12 advices for first time founders | (I will not promote)

Hi all, I was helping a 19yo lad on what I've learned in the last 15 years. Thought it was worth sharing in a stand-alone post. I will not promote Bit of background: I started during college in Brazil, at 19 as well, around 2009-2010. Pivoted three times before getting it right. We bootstrapped it until the exit in 2018. We sold to a USA company. Our clients were big retailers like Walmart and Home Depot. Now I'm working on a new business. Here's what told him. Feel free to add stuff you think I missed. 0. Books are your best friend. I always read a lot. Suggested basic reads: * The Lean Startup * Traction (Gabriel Weinberg) * Dotcom Secrets * Simple Marketing for Smart People * Smart Brevity * Obviously Awesome * Build by Tony Fadell * the war of art * Pitch Anything * Early Exits * They ask you answer * Forget the Funnel * 100M offers * This won’t scale * Building a story brand * Sell like crazy More advanced reads * Revenue Architecture (if you’re B2B) * The great CEO within * Whale Hunting (if b2b + enterprise sales) 1. Said it here by others, figure out how to sell this, and who to sell this to before building it. Sales and marketing is as important if not more than a good product. 2. Don’t go alone. It’s a tough journey. A co-founder that you trust and is complementary to your style increases odds of success. 3. Delegate as much as possible. Use freelancers. 4. Make sure you can survive without funding for at least a year. 5. Stay nimble until you’ve figured it out. 6. Be in love with the problem, not the solution. If you find out the problem is not big enough, pivot. I pivoted 3 times before finding a good one. Problems worth solving are not obvious 7. Find mentors. The key is not to ask someone to be a mentor. Ask people for help and some naturally become it. 8. Don’t Follow the hockey puck, follow its trajectory. Small/niche market with high growth potential carries the most opportunities. 9. Funding is a tool, many succeed without it. I bootstrapped my first company until exit. It depends a lot on how much it costs to grow and if you can have a positive cash flow. 10. Don’t mind scale at first. Do things that don’t scale. Service your client and figure out what they really need. Concierge MVP is a good strategy. Works best for service driven businesses. 11. Develop a strong personal brand. Document your journey. Let people know what you’re working on. Create content. We never know who we’ll reach + in this day and age this is increasingly important. 12. Avoid hiring a bunch of Junior people when you start hiring. Better 1 senior than 4 juniors. You wouldn’t let a junior doctor handle a newborn, that’s what a startup is