Real Founder Lessons
The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.
Passion, Persistency & Purpose
(three lessons in one podcast)
Founder Lesson
Every so often I run across a startup podcast that has a bunch of lessons in it, so it’s difficult to choose just one. That happened with this podcast. Every few minutes I was taking down a new lesson, so I figured the best thing to do was to mention them all.
In this podcast, the co-founder of ModCloth made three . . .
Be skeptical of customer feedback in the idea stage
(at minute 12:34)
Founder Lesson
Lately I’ve been been working closely with a group of startup founders in the idea stage. In other words, they know the space they want to focus on, but don’t have the complete business model ready to validate.
During this stage, customer feedback is always tricky. I’ll never argue against talking with potential . . .
Why does a focused product win?
(at minute 26:44)
Founder Lesson
Focus. Focus. Focus.
This is one of the most common pieces of advice given to startup founders. As with most advice, it’s much easier to say that do…especially when it’s you in the situation and are faced with dozens of bright & shiny opportunities and death-defying uncertainties every day as a startup founder. . . .
Best to market will always beat first to market
(at minute 31:28)
Founder Lesson
Startups have lots of worries on a daily basis. Big worries that immediately to mind are (a) running out of money, (b) building the correct product and (c) hiring the right people. Another big, macro worry is how to think about competition, particularly how much to worry about getting your product launched before anyone . . .
