7 + 3 Lessons From Failed Startups
Great Inc post on lessons from a failed startup include:
1. Consider the entire experience
2. Raise money when you can not when you need too
3. Don't give away equity too soon or too fast
Read the other 4 from the Inc post: https://www.inc.com/yoram-solomon/7-lessons-you-should-learn-from-my-failed-startup.html
I'd add three of my own lessons from my "failed startup":
1. Don't think in terms of success and failure, win and lose. Think about impact, learning, and potential. Startups require a more nuanced sense of win/lose.
2. Don't hire your friends even if they are the right people because you are probably blind to faults, issues, or other "round peg in square hole" problems with friends.
3. Create any startup in collaboration with customers. Don't do the "mad inventor" thing and go off and think you've created a better mousetrap. You won't. Instead, collaborate and build on what you learn from real customers facing immediate problems.
Great list by Alexandra. I added a bunch of "new to me" resources such as
Added
@hnshah
@IanCleary (and Ian followed me back, #toogood)
Was already following
@davidedelman (brilliant McKinsey partner who wrote me a nice note when I talked about his Branding In All The Wrong Places article for HBR)
@lizstrauss (and she followed me back, also #toogood)
@ChrisBrogan (he helped with Cure Cancer Starter and I met him at a show in SF...good, smart, menschy guy) @JoePulizzi (met Joe at one of his content marketing shows in Cleveland, father of content marketing is a good, smart guy too)