What's the most counter-intuitive piece of advice you have about building a start-up?

Question

Uma Venugopal · Accepted Answer

@adithya_narayanan1 indeed. I read stories about founder's mental health suffering because the board/VCs are constantly looking for dopamine hits(aka weekly progress so exponential it's inhumane) & that's sad. So choosing what kind of people to bring onboard is so important that no one has to become a scapegoat to our capitalistic society just to turn profitable or show big valuations.

Uma Venugopal · Answer

Tl;dr: Go at your own pace.

After my fallout with my ex-cofounder, I took 3 months off completely, and in the startup ecosystem, these things aren't talked about much - just the good stuff. But founder exits, teams changing, figuring out the legal and government filing stuff, etc are all distractions from you building your vision and sometimes you kinda do have to look in these directions to gain clarity over why you're building your startup and setbacks are part of this game.

That doesn't mean taking a whole year off from working on your startup - but if personal relationships suffer and you do need to take that route, have no regrets.

Adithya Narayanan · Answer

@joanduarte Totally agree! I think your point is similar to Uma’s above - only you know your insights/timeline, so don’t get swayed too much by another persons opinion or life journey.

Thanks for sharing Joan!

Joan Mateo Duarte 🚀 · Answer

Don't focus too much on other founders' advice, only you know what is the problem you are solving and how to succeed. Some advice is really good, but most of them are irrelevant.

Adithya Narayanan · Answer

@uma_venugopal that is a great take.

And very original and the kind of insight that comes only from loved experience - because it truly is counter-intuitive. So much of starting up is about pace, and your ability to move fast, that a ‘go at your own pace’ is rarely recommended or spoken about.

Very insightful and true. Thanks so much for sharing :)

What's the most counter-intuitive piece of advice you have about building a start-up?

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