As I mentioned earlier, 2011 was the most exciting year of my life. 2012 is quickly beating it, however! In 2011 I was blessed to raise venture capital (VC) from the most active venture capitalists in the education space of the USA which enabled me to assemble a phenomenal team. We launched as a TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist in September of 2011. I learned more in 2011 than I had learned in the first three years of the company. Our latest product has become the most succesful product of all (a #1 Educational App in the USA) and is truly a culmination of our learnings from our four years of business in the language learning software space. Below are my particular learnings from 2011 as the CEO of PlaySay:
- hire for the future, not the position
- company culture fit in a new hire is much more important than skills aptitude
- logistically, hiring is hard but firing is harder
- lead by example
- employees mainly want three things - autonomy, mastery and purpose ($ is not among the top three)
- users are lazy
- confusing a user is the fastest way to lose them
- more features = more options = more confusion
- simple is always better
- less is more
- focus, man
- 'mommify' your UI
- users should never have to guess what to do next, always be their guide
- engagement = not just use, but recurring use
- test. iterate. repeat.
- you can't optimize what you don't measure
- Always be closing
- Persistence is critical but knowing when to walk away is as important
- A warm intro is the best way to get someone's attention
- Investors invest in people and market opportunity much more than product
- if you can't fart next to the colleague you're next to, you two probably shouldn't be working next to each other (i.e. you shouldn't be colleagues)
- term sheets involve mainly economics and control - choose which is most important to you
- time is your most valuable asset, use it wisely
- there's no work/life balance in a startup...but if you love your work you'll love your life
- if you fail to plan you plan to fail
- being too early in a market is the same thing as being wrong
- a dollar in the co. is more valuable than a dollar in an equity holder's pocket...if that's not the case why are they an equity holder?
- firing isn't as fun as Donald Trump makes it seem, it's quite the opposite
- marketing comes after you have a product/market fit, not before
- in a startup press is negative ROI
- cash is king but traction rules
- If I was an investor, a prerequisite to pitching me would be to read the 4 Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
- your first few hires are absolutely critical to your co.'s success - only hire A+'s
- don't celebrate until the $'s in the bank
- each progressively harder: getting a warm intro to a VC > pitching a VC > meeting the partners > getting through due diligence > getting the term sheet > negotiating the term sheet > negotiating the final docs > getting the $ in the bank
- each progressively satisfying: getting funded by VC's > creating jobs / paying employee's salaries > hearing an employee continually saying they love their job > employees taking pay cuts for the company's best interest > watching an employee pitch the product/co. with as much intelligence, genuine passion and excitement in it's potential as me (the founder) to a top executive who was clearly captivated
- fail fast, fail often, but fail cheaply! (you can disprove product and business model hypotheses before even building the MVP)