Startup advice

Some lessons learned while building General Folders

It’s been quite the journey building General Folders so far. There were many things I learned that I wish I had known before starting the company. There were also things that I had learned at past jobs that proved to be extremely helpful with company building. Below is a list of these lessons. My hope is that you find them useful on your company building journey!

Get to a yes before you build. Enthusiastic customers are willing to pay for a future product or feature. Don’t build before you get customer buy-in.

Build a team. Bring on cofounders, but for the right reasons. Two is certainly better than one, but you can’t rush building the first team.

Be genuinely passionate. The secret to hiring the best people is to be knowledgeable and passionate about the product and business. Passion is contagious and hard to fake. The same holds true for sales. Don’t underestimate the impact of expertise and stoke on selling a product.

Follow the crowd. Tried and true methods are popular for a reason. It pays to follow the crowd if you know the time and place to apply a method.

Follow trends. Don’t ignore market trends. Once again, follow the crowd.

Stand out. Know when to ignore trends and focus on what you uniquely believe to be true. You can’t expect a big return without taking a big risk.

Hire an accountant. If you decide to ride the wave, save for the dry season. New trends give way to newer trends. It’s funny how that works.

Hustle. A big return, aside from being a function of big risk, is also the result of tireless work. There are no shortcuts.

Make decisions. There is no single way to run a company. Don’t be too precious about any decision. Make the call, but learn from mistakes.

Action produces information. You got to put a lot of shots on goal to get one to eventually work. — Brian Armstrong

Move fast. Faster is better and nothing beats momentum. (I’m great at physics.)

Sit down. Be humble, especially as you grow the team and customer base. In every scenario, assume you don’t have all the answers.

Keep learning. Change and evolve to become the leader that the company needs at each stage in its journey. Can you hire yourself everyday?

Ask for help. Ask for things and get help. The startup community is more generous, welcoming, and helpful than you’d expect.

Believe in yourself. Be kind, especially to yourself. Self-confidence is the only thing you have to rely on for a long time.

Keep going. People (including yourself) will tell you that what you’re doing is not enough. That if it were to work it would have worked by now. They will tell you that you should be embarrassed; that you should give up. Don’t. Stay on the path and the right opportunities will present themselves.

Keep focused. Don’t compare your startup to other startups. Don’t read into startup news. It takes more than an idea, or money, or deals to build a great company. Focus on making your company better everyday.

Talk to customers. Similar to the first point, this is a reminder that nothing benefits a product more than customer feedback. Feedback will save the product from veering off the tracks into irrelevance.

Carpe diem. Seize the day. You might not have achieved all the milestones, but you’re never going to be this young ever again.

What are some of your experiences from working at startups? I’d love to hear from you!