11 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Startup (2)
But if I took my work ethic and just went straight into the corporate world, I probably would have done well financially.
Don't pick a career path like I did just for the money. The startup world isn't a place where most people get rich. Luckily it worked out for me, but if I were you, I wouldn't count on luck. If you want to solve a problem because you are passionate about it, become an entrepreneur for that reason, and not for the money. Money is a side effect of solving a problem that enough people are facing.
Lesson #10: Stick to what you know
Warren Buffett is notoriously known for investing in companies that he understands. He is good friends with people like Bill Gates, but he wouldn't dare to make an investment in Microsoft because he doesn't understand the tech industry. I used to start companies and invest in things I was really passionate about. In most cases, I didn't understand what I was getting into. But the one thing I didn't learn fast enough is that passion isn't enough to create a successful business. Had I stuck with creating businesses I understood, I would have been much further in my startup.
For example, with KISSmetrics, my co-founder and I went through many iterations of the product until we had something people were interested in paying for. One of our previous versions of the product focused on solving problems for online gaming companies.
During that time, Facebook games were becoming really popular, but there was one big issue. Neither my business partner nor I understood much about games as we never created one. On the other hand, our current product solves problems that marketers are facing, which my business partner and I understand really well as we used to own a marketing firm. If you look at the business, our growth is exploding because we know what we are doing.
If you want to increase your odds of succeeding, follow Buffett's advice by sticking to what you know. Lesson #11: Successful people don't always know what's best When I started out, I used to get mentorship from other successful entrepreneurs. Throughout the years, their advice was helpful, and without them, I wouldn't be where I am today. The one thing that I kept screwing up is not questioning advice I got from these mentors. If they said something, I followed it because… who am I to question someone who has sold their business for 100 million dollars?
Mentors are great at giving general business advice and guiding you along, but getting specific industry advice isn't always a smart idea unless that person has a lot of knowledge about your industry. Just because someone is successful doesn't mean he/she knows what is best for your business. Heck, someone who was successful told us at KISSmetrics to go after the social gaming market…but that didn't work out well for us. And it wasn't that person's fault… it was our fault for not questioning the advice. In the end, we pivoted and found our own direction based on the needs of our customers, which worked out well for us. Our mentors have been great and helped us out a lot. We just had to learn how to ask them the right questions.
Conclusion
I hope this blog post didn't stop you from taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. I myself love it, and I don't think I could do anything else. You just need to have realistic expectations when taking the plunge. It's not realistic to think that you will raise a lot of money, create an awesome company, and sell it to Facebook for a billion bucks. So, what do you think about starting up a company? Is there anything you wish you knew before taking the plunge?
