Reflections on my first startup attempt

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the author's experience of starting a startup, raising funds, building a product, and then being unexpectedly removed as a co-founder. It shares the lessons the author learned, including about their own abilities, the importance of choosing the right product strategy, being deliberate in decision-making, not taking competition at face value, and addressing risks early on. The author also suggests discussing the "escape hatch" before it's needed in case of a co-founder conflict.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The author's startup experience

1. What was the author's role and experience in starting the startup?

• The author was one of three co-founders, and the only technical co-founder. They had a background in managing engineering teams, but were hands-on in building the initial product, including teaching themselves new technologies like TypeScript and React.
• The author was able to leverage their network to bring in investors and build a strong engineering team, despite the startup being relatively unknown.

2. What led to the author's departure from the startup?

• The co-founders had different ideas about the company's status, velocity, and how to move forward. Rather than working through the issues together, the other co-founders decided to part ways with the author.
• The author notes that as the only technical co-founder, they were the "odd one out" compared to the other two co-founders who had similar finance backgrounds and knew each other well.

3. What lessons did the author learn from this experience?

• The author learned about the breadth of their own abilities, including hands-on technical work and recruiting for roles they hadn't done themselves.
• They also learned the importance of choosing the right product strategy, being deliberate in decision-making, not taking competition at face value, and addressing risks early on.
• The author suggests discussing the "escape hatch" or separation terms early on, in case of a co-founder conflict.

[02] Advice for aspiring founders

1. What advice does the author give for choosing the right product strategy?

• Focus on a product strategy that delivers tangible value early on, rather than a complex MVP that requires perfect execution.
• Sequence the work incrementally, so the MVP is both minimum and viable.

2. What advice does the author give about being deliberate in decision-making?

• Be careful not to let small ideas balloon into full-fledged projects and technical debt.
• Invest in internal tooling and building for scale only when absolutely necessary, and focus on servicing the first customers with "paperclips and duct tape" instead.

3. What advice does the author give about not taking competition at face value?

• Don't panic when seeing many well-funded startups in the same category, as they may also be struggling with their own problems.
• Focus on customer needs and building the product, rather than being distracted by the competition's marketing.

4. What advice does the author give about addressing risks early on?

• Be honest about the biggest risks to the company and run pre-mortems to identify the most likely failure modes.
• Discuss the "escape hatch" or separation terms early on, in case of a co-founder conflict.