The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn

1. Release Early

Get a version 1 out fast, then improve it based on users’ reactions. Don’t release something full of bugs; users hate bugs.

A lot of startups die because they were too slow to release stuff, and none because they were too quick.

The most important reason can be that it makes you work harder; something that’s out there, problems are alarming, there is a sense of urgency.

2. Keep Pumping Out Features

"Release early" has a second component: you better improve fast. Users love a site that’s constantly improving.

The more ideas you implement, the more ideas you’ll have.

3. Make Users Happy

Improving constantly is a more general rule of making users happy. You have to, or die.

A startup should be able to explain in one or two sentences exactly what it does.

4. Fear the Right Things

What you should fear as a startup is not the established players but other startups you don’t know exist yet.

Competitors are not the biggest threat; ignoring users is. A recipe for a startup that will die is a couple of founders that think they have a great idea and that’s what they’re going to build no matter what.

The imagination of nature is greater than the imagination of man.

5. Commitment is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The most important quality in a startup founder is determination, not intelligence, determination.

Running a startup is like walking on your hands; it’s possible, but it requires extraordinary effort.

The only way to convince everyone that you’re ready to fight to the death is actually to be ready to. You can’t fake this.

6. There is Always Room

There’s no limit to the number of startups. Startups make wealth, which means they make things people want. And if there’s a limit on the number of things people want, we are nowhere near.

7. Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Startup founders are naturally optimistic; they wouldn’t do it otherwise, but you should treat your optimism the way you treat the core of a nuclear reactor.

Shielding your optimism, just assume deals are not going to happen, to prevent leaning your company to something that may fall over.

The way to succeed is to focus on the goal of getting lots of users and keep walking swiftly toward it, while investors and acquirers scurry alongside trying to wave money in your face.

Speed not Money

A startup is best seen not as a way to get rich but as a way to work faster. You have to make a living, and a startup is a way to get that done quickly.