10 Signs A Startup Is Not For You!

Inspiration and motivation are things we usually look for when  unsatisfied. We read articles, blogs or whatever else to find the power to just make the jump and do what we always liked or feel inspired with.

The Internet offers tons of material for people who are not sure, who are afraid, who need a word of wisdom to make the change in their life. We should look for friends’ advices, perhaps also the beloved ones’, but most of the time, they don’t get it. They won’t be able to help us make the right choice.

Image Credit to: http://www.totifun.com

Is a startup what you really need? 

Inspirational quotes, blog posts and articles on well known websites help us understanding whether entrepreneurship or “the startup life” is what we need.

While it’s important to find inspiration, I believe that it might take just one sign, one wrong attitude, one bad habit to make your dream fall apart. That’s why I would like to see it from the opposite side of the table.

In a recent article posted on a well known website, I read about the “50 signs you might be an entrepreneur“. 50! Among which we had: “You are passionate”; “You dropped out of college” or “You surround yourself with quality people”… really?

Now, I am sure we are all smart (more or less) and we don’t consider the fact that passion or a smart couple of friends will help us a lot in being successful. I rather believe that we might need to check for those signs that don’t make us ready for a startup or entrepreneurship at all.

Here are my thoughts (and yes, I am either personally guilty or experienced these in my startup):

1. You value your free time. You believe that spending a day out in the bush, looking at birds and fishing is fundamental to your mental health. Fact: When you have a startup, you will not stop thinking about it. Ever! If you want to rest, keep your job, and enjoy the weekend.

2. You take it personally. While having a startup, you will meet a lot of people who will be ready to give you advices and critic your idea/product without any knowledge. You will also argue (a lot) with your co-founder. This is the reality and you don’t have to take it personally. If you go home and get upset about it, you will not survive the stress of this journey.

3. You know it all. Regardless of what you are talking about, you can’t have this approach. You don’t know it all, and even when you do, just be humble and explain yourself or how things are done. Sometimes listening to somebody else’s point of view, even if he is not an expert, can help. If you ever say “You are not a [insert job category here], you don’t understand how this is done” then you are doing it all wrong (I guess this is true also if you don’t have a startup).

4. You need structure to operate.  Everything that happens in a startup has a structure. A chaotic structure. The plans are made for investors. The reality is you know what is today. Tomorrow could be different. There is no structure in a startup (especially in early days), if you expect to have one, keep working for a normal company.

5. You can’t find the easiest way. It’s not always possible to find the easiest/shortest way to solve a problem, but there is always a way to optimize time. Do you usually see a quick way to overcome a problem (no matter what we are talking about)? If you don’t, then think twice before making the jump. Startup is also about making the easiest/shortest decision, even if it’s not the best one.

6. You are afraid to sell. This goes a little bit beyond the simple product sales. Are you ready to pitch any living thing that comes in front of you with your idea/product (even if they are not your customers)? Or will you rely on the sales/business guy?

7. You are shy. When you have a startup, you can’t be shy. You will find yourself in events, sometimes alone, and you will need to talk with random people just to “network” or simply because it feels awkward to be alone all day. This is the hardest thing ever. I have a background in sales, networking is not a problem for me, but I used to hate approaching random people at events. What should I say to them? What if we start talking and then nothing follow? You will need to take into account all these things. Move on, don’t be shy, go to the next one and hand your business card. Most of the people you meet at events won’t be your best friends anyway.

8. You find excuses. This is tough. Simply because we don’t realise when we find excuses to do or not do something. However, this can be a terrible problem. Excuses can destroy your work. “I will do that tomorrow, cause now this is more important” or “I can’t do that, cause I am not comfortable with this thing”. Excuses. Do It! Now!

9. If your baby won’t learn how to walk, you would say “Well I tried”. OK, maybe I went a little bit too far. However, it doesn’t exist “I tried” in a startup. It exists, however, “I didn’t try hard enough”. I heard people telling me “If my startup doesn’t work, I can’t do much, I tried”. Yes, you are right! But how can you accept defeat like this!? Before giving up on my startup I cried. YES, I cried because perhaps I didn’t try hard enough.

10. You are reading all this shit on the Internet. You don’t need anybody to tell you what you can do or achieve in life. Yes, sometimes we do need a little push, sure. However, you know deep inside you what is right for you. If you want to jump, just jump, don’t think at the consequences.

