Starting a company is a crash course in humility. You’re juggling 100 decisions a day, half of which you’ve never faced before. You’re trying to build a product, grow a business, and stay sane—all at once.
Here are seven principles I’ve seen trip up first-time founders (myself included). If you're just getting started, I hope this saves you some scar tissue.
It starts, as these stories often do, with a bold vision.
A founder has an idea — one they’re convinced is going to change the game. It’s innovative. Disruptive. The kind of idea that turns heads and opens investor checkbooks. Before long, there’s money in the bank, a team in place, and the runway to bring this vision to life.
From the founder’s perspective, the stars are aligning. The idea has been validated — after all, someone just put money behind it. Now it’s just a matter of execution.
But this is where things often go wrong.
For many early-stage founders, hiring team members from FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) companies feels like a shortcut to success. "These folks excelled at Google! Surely they'll turn my fledgling startup into the next unicorn!"
But reality often has other plans. Here’s why hiring FAANG alumni might not be your startup’s golden ticket:
In my recent talk on The Growth Equation, I shared the story of Marta, a founder archetype whose journey reveals a common but often overlooked challenge in early-stage startups. Marta stands out because she excels where many founders struggle—at customer acquisition.
One of the most common—and deceptively simple—questions founders ask is: “How can I grow my business faster?” It feels like the kind of question that should have a straightforward answer. Yet, as many CEOs discover, growth is rarely straightforward. It’s a balancing act between multiple forces, each pulling in different directions.
In my recent talk on The Growth Equation, I introduced Barry, an archetypal founder whose story might sound all too familiar. Barry is a product person at heart. He loves nothing more than dreaming up new features and turning ideas into reality. For Barry, the belief is simple: the best products win.