This document contains 101 lessons learned for startups collected from the experience of running startups. Some of the key lessons include preparing to unlearn what you've learned and know that startup best practices have changed, validating ideas with customers before writing code, focusing on solving problems rather than just having cool ideas, and knowing when to pivot or fold a failing idea. It emphasizes the importance of testing ideas quickly through prototypes and constant customer feedback to achieve product-market fit.
6. Down Trend Time to Market Development Cost Capital Expenditure Distribution Cost Fund Size Better Tools Cloud Computing Modern Programming Social Media
7. Up Trend Market Size Competition Noise Level Impatience Globalization Social Media Easier Barrier to Entry
33. 22 If you start a startup to get rich, you’re in the wrong business Only few will make it “big” Change The World Challenges Solves Problems Independence
34. 23 Startup is a very high risk business It does not make sense from financial perspective Many ways to minimize the risk
35. 24 Be prepared for at least 18 months without pay & benefits Don’t jump before you’re sure Too many jump and abandon before fully developed
36. 25 Always operate under assumption of no investors Got change for my startup?
37. 26 More than anything else, tractions are what investors looking for Traffic Number of users Number of subscriptions Can business scale? Growth Retention Rate
38. 27 Knowing when to fold More of art than science Gut Feeling will tell you Measuring your tractions is a good indicator
39. 28 In many countries, government grants are plenty for startups Governments encourage high tech companies to have presents locally, create local jobs, and national pride
41. 30 Watch your burn rate very carefully. You’re on diet No Physical Office Skype (Free) Free Email, Docs FreeSoftware Open Source Ramen profitability
42. 31 Less money gives you sense urgency and boosts creativity It’s amazing to see how human survival instinct kicks in
43. 32 Charge for the service from day 1 is not a bad strategy You’ll get very passionate customers who believe in your product
44. 33 Spend generously on tools, books, chance to network. Your ROI is excellence
45. 34 Don’t optimize your product For VC VC: How big is the market size? Superstar developers? At the end of the day, tractionmatters the most
46. 35 Get into partner programs with the big guys Many offer free software and services
48. 36 Find a great co-founder Share the same values Compliment skills Check and balances
49. 37 1st Stage: Hire Designer and Community Manager, instead This could also be You Gauge Market Interest Ideas Validation Quick Prototypes
50. 38 2nd Stage: Hire Great Developers, Testers This could also be You Knows Scalability Supportability Quality Code Security
51. 39 Hire for Culture Fit & Passionate Set min-bar for Intelligent Gauge Market Interest Interview Process: Make the candidate as if an employee for a day Ideas Validation
52. 40 Hire temp, consultants to keep burn rate low Gauge Market Interest Channel Partners Product Videos Marketing materials
53. 41 A very short daily meeting is much better than a long weekly meeting Human needs constant reminder of progress, accomplishment and togetherness
62. 49 Why building an awesome product no body wants? “Build it, they may notcome” Talk to customers, before writing a single code
63. 50 Fail-Fast; and Get Traction-Fast Really means Fail-Fast on bad ideas It does not mean abandoning project too quickly
64. 51 Quick build, validate, measure and learn. It’s in our engineer DNA that we like to build a perfect system In an early stage, Resist to be perfect
65. 52 Can you tell the difference: Progress vs. Wasted Progress? Run tight, small loops of Ideas (Hypothesis), Validate/Measure and Build
66. 53 Don’t just accumulate work done without measuring Measurement will give you feedbackto continue path, or to change direction Retention Rate User Traffic Bounce Rate User Happiness Conversion Rate
67. 54 It’s OK to write messy codes during validation process
68. 55 Your spec should be UI prototypes Written spec is easily obsolete The cost of writing, maintaining UI prototype is minimal and fun
69. 56 Suppress many of your ideas It’s not a feature to feature competition It’s who solves the problems the best
70. 57 Just build it now and fast. No need for optimization yet. Your code will likely be a throw away as you gather feedback
71. 58 Concentrate on core scenarios Make it great! No place for mediocrity People either love it Or hate it!
72. 59 Ignore your 10% cases. That will take 90% of your energy
73. 60 Eat your own dog food daily Use your own product regularly In the early phase, It’s better than hiring a full-time tester
75. 62 Boost retention rate. Human is a curios being Add a few analytics, news about themselves and friends e.g.“your doc has been viewed 5 times”
76. 63 Boost retention rate. Human craves for attentions RIM (Blackberry), Twitter, Facebook do this perfectly They make users addicted to their product, by telling them – “You’re important”
77. 64 Minimize Frictions Users are “very lazy” nowadays One click One minute setup No installation
78. 65 Don’t give user options Set appropriate default They have enough other things to worry
79. 66 Ship your product with a minimum feature set Enough to showcase Your core scenarios Add features later after after undisputable feedback
80. 67 After iterations, often ask what features to drop, instead of add Remember, your ideas are just a hypothesis; willing to let go Pivot on your core beliefs, and go to other directions appropriately
81. 68 What Microsoft, Google, Apple can’t afford, but you can? They can’t ship a crappy product, even for their beta They have reputation to maintain, You don’t! Use it to run a tight feedback loop to improve your product
82. 69 Without instant gratification Users drop like a fly First 60 second experience is critical I saw dead users leaving
83. 70 Create a product that 10x better Dare to be different Stand up and get noticed The world is a very noisyplace (and getting worse by day…)
84. 71 Collect less, better privacy, security. Many analytics tools are good enough to measure user behavior
85. 72 Don’t put any features, concepts that you can’t explain in 15 secs Does your product ship with you? Don’t make user think
86. 73 Reach Product-Market Fit Phase. Celebrate, Work Harder. 40% will be upset If your service discontinues
87. 74 Watch out for your site performance Users have no patience for sluggish sites
88. 75 Do a side project/experiment. Minimize your risk Many side projects made it big
89. 76 Use Cloud Computing Let’s not be IT guys Let’s focus on building great product Sleep better at night
90. 77 Building a new walled garden, community is really, really hard Piggy back existing ones facebook linked-in twitter
92. 78 Never too early to start your marketing campaign How about Day 1? Or even 90 days before valuable contents quality comments
93. 79 Show the world what you’re doing. Stealth Mode is counter intuitive. No need for private beta Are you worried someone stealing your ideas? Really? Are you building space shuttle?
94. 80 There is no such thing is product launching for startups Continuous improvement Unless you’re Apple.
95. 81 Approaching Press. Do you have unique, interesting stories? They’re not your writers Build a human connection first
96. 82 Don’t have good retention rate, Don’t go to press yet! News published Traffic Wasted
97. 83 Most effective way to acquire customers? Your passionate customers Good news, travel fast and far
98. 84 Save your money on press releases. Ineffective. Different countries, however, it could be different stories
99. 85 SEO, Social Media takes time to develop Millions of others are doing it; how you stand out?
100. 86 Viral is not a strategy People are immune. Mutate! Unless your Product is irresistibly good
101. 87 Simple pricing is almost always better than complex one Have 1-3 pricing options as opposed to complex pricing choices. Customers want predictable costs, not many options
111. 95 Set expectation to team Changes are constant We’re a startup not a manufacturer
112. 96 You’ll be surprised, many people are routing for small guys Many offer a helping hand
113. 97 Whom Microsoft, Google, Apple should be worried? You They may have the muscles, but you can run faster Few of youwill be the next them
114. 98 Startup is not a job It’s a life style. It’s drive and passion to change the world with little financial reward. Yes, few made it very big Yes, it has been known that startup entrepreneurs have genetic defects
115. 99 It’s a growing pain experience with big personal rewards