7 Lessons I Learnt On This Startup Journey

I see a lot of people asking for advice but not really anyone giving them. Here’s some from my real life experience over the past few months. Hope it helps those dipping their toes in the water and perhaps give a better idea for those who are on the fence. 1. Distribution is more important than product. I reckon there’s some really good products that died because they can’t get distributed. And if you think you need funding or lots of resources to get distribution, you’re wrong. Don’t think of distribution as reaching out to 100k people. Think of it as putting it into the hands of the first 10 people who really want it. 2. MVP is taunted as a test if people want your product. Let’s say you passed this stage and go on to build your product. The positive results of the MVP serve as an anchor experience to motivate you when things get hard. It’s better to see the future when you see what the MVP has done. MVP helps to functionally test your idea, and emotionally support you when the going gets tough. 3. Research similar products. For me, before building my app, I downloaded every single app that was similar to mine. For the failures, it was easy to ask ‘Why do I hate this? Why this sucks?’. But I’ve learnt to pay more attention to the successes: ‘If they are so good, why isn’t the problem solved for everyone yet? Why is the problem that you’re trying to solve getting worse? How can i improve on them?’. So many more questions to ask, the more you dig, the better your understanding of this area gets. 4. It’s hard to differentiate between something that works and doesn’t at the start. Optimism and stubbornness + ignorance are too close to distinguish. Cut the noise, no point persuading others verbally when there’s no results to show. Time & results will speak the truth. Keep working. 5. There’s no fixed path to distribute or succeed. Reading distrbution methods or how other companies succeeded is a good guide, but don’t expect to succeed by imitating them. Different conditions require different methods. The real world isn’t like exams of certain majors, where every question has a fixed answer. With that said, it’s good to read more: The book ‘Traction’ and [https://read.first1000.co/p/53-ideas-to-get-your-first-customers](https://read.first1000.co/p/53-ideas-to-get-your-first-customers) 6. You need negative feedback all the way, from the start to forever. The book ‘Mom Test’ is a great to start with. When you’re with users using your product, learn how to observe how they use it or ask for feedback regarding specific areas. Everytime you find out ‘something sucks’, you should be so happy! Note: You don’t have to ask for positive feedback, the only one you should trust is people buying or using the product. Everything else is an ego trip. 7. The only way to survive the emotional roller coaster is to have a strong emotional anchor, and that comes from truly building something to solve your problem or to improve the lives of others. Many people are doing it for the money or fame, a lot of them will be weeded out by time and the emotional toil. Some people are doing it because they can’t live any other way. There’s a joy in creating something and impacting people’s lives, seeing them smile that can’t be replaced with anything else. If you’re truthful to yourself and solving a real problem, persevere. If not, you’ll be weeded out by time and emotional attrition, don’t blame anyone. It’s just how the game goes. There’s no fixed duration to succeed, some products get famous overnight, some take months or years. Those aren’t important things, at least to me. It’s how your product will change the lives of people using it that’s important. Bonus learning: If you want a longer timeline to reiterate your product, keep your expenses low. I have lived on less than Usd200/month for months. I can go on for years and very happily so. No financial obligations. Fame and a high life now distracts from the true goal of creating something people want. No funding or network will help if the product or team sucks. If distribution sucks, change it, keep testing. Happy to answer any questions you have. Have a great day! Love, Just kids chasing dreams