If you’re a founder of a startup, or thinking about being one, listen up! We have two things: We asked 5 founders to share a nugget of wisdom when building a company. This all seems obvious when reading it but we still somehow fail to remember it when in the trenches.
If you haven’t seen the video below “Entrepreneurs Breakdowns and Breakthroughs“, WATCH IT NOW! It’s a quick 5 min of inspiration from top founders in the valley sharing their war stories on building their companies. It’s AWESOME.
- Don’t underestimate how much time and energy it takes to hire people, and how much more it takes to fire the wrong hires. – Ben Choi, Coffeetable
- Surround yourself with exceptional people. That’s the most important part of the this job. Celebrating the highs and powering through the lows together. – Zach Goldstein, Thanx
- Perception is reality in the startup world. Take control of the perception of your company AND your marketplace and do not let anyone, especially competitors, position your company/product. Many start ups think this is a costly marketing effort. I have proven over and over that this can be done via strategic guerrilla (low cost) marketing and PR efforts. – Tom Burgess, Linkable Networks
- Focus on product and the customer, everything else will fall into place. Just DO it. – Leap Commerce
- Control your emotions. Your mind can play crazy tricks on you when you are building company. Losing control of your psychology can be very damaging. Make sure you have the right support from your business partners, friends, family etc. You will be thankful for it. – Jason Gardner, Marqeta
- Stay lean, don’t try to be everything to everybody, and find the confidence to do one thing the very best. – Garrett MacDonald, StrikeAd