Validate Your Startup Idea Before Writing Any Code

Techie founders generally operate in their comfort zones: they like to write code. They often start developing software before they validate with customers. As such, they often build solutions looking for problems. Do NOT write code before you immerse yourself in customers and develop a deep understanding of what pain you are solving.

Turning Services into Startup Traction

Bootstrapping a startup to early revenues by providing services is a tried and true methodology that we practice and espouse in 1Mby1M. Why is this set of skills so important? Raising funding for startups in Silicon Valley is a low-probability game. Fewer than 1% who try actually succeed.

Why Founders Should Avoid Equity Deals Before Validation

Giving up equity early on is one of the worst decisions an entrepreneur makes. Say, you give up 15% for $200k in pre-seed accelerator funding. What happens next? You haven’t validated anything yet. You don’t know whether your business has the capacity to go from 0 to $100M in 5-7 years. That’s what VCs are

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Build Your Company Before Chasing Venture Capital

Are you trying to get into Y Combinator? Beware, they have a 98% rejection rate. They need to see that you are building something that can be blitzscaled with gobs of venture capital. Blitzscaling, however, is NOT the only way to build a successful company. Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later is a MUCH better strategy

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Are You Looking for a Startup Idea?

Are you looking for a startup Idea? Let me give you some notes on my Ideation Methodology.