What's the biggest mistake you've made as a startup founder, and what did you learn from it?
Vlad Golub
26 replies
Replies
Parker Klein@parkeraklein
Twos
We ran a marketing campaign with a pretty big influencer. We didn't give him any requirements, hadn't run any influencer campaigns prior to him, and it completely flopped.
I learned to start small with your tests so you can learn on a small scale for cheap before ramping up.
Share
B2Metric
As a CEO of B2Metric, I can say 3 main things:
- Hire the right team members who can easily adapt themselves to startup culture.
- Raise money before you need it.
- Focus your nish market and industry.
CloudFunnels AI
Early in my business I made a lot of social tools that worked with Facebook etc. They made me money but the platforms kept changing policies, expanding or restricting APIs at will. It was development hell and disaster to serve my customers.
Ultimately I decided I am done. Not going to make anything for these platforms nad since then I've been better.
Not a founder. But as a core team member, I'd say not being fast enough to take clear decisions with both top-down and bottom-up thinking and act on them wrt all things in a startup.
In the next hour I will
My biggest mistake was creating a solution in search of a problem and then trying to find a market , users, niche... spent 2 years doing it for https://rentr.me/
Hunted Space
Launching soon!
Talking about Klu and what I'm doing, I often limit the conversation to people within the ecosystem. This is mainly because those outside the ecosystem tend to view the world more realistically. In the early stages of a startup, this realistic perspective can be soul-crushing. :D
When reflecting on my experience as a solo maker and software developer, I have come to realize and acknowledge some of the mistakes I made, both personally and those I observed in some of my previous clients.
1. Waiting for everything to be perfect: Instead of endlessly striving for perfection, I need to remember that progress is more important than perfection. Launching with a good enough product or idea allows for feedback and learning in the real world.
2. Thinking I know what users want: Instead of assuming I have all the answers, I should embrace curiosity and empathy. By actively seeking out user research, feedback, and testing, I can gain a deeper understanding of their needs and preferences.
3. Fear of failure: Rather than letting fear hold me back, I need to embrace failure as a natural part of the growth process. Taking risks and learning from mistakes can lead to personal and professional growth. It's time to stop fearing failure and start seeing it as a valuable opportunity for improvement.
Invite a person who thinks a startup is like a corporation to become a co-founder. Now working as a solo founder 😅
Afforai
@nickanisimov yup corporate thinks very differently from startup ppl
also, would you consider following our launch of Afforai? We made a new AI framework to improve output on these AI chatbots train on your documents, websites, etc.
the only mistake of a founder is to try and avoid mistakes by not experimenting. Mistakes are the key to learning in any startup
Clustr
Ah, the joys of startup life! My biggest blunder was launching a 'self-cleaning whiteboard' for messy brainstormers. Turns out, people prefer the good ol' erase and forget method. Lesson learned: clean mistakes happen!
Focus and consistency are everything.
Your intuition is always right.
Prioritise your health and work-life balance.
I've heard alot of stories and read many article of people loosing their hard earned money to scammers online who at first pretend to be sweet and friendly in the beginning but with the intention of sending you out on to the streets. I never hoped nor wished to be here telling you all my ordeal in the hands of these scammers and how the whole situation turned out to be. I lost a total of $540,000k to a binary investment scheme on instagram, my whole life flashed before my eyes when my account on the said platform restricted my access and declined my withdrawal request after investing my life savings with the hope of making more intrest in return. Little did i know that I was being drained by a scam company, before i could figure it all out it was already late and my hard earned money was long gone with series of commission and excuses from the said company to restrict my withdrawal access to my investment, I was looking at my life take big landslide towards doom!. I had to seek help from friends and family as the police was unable to help me out. I didn't know where to start from, until i came in contact with jamesmckaywizard@gmail.com who came through for me and helped me recover all what i lost. I know a lot of you out there have also in one way or two fallen victim to these fake online investors, i'm here to tell you that you can be saved too just like I was, ALL YOU LOST CAN BE RECOVERED just as mine was recovered by jamesmckaywizard and his team. They swept me off my feet with their expertise and the state of the art recovery technique, I got back all the funds i lost it was all directed into my account in a week, GOD BLESS MR JAMES AND HIS TEAM... I’ll be glad to leave their contact details below for anyone whom is also in need to recover their lost funds, they're also very good in any kind of hacking programs their service is top notch: jamesmckaywizard@gmail.com or via what'sapp // +919863293475
Hello everyone, The Cryptocurrency world is very volatile and a lot of individuals have lost some crypto coins and crypto assets to online scams . I was also a victim of fake telegram personnels from Uniswap group. My wallet address security and 12 phrases got compromised and I lost all my crypto coins (Filecoin, Eth, Btc, and EthereumMax) to the tune of $164.000 . This left me so devastated and left me depressed at my lowest point because my family could’ve been homeless if I didn’t recover my crypto coins successfully which was most of my savings and financial assets. I laid my complaint in the group and a real group admin referred me to Adrian Lamo Wizard Inc. This cryptocurrency recovery agency saved my life by helping me recover all my losses in just six hours. I provided necessary requirements and relative information to complete the successful recovery of my crypto coins. I was filled with joy once I got my coins back .
Adrian Lamo Wizard- for help contact him on Email: adrianlamowizard22@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +31647921391 & Telegram: +31647921391
NotesNudge
ah, the beauty of retrospect! early on, i placed too much emphasis on perfection. i wanted every feature flawless, every pitch perfect, every step orchestrated. this obsession delayed launches, stalled progress, and stressed the team.
but here's what i learned: perfection doesn't exist, progress does. perfection stalls, progress moves. perfection intimidates, progress encourages. it's okay to launch with flaws, iterate, learn, and grow.
i now view mistakes not as setbacks, but stepping stones. they are invaluable lessons in this grand adventure we call entrepreneurship.
hope this helps, and remember, fall seven times, stand up eight. 🚀
Hiring fast and firing slow - classic mistake. Hired a few folks based on gut feel rather than proper vetting. Letting them go when things weren't working out was even harder. Lesson learned? Always validate skills, cultural fit, and overall alignment before making that offer.
Trying to figure out everything at the start. Entrepreneurship is a journey which teaches a lot of things, and one of the main things is that not having everything figured out is okay. Build, Learn, Repeat.
I once underestimated the importance of user feedback. Launched a feature we thought was great, but users didn't find it useful.
We focused on the end user more than the actual business model at the beginning. The end result so far has been users love our platform, but brining along the business side has been a bit more challenging. We have learned a ton from this experience though!
Afforai
worrying too much about legal.
Afforai
wasting too much time going to meetings that aren't important.
would you consider following our launch of Afforai? We finally made a new AI framework to improve output on these AI chatbots train on your documents, websites, etc.