumers who have a pressing issue is far superior to recruiting 1000 customers who have a little issue. Because it is simple to make mistakes when selecting consumers, companies must dismiss their customers. Some clients might cost far more in terms of income or learning than they offer.

Development is the outcome of a good product, not the cause of it

Progression is always a priority for startups because a startup that does not expand is typically a failure. Yet, when and how to grow are frequently misinterpreted. We urge firms to communicate to their consumers, develop what they want, and iterate rapidly, so growth is a natural byproduct of properly completing these three tasks. However, expansion is not always the best option. It makes little sense to expand if you have not yet created something that your consumers desire — in other words if you have not established a product-market fit.

Don’t expand your game until you’ve created something that people desire

Poor retention is almost usually the end consequence. Furthermore, if you have an unproductive product, expansion drains cash from the firm. It makes no sense to charge a consumer 80 cents and then give them $1 back. It should come as no surprise that unit economics are important, yet far too many companies appear to overlook this fundamental truth.

Avoid lengthy transactions with large clients whenever possible

The instinct of startup founders will always be to do more, but the ideal approach is always to do less, but well. For example, founders are typically attracted to pursue significant agreements with large corporations that symbolize great, company-validating partnerships. Deals between huge corporations and small startups, on the other hand, rarely end favorably for the startup. They take too long, are too expensive, and fail altogether. One of the most difficult aspects of starting a business is deciding what to do because there is an unlimited number of things that might be done.

This means that to create something people desire, any firm, software, or otherwise, must first launch something, then talk to your users to determine whether it meets their requirements, and then take their input and improve. These duties should take up all your time and attention. This cycle never stops for excellent firms. As your company grows, entrepreneurs will be forced to pick between numerous routes for their firm. It is almost always better to pursue the more ambitious option; it is remarkable how often entrepreneurs manage to avoid dealing with these types of challenges and instead focus on other things.

Know that at some time, every startup backfires

Very early a startup must choose the one or two key metrics it will use to measure success, and then founders should choose what to do based exclusively on how the task will impact those metrics. When your early-stage product isn’t working it’s often tempting to immediately build new features to solve every problem the customer seems to have instead of talking to the customer and focusing only on the most acute problem they have.

Value does not necessarily imply success

Founders are frequently surprised to discover that they need not be concerned if their firm appears to be damaged. It turns out that almost every startup, even ones with billion-dollar valuations, has profound, basic problems. Success is decided not by whether you are broken from the start, but rather by how the founders deal with the inevitable issues. As a founder, your work will frequently appear to be constantly correcting a damaged thing, therefore it’s quite normal.

As a fresh startup entrepreneur, it is impossible not to worry about competition, both present and hypothetical. Spending any amount of time thinking about your competition is almost always a terrible decision. We like to argue that startup firms are always killed by suicide rather than murder. There will come a moment when competitiveness will be crucial to your business’s success, but this is extremely unlikely to be the case in the first year or two.

The funds you raise are not your own

The first item of fundraising advice is to gather funds as fast as possible and then return to work. When a firm is fundraising, it is generally easy to tell by looking at their growth curve, and then when it flattens down, they are soliciting funds. It is also critical to recognize that value is not the same as success or even the possibility of success. It is necessary to keep in mind that the funds you raise are not your own. You have a legal and ethical obligation to spend the money exclusively to improve your company’s chances.

Maintain your sanity and your startup out of chaos

It is also critical to maintaining your sanity throughout the unavoidable chaos of startup life. So we constantly advise entrepreneurs to take pauses, spend time with friends and family, get proper sleep, and exercise in between periods of hard, concentrated work. Finally, a word on failure. It turns out that most businesses fail quickly due to founder dissatisfaction. Relationships with co-founders are more important than you realize and open, honest communication between founders reduces the likelihood of future blunders. It turns out that being kind is one of the finest things you can do to make your business successful, and indeed, to be successful in life.

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