14 things I will do differently in my next startup
We are in a great place now. Incredible team and all the numbers are going UP! But during 5 years, I've made a bunch of mistakes that delayed our growth.
Go ahead, learn from them.
1. Hunger
We started sales early, got initial traction that allowed me to hire a team. But then I got comfortable, distracted by unimportant things. We stagnated for over a year. You should always be hungry for growth!
2. Funding
At year 2 we were not in a good place and took funding: $60k for 17% equity—horrible move. I could close a few clients or do consult work and get the same cash.
Giving up equity in the early stages is very expensive. Try to delay it for as long as you can.
3. Technical co-founder
I started as a solo non-tech founder. It was very unsettling without such expertise. I invited Anvar at the end of year 3, and the growth just went up since. Here is a short guide on how to hire a CTO.
4. Hiring
Early hires are crucial, and I messed it up a few times. I optimized for speed and salary and didn't pay much attention to their soft skills.
Spend a lot of time with them, maybe even work part-time before hiring.
Early employees will be jacks of all trades. Hire curious underrated people with obvious potential. We hired a copywriter with no copywriting experience and paid 2x the salary we could afford.
But we saw a huge potential. Now she is the best CMO we could ever find.
The team is a more significant asset than clients and investors COMBINED. When hiring, sell them your vision. Offer them potential they can't get in the corporation. During work, celebrate every little win. Give them all the credit and take all the blame on yourself.
5. Audience
Building an audience or community > paid acquisition.
I just started building in public, and WOW, it's so incredible to get that much attention.
Attention = inbound clients, partners, investors. Get on that Twitter and build your network!
Building your own audience is hard. Start from being active in other communities.
SPAM and FRAUD are your worst enemies in all the channels. Be genuine, helpful, feedback, and you will get a lot of attention.
6. Marketing
My path:
didn't do any marketing - no growth
hired an agency - no growth
became a marketer - 4x growth in 1 year
Skip steps 1 and 2
For over a year, content marketing Quora brought us 80%+ new leads, and we could not find other channels.
This was a nightmare. What if Quora bans me or anything else? Then we are done!
Now we are diversified
7. Agencies
We hired 2 agencies (PPC and SEO) in the early days. Wasted around $50k a bunch of time and got close to no results.
Then we did the same work ourselves, and everything worked. Do the math.
8. Influences
I discovered this in year 5, but the founder must be the startup's biggest influencer. With almost no following, I get a lot of attention.
Imagine if I started this from day 1
9. Mentorship
Peers > Mentors.
I joined a mastermind group last year, and this was a significant shift for me. Surround yourself with peers on ~ the same level. You will get support and a lot of insights.
10. Feedback
Through I delegated most of the functions, I got isolated from clients. No feedback - you are blind.
For 2 years, I tried to target the wrong customers even though they brought us 10% of revenue. Talk to clients on a weekly basis!
11. Delegation
When I started a company, I was doing everything. With the first hires, I micromanaged, completed their tasks instead of giving frameworks.
The better way to do it
create docs how to do the role and spend a lot of time onboarding
trust their decisions and let them make mistakes
12. Transparency
It's hard to switch from a small team mindset. The bigger the team got, the less there was understanding what is happening. I didn't hear the feedback, and it slowed us down.
This helped:
OKR’s
1on1’s
personal weekly planning. email sent to everyone
13. Priorities
Everyone says you need to prioritize. But picking what to work on is easier than saying NO to things.
Biggest example - conferences. In year 1 I exhibited on WebSumit. $3k + 1 week = no result.
So many things I had to say no to.
14. Stress ≠ success
I was miserable for 3 years. Worked overtime, didn't sleep well, didn't exercise, and productivity was low.
Now I take care of my mental and fiscal heals, feel much better, work less, and accomplish much more.
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