What do startup founders need?
WHAT EARLY-STAGE FOUNDERS THINK THEY NEED:
– $5M seed from Sequoia for the value-add;
– TechCrunch article about “the vision”;
– A couple of 10x engineers;
– Growth Hackers & Salespeople to sell the product for them;
– Amazing logo. And MacBook stickers for “strong brand”;
– #1 ProductHunt launch;
– Strong profile & presence on social media to sell to everybody automatically;
– SEO because “it’s free and it scales”;
– To work like a lion;
– Lastly, to make it in 3-4 years.
WHAT EARLY STAGE FOUNDERS REALLY NEED:
– Firstly, to bootstrap, or go through YC; or a $1M seed from any VC who does not get in the way;
– To ask for brutal customer feedback daily; tolerate it and act on it;
– A lean, ambitious & motivated team (or just the founders really);
– Strong willpower. Moreover, to push through getting slapped by the market for years before finding strong product-market fit;
– A repeatable, scalable growth channel that returns $2 or more for every $1 they put in;
– Furthermore, to put in consistent effort every single day. In addition, weekends.
– Lastly, a 10-15 year timeframe expectation for success/exit
