Earlier this month, FYI (a golden kitty award finalist!) co-founder Marie Prokopets did her first AMA on Product Hunt and we learned a lot. 👏
Marie has a self-described “wild ride of a career,” which includes founding multiple products, working with celebs in the alcohol industry, handling $26M worth of M&A deals and winning awards in comedy writing. She also likes to meditate, burn sage and collect crystals. 🙏
In her AMA, Marie covers SaaS, habits, mental models, startup advice, writing and so much more. While it’s hard to boil down the highlights from the Q&A (read it in full here), we tried:
On her advice for people thinking about launching their first company: In hindsight, there are 3 things I'd recommend. 1) ask yourself the right questions, 2) give yourself the best pep talk you've ever given yourself 3) get practical.
On what she’s learned about writing: Share your writing, even when you think it sucks. I nearly didn't ship a post on remote work tips because I didn't feel like it was good enough (thank you, internal hater). But I shared it anyway, and ever since I shared it people have been thanking me & saying it's the most thorough thing out there.
On scaling startups: Scale should be an afterthought. Make sure to learn everything about your customer and the problem your product is solving. Keep iterating until you build something your customers love. Thinking about scale too early is futile, since you are going to learn so much and your product will keep changing and evolving.
On her mental model for building a business: My first essential mental model/framework is honesty. Is this honestly a big, painful problem for people? Are we honestly solving the problem, or just part of the way there? Is this honestly a category I'm interested in for years to come? Is this honestly a big, growing category?
On her habits: Does Postmates count as a daily habit? 😹
She actually has some really inspiring daily habits (like meditating for 30-45 minutes per day), which outlines more fully in her AMA. Read it here or why not start your own?
This was an experiment, so let us know what you think! If you want to be part of the next session and potentially be featured in the podcast, make sure to follow us on Twitter.
We’ll be back next week with a very special guest, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. 😸
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