What has most surprised you about founding a startup?

A hard lesson we had to learn was letting go of the "build it and they will come" mentality. Good products are most often made by rapid user feedback.

Ideas are worth nothing, execution is everything (and prioritisation)

1. The difficulty of finding cofounders who don't already have a business 2. The battle between building for now and building for the future 3. The amount of time that's wasted discussing things that don't matter 4. Just how many people don't get why anyone would do it, lol 5. The lack of VC reviews from vetted founders 6. The number of successful startups with incredibly basic products and no competitive barriers

Nothing these days! Been at this since 2004. Latest https://skilledup.life - free talent for tech startups. My 14 attempts https://manojranaweera.me/who-is...

How impactful an idea could be until it is executed! Something that you identify as a pain point for millions out there and feel should be solved, and guess what, you become the one to solve it. It is pure joy!

The amazing communities offering help for active-seekers is completely not what I expected.

How much I need to learn and the sheer determination it takes to continue at it even when you see competitors entering the market.

doing two at once, successfully

Oh, we've learned so many lessons so far. In a way, it was surprising, hah. Like: 📌 It is important to choose the right tech stack in advance, you'll grow, so it should be scalable. 📌 Keep technical documentation right from the beginning. This makes it more convenient to track down controversial issues. For example, some decisions may seem irrational, but they can be explained by business logic. 📌 From the start, make "open" features so they can be easily expanded. And estimate the cost of the features from the very start too. 📌 When developing functionality, you need to look at everything through the eyes of an ordinary user. You know the subject and you think it's quite obvious. But that may not be so at all. You need to keep this in mind and think about how to make people's lives easier. This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course.

The amount of "consultants" messaging me on linkedin.