Do you have any other possible sign to add to this list?

Find Your Soulmate! Part 3: Yourself

How many times have you doubt about your capabilities?

How many times have you thought that your idea was just too shitty to succeed?

How many times haven’t you slept at night thinking about how to solve a problem?

How many times have you had to look at yourself in the mirror and find those energy to keep going?

How many times have you just thought to give up and go back to employment because no matter what you did, it didn’t seem to work?

These are just some of the doubts and questions I had for myself while working on my startup. On a daily basis I was, and still am, challenged not only physically, but also mentally to keep on going; to find the strengths to go on. I never realised how important was to have myself 100% ready every single time I asked myself these questions.

http://journalisminternshipsabroad.com/

 

Being a startup founder is an enormous challenge. I have no “working time”, I have no boss, I have no plans for the next 3 months (and I am not talking about business plans), I have no clue if in two weeks I will still be here doing what I am doing today. It is easy to lose yourself! I lost myself several times and still haven’t realised if I was able to get back on track or just kept going off-track.

Finding myself is another of these things I fought while having my startup. Finding motivation on a daily basis to overcome problems is something neither your co-founder or investor can give you.

Finding solutions to your problems is something that only you can solve. Nobody can really help you!

I don’t believe I am the only one that felt lost in startup land. I don’t believe I am the only who suddenly realised that the biggest obstacle to success perhaps was myself and not “that guy”. No wonder a platform like Startup Anonymous has become so used in startup land. We need support to keep going. We need other founders to give us ideas perhaps. However, I still believe that what we really need is to find ourselves.

Are we up to this job? Are we up to the stress? Are we willing to leave everything on the side for a while? Are we strong enough to deal with our shit without crying out? Are we responsible enough to understand when and how to give up on things? Are we leader enough to guide our boat in startup land?

Nobody will help us understanding these things. We are the only one that can really look into ourselves and see whether we are ready to make the jump in startup land.

The most important soulmate that I had to find while having my startup was myself, because you can’t ignore the voice in your head that’s telling you something on a daily basis, putting doubts and letting you down sometimes.

Find yourself either before or while you are jumping, that’s going to make a great difference for you, your startup and everyone around you.

 

Making the jump!

I have always had this irrational need to try something new. I get bored easily and also easily distracted by new things. I have deep interest for and like to learn new things. If I don’t learn, I feel like I am dying.

I thought that work would bring me to a new dimension. In the end, I knew what I liked the most. Unfortunately so it wasn’t. The learning is slow, the creativity part is not as it should be, and environment sometimes is not stimulating enough.

My answer to that is always been “when and if I get bored, I will change“. After few changes though, I was still faced by the same feeling, dissatisfaction. However, slowly, a new idea formed in my mind. Starting my business, I thought, would save me by the tedious every-day routine.

But how could I make the jump?

Changing job is easy, at least it has always been like this for me. I never feared changes or had problem getting along with new people. However, starting a business,  or being an entrepreneur for that matter, was a whole new topic. So, I started reading. I read so many articles from accredited sources, so many books, that I thought I had everything clear in my mind when I did the jump.

What I had clear, however, was the idea of making the jump, not the jump itself. 

So, what’s this jump then? Personally, I see the jump of being an entrepreneur, a process that does not land a person on the ground once you make the decision (although it can look like that). The jump lasts all the way through your “career” as an entrepreneur. You never land until you decide to do something else or quit.

As a matter of fact, I would put it this way. Making the jump is important, however, not complicated in today’s economy. We are continuously stimulated to do what we like, to change what we don’t like and live the life now and not tomorrow. The whole process of jumping is the best one. It is intense, stressful, full of emotions, exciting and it forms you as a person like nothing else will in your life. The “landing” is probably, however, the crucial part in the whole process. It’s difficult to know how you will land and perhaps not knowing it from the beginning makes it even better. Nevertheless, most of those who jump won’t land straight with both feet. Some will fall, some will stagger, and very few will keep walking proudly.

Making the jump is not easy though. The feeling of uncertainty and the whole obscure future in front of you makes it perhaps 100x more difficult than one could think. That’s why, before jumping I read a lot. I was scared and doubtful, will I be successful? will I “make it”? will I end up broken with nothing in my hands? I didn’t know and I read, because reading about it actually made me feel safer.

