(Japp, det här inlägget finns redan på svenska, här. Jag kommer göra vissa inlägg dubbelt i fortsättningen, så ibland dyker det upp ett engelskt)
If you wanna become a successful Startup entrepreneur and still have a decent life, you would need:
- To be cool! You need to accept ups and downs every day and every week, especially when it comes to finance. If you are a person that need to feel 100 % safe and secure this is the wrong career.
- To maintain. There is no product created quick and easy during six months, then you're launching and then it goes BAM, Kaching and there's the success (and money)! Nope, won't happen! You should ask yourself before starting a startup if you are the kind of person that like to start things or if your drive is coming from something else. If you are a starter-person, and don't really like maintaining, think twice! It takes a lot of time and engagement to run a startup. During a looong time, did I mention that?
- To be an optimist! Believe me, there will come times when you are in doubt about your product. Is it valuable? Is it good enough? At that times it's important to don't fall too deep into the black hole, and it's important to dream and think big. Don't be to
realisticpessimistic. You need to be optimistic to be able to think big! The ups and downs will always be there, just accept it! - To handle negative feedback. You will get a lot of feedback on your product. When getting negative feedback, don't ever take it personal. It's not you, it's your product, and you need to differ yourself from that. And, when getting feedback – remember to handle it right. To get feedback on your product, especially when negative, is a good sign. That means people need it and care about it and just want it to work better. Do handle feedback mannerly and always remember that the person who gives the feedback are not interested in listening to apologies, but just to kindly help you by giving feedback. Save the apologies and to do-plans for your discussions with the rest of the team. So: Make sure to handle criticism in a good way and don't ever take it personal.
- To be flexible! If you get stressed by changing road every other week – Run away from all what startups are! If you wanna be in the startup business you need to be prepared of changing road often. Over and over again. And maybe even throw away hours of work to start do something else. You probably know that there is a problem that need solution, but it's not sure that you'll find the perfect solution in version 1.0. The product might need one or more(more likely) iterations before coming close to perfect. Don't think of iterations as something negative, think of it as developing. And necessary for success. Sometimes you might even need to re-think the whole product. The most important is to keep the big vision but let the roads be open and changeable.
- Listen and sort. Ask people for advice. Ask for feedback and listen carefully… but… you need to sort the information. All advice might be good, but maybe not for you and your product. And if you listen to all, your road map will increase or change too much, and you will never launch since the development will continue and continue and continue. So you need to sort the information and prioritize the most important things, and the things that actually belongs to your product. And also – think about who the person giving you advice is. What has he or she done before? In what kind of businesses? I don't say that they must have done the whole journey you want to do but since you (hopefully) get advice from many people it's important to prioritize. Always think it over before putting it into the product plan. Is it still a good idea after 7 nights sleep? Then do it!
- To be like a parrot! You will hear yourself repeating the sames phrases millions of times. Every day. Every week. 365 days of the year. Pitching your product is something you will have to get used to. Even your grandmother wants to know what you are doing.
- To be dependent on other people. If you wanna raise money you need to meet many Business Angels. You will probably need them sooner or later to survive. And that feeling, that you need them, could be hard to live with. And even if that is the case try not to think too much about you needing them. It's actually a business case where you give 24/7 of your time and the Business Angel are buying shares. Win-win! To avoid the feeling of you needing them too much, start raising money early. And if you hate the feeling of being dependent on people – Change business. Because you will get the feeling, more or less, sometimes.
Anything missing? Shoot!