Lessons from being the founder and CEO of an AI start-up: Taking an idea to market
Lessons from being the founder and CEO of an AI start-up: Taking an idea to market
Lessons from being the founder and CEO of an AI start-up: Taking an idea to market
The unspoken rules of the startup world.
I did many entrepreneurship programs, they taught the theory on how to build a business plan, a business model canvas and other useful tools, but when it comes to really getting yourself involved in the process of raising funds, building a pitch-deck, starting a road show, understanding term sheets. None of this was taught to me and the only way to learn is by the method I like most, learning by doing.
It's all about the team and the connection one has. Period.
Talent is necessary, but it is not enough. Charisma, courage, high tolerance for stress, frustration and uncertainty. People management and leadership skills are vital. And even if you manage to have all of these traits, You are competing with startups on the internet, which have global reach. Its (almost) a brutal winner takes all kind of game. Early stage tech startups within my same sector started with 500k in europe and many in the US start with millions, thanks to the connections they have.
We started With 200K, to very soon after stumble upon a series of startups with veteran founder in the US and Australia succesfully raising 10-100's millions of dollars to enter the same market. which intimadated me grately. But I shouldnt have, the market was big enough but I didnt understand it at the time. I was aiming for excelence. but I was not aware of the difficulty of the game I was entering to play.
Sales and marketing are some of the most valuable core skills a founder should have.
I knew these skills were necessary, and i teamed up with a co-founder who was a child-hood best friend to take care of that part. To later learn that I would be the one to have to carry on these tasks as I became a solo founder. My childhood friend didnt really have the skills or the mindset to learn the things necessary in the time frame that was needed. He did have the right attitude, to run the business and was of big emotional support when going through this odyssey, but one thing he did have was the thirst for money.
Desire for money is not enough, thirst for money is what is needed.
I started my first start-up (conversalis) as a personal challenge to build a delightful product, but not with the desire to build a 500 employee team, nor a miltinational corporation, I just wantd to build something great and hoped for money to be the bi-product of creating a great product.
Never hire a devshop.
I did this mistake
Aiming too high, The fallacy of the minimum loveable product.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/theory-user-delight/
Dont be ashamed if your product looks ugly but works.
As a designer I strived to make a delightful product from the beginining , but it is what arrives last.
The fucntional and reliable aspects of the project at a foundational level of the performance relies on there was a bug that we were never able to surmount and killed the company.
Building a start up with a childhood friend or familymember is a double edged sword.
While some people might be really good at sparring with a double edged swords, it can be liabilty for another swordsman as its a complete different dynamic and can some times work against the benefit of the organization.
The priority is the relationship over the company
Whereas the benefit of the company becomes higher priority over the realtionship of the founders when the co-founders dont have such strong bonds already.
Starting on the wrong foot.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook tends to group web developers and digital designers into one category. However, they define them separately, stating that web developers create and maintain websites and are responsible for the technical aspects including performance and capacity. Web or digital designers, on the other hand, are responsible for the look and functionality of websites and interfaces. They develop, create, and test the layout, functions, and navigation for usability. Web developers can focus on the back-end, front-end, or full-stack development, and typically utilize a range of programming languages, libraries, and frameworks to do so. Web designers may work more closely with front-end engineers to establish the user-end functionality and appearance of a site.
Not having a CTO
In our ever-increasingly digital environment, there is a constant need for websites—and therefore for web designers and developers. With 17.4 billion websites in existence as of January 2020, the demand for web developers is only expected to rise.Web designers with significant coding experience are typically in higher demand, and can usually expect a higher salary. Like all jobs, there are likely to be a range of opportunities, some of which are better paid than others. But certain skill sets are basic to web design, most of which are key to how to become a web designer in 2022.
The unspoken rules of the startup world.
I did many entrepreneurship programs, they taught the theory on how to build a business plan, a business model canvas and other useful tools, but when it comes to really getting yourself involved in the process of raising funds, building a pitch-deck, starting a road show, understanding term sheets. None of this was taught to me and the only way to learn is by the method I like most, learning by doing.
It's all about the team and the connection one has. Period.
Talent is necessary, but it is not enough. Charisma, courage, high tolerance for stress, frustration and uncertainty. People management and leadership skills are vital. And even if you manage to have all of these traits, You are competing with startups on the internet, which have global reach. Its (almost) a brutal winner takes all kind of game. Early stage tech startups within my same sector started with 500k in europe and many in the US start with millions, thanks to the connections they have.
We started With 200K, to very soon after stumble upon a series of startups with veteran founder in the US and Australia succesfully raising 10-100's millions of dollars to enter the same market. which intimadated me grately. But I shouldnt have, the market was big enough but I didnt understand it at the time. I was aiming for excelence. but I was not aware of the difficulty of the game I was entering to play.
Sales and marketing are some of the most valuable core skills a founder should have.
I knew these skills were necessary, and i teamed up with a co-founder who was a child-hood best friend to take care of that part. To later learn that I would be the one to have to carry on these tasks as I became a solo founder. My childhood friend didnt really have the skills or the mindset to learn the things necessary in the time frame that was needed. He did have the right attitude, to run the business and was of big emotional support when going through this odyssey, but one thing he did have was the thirst for money.
Desire for money is not enough, thirst for money is what is needed.
I started my first start-up (conversalis) as a personal challenge to build a delightful product, but not with the desire to build a 500 employee team, nor a miltinational corporation, I just wantd to build something great and hoped for money to be the bi-product of creating a great product.
Never hire a devshop.
I did this mistake
Aiming too high, The fallacy of the minimum loveable product.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/theory-user-delight/
Dont be ashamed if your product looks ugly but works.
As a designer I strived to make a delightful product from the beginining , but it is what arrives last.
The fucntional and reliable aspects of the project at a foundational level of the performance relies on there was a bug that we were never able to surmount and killed the company.
Building a start up with a childhood friend or familymember is a double edged sword.
While some people might be really good at sparring with a double edged swords, it can be liabilty for another swordsman as its a complete different dynamic and can some times work against the benefit of the organization.
The priority is the relationship over the company
Whereas the benefit of the company becomes higher priority over the realtionship of the founders when the co-founders dont have such strong bonds already.
Starting on the wrong foot.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook tends to group web developers and digital designers into one category. However, they define them separately, stating that web developers create and maintain websites and are responsible for the technical aspects including performance and capacity. Web or digital designers, on the other hand, are responsible for the look and functionality of websites and interfaces. They develop, create, and test the layout, functions, and navigation for usability. Web developers can focus on the back-end, front-end, or full-stack development, and typically utilize a range of programming languages, libraries, and frameworks to do so. Web designers may work more closely with front-end engineers to establish the user-end functionality and appearance of a site.
Not having a CTO
In our ever-increasingly digital environment, there is a constant need for websites—and therefore for web designers and developers. With 17.4 billion websites in existence as of January 2020, the demand for web developers is only expected to rise.Web designers with significant coding experience are typically in higher demand, and can usually expect a higher salary. Like all jobs, there are likely to be a range of opportunities, some of which are better paid than others. But certain skill sets are basic to web design, most of which are key to how to become a web designer in 2022.