ZoomyMuffin

Startup pitfalls to avoid

Hi All, I am thinking of starting up in a space that in very passionate about and feel I have a unique insight. I also have a cofounder who I know from a long time from college when we studied comp science

What are some common pitfalls to avoid at the early stage of an startup?

20mo ago

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DizzyWaffle

Stealth20mo

Congrats on your passion about the idea. All the best for your startup.
Unpopular opinion - 99.99% chance that your unique insight has been tried by someone somewhere. And most likely is still small/struggling for success. Please do some more research.
Great that you have a trusted co-founder. Hopefully your skill sets are complimentary to a large extent and you share emotional level conversations.
Do a small MVP to check if the idea will hold value and someone will pay for it. The value customers perceive may be different than the value you think you are offering.
Speak to your early customers in detail as much possible. Don’t do everything, do few critical things that will really help.
Slow and steady.

Any specific queries, do share.

ZoomyMuffin

Amazon20mo

Super cool thanks a lot!

I think getting to the MVP becomes possible because we are a highly technical team

Interesting advice on the ‘slow and steady’. For the longest time startups used to be all about jumping off a cliff and going all guns blazing

SwirlyPretzel

Stealth20mo

Market situation has changed and so have the rules.

Have ideas on monetisation and path to profitability (at least on unit economics) sooner than later.
Get a dip test done with a POC / MVP quickly and be open to iterating / pivoting
Talk to the consumers a lot. And not just your friends - get objective feedback on what’s working and what they would pay for
It’s less about complimentary skills with a cofounder but more about personality and whether you can work together during tough phases. Are you both equally invested and committed to fight it out? Even if the idea pivots / space changes?
Understand each others motivations to start, value systems and how you are thinking about building a company. What does success mean for each of you?
Hire missionaries as early team members and carve out good esops for them. Also know the team that builds 0-1 may not be the team that will take the company to IPO
Choose your investors carefully if you have the option of choosing. :)

DizzyMarshmallow

Stealth20mo

Don't talk too much about the culture being good, great etc. Just make sure everyone treats each other with basic respect no matter what and work related transparency is maintained (higher or lowr level) . It is easy to be biased by the perspective of people who want to show only their good side to you. No brownie points for gossiping and letting things rot.

ZoomyMuffin

Amazon20mo

Are you advising this for how to construct a good early team within the startup or is this about the culture between cofounders?

DizzyMarshmallow

Stealth20mo

Good early team.

FuzzyQuokka

Stealth20mo

My learnings to build bootstrapped company from 0 to USD30mn. No external investment so far. Some of these points will change if you have plan for high growth high valuation company.

Have confidence and never let it go down.
Look at the business from customer or problem perspective and not from technology perspective. Technology is a tool but the solution to customer problem is what will assure your existence. Till you find it be prepared to pivot
Decide what is success for you and your cofounder. You will go through lot of hardships so you all have to be together. Complimentary skills is good but not a necessity. Because during early days everybody learns and everyone is generalist only. Intention is more important than skills during 0 to 1.
Don’t go blindly by market research. Intuition is the most important guidance. Market research or data can validate your intuition.
Don’t worry about company culture at start. But never compromise on your value system. Culture will be formed automatically. Some of principles of NR Narayanamurthy are worth adhering to.
Take any of these advices with a pinch of salt including mine. It’s always easy to advise. Pick up the ones that resonate well with you and build a company with a focus to create value for customer or user powered by your passion.

DizzyWaffle

Stealth20mo

Am available at 4sushant@gmail.com Ping for a detailed chat.

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