Founders and makers: What's something you wish you knew before starting out your business?

I think the best lesson I've learnt is that potential users should be included in every single step of product development. I've made the mistake of coding away alone in my room for a month thinking I know what people want only to learn not everyone thinks the same.

That everything has to happen in unison. Simply - you can't build a product, then market it.. You can't have an idea, then raise... The trick is moving all the pieces forward together, one rank at a time... - building a following - doing the tech - telling your story - designing the UX - onboarding your very first users - cultivating your evangelists - nailing down your privacy & security - speaking to investors - testing sales strategies, price points etc - building your funnels - etc. The more you focus on building in public, the more natural all this becomes. Whats your answer Martina? What's the thing you wish you knew?

The best lessons are often failures! We fall to learn to pick ourselves up again. It can get hard being a founder, co-founder, and maker. When we fall the first thing that comes to our mind as human tendency; is flight! The biggest lesson that being a co-founder has taught me is to fight rather than flight. Running away always seems to be the easier way out, especially with corporates offering you huge CTCs, lucrative perks, and 5-day Flexi work weeks. One thing that I wish I knew before taking on responsibilities as a co-founder and maker would be that "There should be no plan B!". As humans, when we know there is a backup plan, we tend to take things lightly and know that there is a way out. Had I known this from the start, maybe today I could have been a much better co-founder! "When you be a maker, be a maker don't think about being the taker!"