Top 5 Startup Lessons Learned in 2009
1.31.2010 | My Thoughts, Personnel
Well, it’s only a month into 2010 so technically I’m not too late to do a reflection post for last year. 2009 was a year of many changes for me and my startup. We hired a few people, we lost a few people. Overall I would say the startup has gotten stronger as a result. Below are probably some of the biggest takeaways I got out of the whole experience.
5. Pay for Quality
Like most web based startups with no connections or money, we originally started out by outsourcing our idea to developers far far away. In 2009, we added a few features and we decided to invest in local talent and pay for quality instead of revisiting old headaches. While our wallets certainly did not enjoy the experience, it was refreshing to get things done right the first time and ahead of schedule. If time is of the essence and you know your service will sell – investing in quality is one of the best things you can do to move things (and morale) forward.
4. Get Out There!
The amount of events in Atlanta catering to developers, social media and startups is getting ridiculous! (Be careful what you wish for, right?) Unfortunately this means one cannot make it to every event if one is to actually be productive. However, the few times I did make it out to contribute to the community or to be social have always paid off. If you’re working on your next big idea, make sure you get out there and talk to people – it will end up saving you a LOT of time. Whether they have connections they can introduce you to to speed things up or they’ll offer a perspective that will shut you down, either way, it’s worth the trip.
3. Embrace Uncomfortable
EasyAutoSales hummed along for over a year before we saw our first major change in objectives. We didn’t get smarter. We didn’t get a lucky break. All that really happened was that I ran out of money. Once the runway ended and we got on our credit cards’ shit list, it was basically fly or fail. Since I do this gig full-time, we basically had hours or days to fix what wasn’t working and it was through a number of these iterations we soon realized that our original dream of offering a free service was simply not going to cut it.
For those of you who are struggling with getting your idea off the ground, I highly recommend you try eating your own dog food. Until you hit rock bottom and are forced to be creative, you simply won’t think outside of the box and do what’s necessary to make things work. I know it sounds scary but I’m pretty sure that’s the point.
2. Screen Your Candidates, Vet Your Hires
I think one of my biggest takeaways from 2009 is that I really need to get a better grasp on the qualities of a great entrepreneur, and bring them onboard. Hiring people from successful exits is almost a no-brainer but unless your idea is TRULY amazing, those stars are hard to grab. One of the things I’m seeing locally is that startups tend to hire young and they tend to work on it part-time for a really, really long time. What we really should be doing is finding experienced entrepreneurs with money and connections and make them join our team. While having mentors is decent, I don’t think they’re sufficient. Offering advice is easy… but rarely do they produce results. Convincing your would-be mentors to eat your dog food and make it better will produce a lot more genuine effort and hopefully positive results.
1. TRUST Your Gut
My biggest takeaway from 2009 is to simply trust yourself. When you have to wear many hats at the same time, you don’t have time to weigh pros/cons for every decision – sometimes you just have to trust your common sense, do it, and see what happens.
In my case, I’ve known for a long while that some members of my team were just not startup material and having them around would do more harm than good. Whether they joined for the wrong reason or were simply not ready for the lifestyle, my gut was telling me that I really need to just let them go if we wanted to move forward. Due to existing relationships, what was originally a problem I could have nipped in the bud, turned out to be a 8 month babysitting exercise that ultimately, negatively affected various aspects of our service. In the end, I did get what I wanted and if anything, we’re more efficient now with less people than we were with more bodies. My only regret was not trusting my gut and making those executive calls earlier on – it’s surely a mistake I won’t be repeating in 2010.
What were some of your biggest lessons learned from 2009? Please DO share them below.
Related posts: