You won’t get it right the first time. Only a persistent series of attempts and tests of hypotheses approaching infinity. Do not believe the nice stories about “you sat down, wrote the code in 24 hours, and tomorrow you will be rich”. If it happens, it’s by chance and luck. And if you plan to build your startup on luck, you will quickly fall apart. This topic is worthy of a separate article.

Don’t be afraid to not pay a salary / offer to work for free.

There are plenty of young (and not so young) people around who spend their free time away from their main job on bullshit. They better spend it on your bullshit you call a startup. All you have to do is convince them of that. Paying your friends and relatives is really fucked up. At some point you can start paying a little bit, but do it right, taking into account the value per hour spent. This, too, is a topic for a separate text.

Don’t be afraid to offer to buy a product to customers and get rejected.

The most effective way to figure out if a product is useful to someone you make is to try to sell it. People buy crap every day, transfer money to scammers, and trust MLM schemes. There will always be someone who will buy the very thing your startup produces. 100 rejections and one sale will give you more value than “constantly sawing the product” to some kind.

Don’t be afraid of reversals (“pivots”).

A startup should become a business, and business is about money. The product has to be flexible and adapt so that it brings in more revenue, even if it changes it beyond recognition. If the market forces you to start making smart masturbators instead of a smart home system, that’s the way to do it. And you have to treat this product like a child, present it as if you’ve been sick of it all your life and it’s your destiny. If you’re not ready for that – go to work for hire, don’t waste your life fulfilling false dreams. Money should make money, only infobusinessmen, who just make money on you, put other faith in your heads.

Don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes.

Budding startups think it’s important to always be successful and not show your mistakes. The smart ones know that admitting mistakes and conclusions sell you better to investors, just do it right. But the most important thing is to admit mistakes to yourself and to your team. The sooner the better. This teaches you to avoid them in the future and to avoid misunderstandings and the collapse of the project. Many startups fall apart because the founders couldn’t agree, and the culprit is an unwillingness to give in and admit that you’re the bottom.

Don’t be afraid to optimize.

Most likely there will come a situation where money will not be enough. Your habitual way of life may be in jeopardy, and that may be a reason to drop everything. It’s worse when founders are entrusted with this as a fatal setback and an indicator of their incompetence. It’s not. Shit happens. And you have no idea how budget friendly a person can be for a while. Be smart about optimizing your spending – it’s also an investment in your future. It might even teach you more financial literacy.

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