What has most surprised you about founding a startup?

When I started, like years ago with my first startup, I strongly believed having a good product is the most important thing to be successful but I realized while it is still important, not really the deciding factor. What matters is relationship building, community-building, and being smart with GTM.

How hard it would be to find constant motivation to keep moving, it is a marathon and a long play --- you have to dig deep to keep consistent in what you do. You can sell anything, if you work at it hard and long enough.

Learnt that the journey is quite long. And often collaboration helps you play this game even longer than having to compete with other startups.

Nothing these days! Been at this since 2004. Latest https://skilledup.life - free talent for tech startups. My 14 attempts https://manojranaweera.me/who-is...

Really interesting to read so may people's takes. For me, I'd say how founding something can come out of nowhere, especially in regard to a side project!

A hard lesson we had to learn was letting go of the "build it and they will come" mentality. Good products are most often made by rapid user feedback.

Ideas are easy; implementation is hard; the value of an idea lies in its use.

Oh, we've learned so many lessons so far. In a way, it was surprising, hah. Like: 📌 It is important to choose the right tech stack in advance, you'll grow, so it should be scalable. 📌 Keep technical documentation right from the beginning. This makes it more convenient to track down controversial issues. For example, some decisions may seem irrational, but they can be explained by business logic. 📌 From the start, make "open" features so they can be easily expanded. And estimate the cost of the features from the very start too. 📌 When developing functionality, you need to look at everything through the eyes of an ordinary user. You know the subject and you think it's quite obvious. But that may not be so at all. You need to keep this in mind and think about how to make people's lives easier. This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course.

How impactful an idea could be until it is executed! Something that you identify as a pain point for millions out there and feel should be solved, and guess what, you become the one to solve it. It is pure joy!

The huge range of skills you need to be successful. It keeps the days interesting. You never know what you will get to learn next.

1. The difficulty of finding cofounders who don't already have a business 2. The battle between building for now and building for the future 3. The amount of time that's wasted discussing things that don't matter 4. Just how many people don't get why anyone would do it, lol 5. The lack of VC reviews from vetted founders 6. The number of successful startups with incredibly basic products and no competitive barriers

Starting something is not the hardest part, making it work is actually tougher.

Building is the product is actually the easy part. It's building a community around your product with people who care for it is challenging.

How much I need to learn and the sheer determination it takes to continue at it even when you see competitors entering the market.

How truly challenging the "getting it started" phase would be.

When done with the right purpose, results come in quicker than expected

Ideas are worth nothing, execution is everything (and prioritisation)

The never ending dilemma between building what people want vs. Building what people need.

It's a marathon.

How hard it is to truly move fast and break things