I've been around startups for about 25 years now, and if there's one thing I'd tell my younger self, it's that having a good idea is the easy part. Well, not easy exactly, but you get what I mean. 😂

Early on, I spent way too much time getting a product ready. Tweaking things, fixing little details, trying to make it as good as possible before putting it out there. We were pretty convinced people would want it.

Then we started talking to potential customers and, yeah... people liked the idea, but getting them to actually pay was another story.

We ended up changing the offer and rethinking who we were selling to. Looking back, I wish we'd had those conversations much earlier instead of spending all that time building first.

Anyway, I'm curious about other people's experiences. What's something you wish someone had told you before you started your business?

Could be about money, customers, choosing a co-founder, hiring, or something completely unexpected.

And did you catch the mistake early enough to fix it, or did you have to learn the hard way too?

8 minutes ago, Harvey Reid said:

I've been around startups for about 25 years now, and if there's one thing I'd tell my younger self, it's that having a good idea is the easy part. Well, not easy exactly, but you get what I mean. 😂

Early on, I spent way too much time getting a product ready. Tweaking things, fixing little details, trying to make it as good as possible before putting it out there. We were pretty convinced people would want it.

Then we started talking to potential customers and, yeah... people liked the idea, but getting them to actually pay was another story.

We ended up changing the offer and rethinking who we were selling to. Looking back, I wish we'd had those conversations much earlier instead of spending all that time building first.

Anyway, I'm curious about other people's experiences. What's something you wish someone had told you before you started your business?

Could be about money, customers, choosing a co-founder, hiring, or something completely unexpected.

And did you catch the mistake early enough to fix it, or did you have to learn the hard way too?

Stop listening to people who say your idea is great. Get someone to pay for it!

Took me way too long to understand the difference between people being nice and people actually wanting to buy something. 🤨