Minimap


November 2020



A complete list of all the mistakes I have made:



  1. Founder selection


A. No behavioral assessment was performed by me.

  • A leader lacking the necessary traits is no person to lead.


Solution: Work on challenging tasks together.


Lessons:

  • A wealthy founder is a dangerous founder.

  • Founders without camaraderie are entering a death sentence.

  • The necessary characteristics of a leader include charisma, cunningness, competitiveness, innovativeness, and salesmanship.


2. Team selection


A. General rule: Three non-tech co-founders forming a tech startup is a bad idea.


Issues this lead to:

  • Hiring inexperienced college devs.

  • Having a non-incentivized tech-lead.

    • No code review.

    • No communication b/n devs.

  • Prioritizing part-time devs over full-time devs.

  • Choosing the wrong codebase and framework from day 1 (due to not having tech advisers).


Solution: Take your time with the hiring process.


Lessons:

  • When it comes to labor, know when to go cheap.

  • A tech startup should prioritize quality talent over quantity.

  • Seek advisers for each team (i.e., marketing, tech, and design advisers).


3. Legal formation


A. Spent 30% of the company's runway on miscellaneous legal expenses.


Solution: Seek legal advice from a trustworthy, experienced perspective mentor and persuade them to help with the initial setup in exchange for equity.


Lessons:

  • Do not spend a majority of your runway towards legal fees.

  • Incorporating a business from day 1 is a waste of money -> What's the rush? First, investigate if there is a need for your product before you spend money!

  • Include an options pool once incorporated.

  • Trademarking before revenue or investment is not recommended.


4. Product


A. Prematurely developed a product during the research stage.


Issues this lead to:


  • Redesigning development tasks

  • Overload of features in an MVP

  • Delayed execution date


Solution: Properly research before you develop a product! (i.e., identify the problem, understand the market, competitors, value prop, monetization plan, etc.)


Lessons:

  • Shortcuts with development lead to longcuts. Take the time to research and design the product properly before sending that over to development.

  • Having an elaborate MVP defeats the purpose of an MVP. So, focus on one critical feature.


4. Management


A. I did not produce a detailed roadmap from day 1.


Issues this lead to:


  • Spending weeks on a business plan -> Avoid this early on.

  • Not prioritizing market strategy.

  • Ineffectively approaching market validation.


Solution: Work together on forming a realistic roadmap. The roadmap may change daily. However, having a long-term blueprint will make it easier to plan and recognize where to place priority.


B. The entire team's productivity decreased as it continued remotely.


Solution: Be remote only if you must be! (might as well hire cheap foreign labor).


Lessons:

  • If a team is remote, then conduct short daily syncs!


5. Logistics


Quick avoids:


A. Going cheap on a website

B. GoDaddy Domains

C. Spending unnecessary $

  • $1,000 on a logo.

  • $3,000 on a shitty marketing video.



To be further updated.