Some Piece of Advice for The Strategic Founder and some Mistakes He  Should Avoid Making.

 

1. Don’t be a single founder.

2. Avoid bad locations.

3. Choose a niche that will pay if things pick up.

4. Be wary of ideas you don’t understand – especially problems you have never experienced.

5. Don’t be obstinate about following your initial idea.

6. Avoid hiring poorly skilled people to build your product.

7. Don’t be slow in launching.

8. If you need a platform, choose the right one.

9. Don’t launch too early; it doesn’t get the job done and you get your reputation ruined.

10. Don’t start without having any specific user in mind.

11. Don’t raise too little money.

12. Don’t raise too much money.

13. Don’t spend too much.

14. Don’t manage investors poorly; don’t give them too much time and don’t ignore them -you should be focused on getting users and satisfying them.

15. Don’t be too quick to squeeze money out of your business; it takes time — and often, a lot of it.

16. Avoid fights between founders and between other team members.

17. Avoid avoiding to get your hand dirty; you must learn to do the business aspect of your company – which is marketing and sales – in the early days, at least.

18. Be Careful with choosing co-founders; passion and character are more important than intelligence, skills, or other abilities.

19. Finding skilled and trusted people to build a business with is very hard – especially in Africa; so be ready to work very hard on this.

20. Launch fast, because until you have launched, your work doesn’t really matter.

21. Don’t launch too early – because if you launch something below an MVP, you may never have a second chance of winning over your users.

22. Don’t do it for the money; do it for the value you create and money will follow if you have done it well.

23. Your company will take over your life; don’t think it is a 9-5 job.

24. Building a startup is an emotional roller-coaster; it is going to be full of highs and lows — don’t say I didn’t tell you!

25. It can be fun because of the freedom and joy of working on what you believe is going to make a big difference in the world.

26. Persistence is the key; it trumps every other thing – save your character.

27. Don’t just celebrate workaholism; get out there and see what is the best way to get stuff done.

28. Scratch your own itch and use your own product.

29. Expect the worst with deals.

30. It is hard to get users.

31. Don’t worry about your competitors; worry about your users.

32. Some investors are clueless; so, be resilient when you’re rejected.

33. Luck matters a lot – but you can create it by following what you have learned on this platform.

34. Value great community — you often get lucky when you are part of a great community.

35. You get no respect – among non-entrepreneurs – for being a startup founder.

36. Things will change as you grow – don’t be opposed to this change.

37. Don’t use a model of 9-5 jobs to measure your company building – otherwise, you will fail to be effective.

38. Let your idea evolve.

39. Know and understand your users exceptionally well.

40. Don’t spend your money unnecessarily.

41. Do something exceptional for your users – extreme customer experience pays.

42. Measure what you do

43. Deals fall through — don’t overthink it

44. Avoid distractions.

45. Get to profitability as soon as possible.

46. Stay a little longer than you would think because determination matters a lot –don’t give up too easily.

47. Building valuable things almost always takes longer than you could ever imagine from the beginning

48. You will make lots of mistakes – since you are not prescient (nobody is!)

49. It is hard to focus on building valuable things when you have not escaped the hassles of life’s daily needs such as health, shelter, clothing, food, and security; so be ready, especially if you’re building in Africa.

50. Draw a line in the sand and stand for something meaningful.

51. Think long-term.

52. Be relentlessly resourceful.

53. Avoid halfhearted effort and halfhearted people; both lead astray.

54. Do the impossible – that is what The Strategic Founder does!

 

(More on that here and here and here and here and here and here and here.)