What is the most difficult part of being a founder?
Kaustumbh Jaiswal
35 replies
Tell me about the most challenging thing you face being a founder.
Replies
John Carmichael@john_carmichael
Depends on your role in the company and the type of company you are creating...
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@john_carmichael That is true. What would your answer be to this question?
@kaustumbh7 It is impossible to answer without knowing the parameters... the founder could be the tech lead, the sales lead, the inventor, or the CEO... the startup could be well funded or bootstrapped on the side while the founders work their full-time jobs.
Having a constant battle about whether you are building something worthwhile. Especially for very early-stage companies. Once you get validation, things change for the better. We at Better Stacks, are starting to get validation - slowly. It took us a while.
@tanaylakhani That is the leap of faith we as founders have to take. 😌
Believe in our product and keep improving it as per the feedback from our users 🙂
@tanaylakhani
How long did it take to get the validation and how did you do it?
@theterminalguy I have been working on Stacks for about a year. I made a ton of mistakes but learned a lot.
Few things I would say:
- try doing at least 3 prospective customer calls a week before you build a product.
- Discuss the problem statement without biases to your solution.
- Your first hire should be a virtual assistant that does LinkedIn / Twitter outreach or emails or any other platform where your audience is to get that customer calls on the calendar.
- show your designs to a few prospective customers before building (I spent 20k+ USD iterating because I didn't do this)
I started doing the above steps two months ago and have much better insight into the customer as well as the problem.
@tanaylakhani thanks for this, very helpful. How were you able to identify early customers and how did you find them? I'd love to learn about your approach. I have spent too much time building without actually talking to any potential customers. I'd like to end this asap
@theterminalguy Your early customers are anyone who are facing the problem your product is trying to solve.
To acquire these customers, follow the IRP Framework (something I came up with :P). Let's take the example of identitying customers for an Indian Crypto Exchange.
1. Identify
First you need to identify your ideal customer, i.e. a person who for sure will use your product given the chance to. For eg. A person aged between 18-35 yeras, living in India and interested in Crypto.
2.Reach
Try reaching out to the people you identified in Step 1 and try to locate them on the following platforms-
- Product Hunt
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Instagram
- Discord communities
- Redit communities
- Telegram groups
3. Pitch
Now pitch your product to the above customers by telling them about your product and the problem it solves for them.
Once you've done this, next step is to keep improving your product as per the feedback received from your users.
Hope this helps, this is what I am trying to do with the product I am building.
thank you for sharing, we are entrepreneurs with a soul and faith and drive forward are the main weapons. Surrounding ourselves with the right people is also very important to get in touch and manage to spread what we are passionate about in the right way. We must be able to spread the passion we feel so that more people join us and contribute with theirs.
@karinachauvet
Absolutely, surrounding yourself with the right people is key to winning. The right ones make it easier and give not only honest opinions but suggest possible solutions
dealing with constant ups and downs. Almost any given day you get excellent news and not so good news all at the same time.
Like MRR growth is slow.
But cash on hand is great!
We made a major marketing win
But our app was down for 30 min.
Not for everyone
For me it's having to work on every aspect of the company simultaneously. I'm a developer and that is where I feel the most natural but when it comes to founding implementation is only one of the many things that are required. I'm thankful to have committed team members helping to ease the load but it's still constant management and decision-making in fields that I am not as well versed in.
I am the founder of Logomakerr.ai, a platform that utilizes AI to create logos in minutes, empowering startups and small businesses to develop impactful logo designs and branding packages that leave a lasting impression on prospects and consumers.
As a founder, one of the most demanding aspects is shouldering the significant responsibility and pressure that accompanies making crucial decisions and overseeing various aspects of the business.
Founders must navigate uncertainties, manage multiple tasks, and confront setbacks while maintaining a harmonious work-life balance. Nevertheless, the potential rewards of shaping and growing a business, combined with passion and perseverance, can outweigh these challenges and pave the way for success.
Since I’m a technical founder, marketing has been challenging but I’m learning
Launching soon!
navigating
Loneliness; staying up late at night worrying about the business, I often felt that there was nobody in the company nor in my personal life who I could quite share that burden with.
Trying to juggle multiple responsibilities with the hopes of not running out of gas
Launching soon!
To remind oneself that the lows can get deeper and the highs can get shallower.
Oh man where do you start? Managing multiple responsibilities, dealing with setbacks and failures, "being your own boss" sometimes isn't as fun as people may think, it comes with long working hours and sacrifices.
Being unsure about every decision at first.
As a founder, the most challenging aspect is navigating the constant uncertainty and ambiguity that comes with building something from scratch. It requires wearing multiple hats, making tough decisions, and persevering through setbacks. However, the opportunity to create and make a positive impact makes it all worthwhile.
Reading all the comments and I think willing your startup to success captures the challenges everyone has mentioned below. It's hard and tiring, but it should be. Creating something great requires strain and difficulty. In many regards, every day you have to create the success you want your startup to achieve Embrace the challenge and get comfortable with the hard and uncomfortable!
My advice to get through this is to reflect on how much you have achieved to this point to drive your entry into a new phase, task, or responsibility!
As a first-time founder launching the first half of our marketplace come July 17th, everything is new and uncomfortable in some respects but I'm excited about what we've accomplished and even more so about what we can achieve.
That is very insightful @divine_rivers1
Looking how far one has come since the start, does help on the bad days.
For me, it is various psychological aspects behind dealing with the constant flow of unknowns.