The internet is plenty of articles and advices for newbies and most importantly there is always an expert in something ready to tell you what to do.

“What successful entrepreneurs do before breakfast“, i.e. take note, are you doing the same?

“How I started my company in 7 days!“, i.e. is it taking longer than that to come up with a successful idea and turn it into a company?

“How I attracted 10000 leads without spending a ding on marketing.“, i.e. are you spending too much money? are you “hacking” your company growth?

“156 inspirational quotes from successful entrepreneurs that will motivate when in doubts“, i.e. don’t be depressed, read and everything will pass.

There’s plenty of material online about this topic; however reading won’t make the difference. Reading helped me getting more secure, having somehow a more clear structure in mind when I jumped. I perhaps fooled myself in believing that if I would read more, I would find a way to succeed. However, what I thought I knew before the jump, disappeared immediately once my feet were in the air.

Nobody can tell you what to do. Nowhere you will find secret recipes for success. You do not have to follow somebody else’s advice, unless you don’t feel it yours.

This is your journey. This is your jump. You can’t just copy what others did. Make it last as much as you can. Live it to the fullest and never regret any choice you might make during the jump.

The way we land might be important for sure, but how we jump makes the jump unforgettable. 

Profession: Mentor!

In my startup land I met super-humans. People who walked into my business, gave me advices (of any kind) that most of the time resulted completely useless.

Accelerators tend to be a fertile land for mentors to live in.

Accelerators have some “famous mentors” on their website to show how good their program is. However, sometimes, after joining certain accelerators, those very famous people tend to disappear or have some sudden problems and therefore unable to attend.

Nevertheless, mentors live well in environments where uncertain, doubtful and scared entrepreneurs try to make sense out of their incredibly crazy ideas. Mentors will talk and say anything that passes through their mind, but most likely they will know nothing about your business and/or industry.

Of course this is generalisation, so let’s make some difference.  Mentors are broadly divided into three groups:

1. People who have (or had) a startup but have no real clue about how they can help other entrepreneurs; and people who have never had a startup, but have read “The Lean Startup“, know something about “The business canvas model” and use some cool and trendy words (such as “product market fit“) and repeat the exact same things to anybody they meet. This group makes about 70% of all mentors.

2. People who have failed in doing their startup, know their mistakes and perhaps wrote an e-book about it. These guys could be treasure for entrepreneurs; however, they tend to be negative and not always useful. This group makes about 25% of all mentors.

3. People who actually have done something in their life, either by making a crazy startup into a proper company or by selling it; or have a long and established experience in corporate/startup world. These guys are incredibly valuable especially in the way they analyse new startups, unfortunately they make only 5% of the total. 

As one might rightfully imagine, to find a good mentor is a hell of a job. In my startup land I came across mentors from the 1st group, most of the time.

Accelerators stimulate these encounters and they also “invite” entrepreneurs to put the chosen mentors in the Advisory Board. However, a startup advisory board in the very early stage is seriously a joke, I still wonder why accelerators ask to do this.

Mentors have the power to listen to a startup elevator pitch and then advice, advice and sometimes judge choices.

In my startup land I came across people who told me that “Airbnb model was not successful because not secure“, that ” To focus on entertainment is a great idea, but focusing on sex would be much better!“, or also that explained me Porters’ Five Forces model, ignoring that I studied marketing.

However, I am guilty as well. I believed, for a moment, that I could be a mentor and to have a career as such would be great. So, I started mentoring as well. However, thanks God, I soon released that I would be in the 1st group and somebody else would have written a blog post about me, so I quit my second job as mentor and focus on my things.

Mentors are great for startups; unfortunately in today startup land there are too many people taking advantage of uncertain and doubtful entrepreneurs just to write on LinkedIn the magic word “Mentor”.

Shouldn’t we focus on value rather than image? Shouldn’t we find a way to really help entrepreneurs rather than helping ourselves (as mentors)?

Find Your Soulmate! part 2: Accelerators

As a first time entrepreneur I had a lot of problems understanding what was necessary and what not for my business. I had to decide what would make sense for the future of my startup, when I only had an idea and nothing more.

I had to face some tough decisions when not so long after I decided to quit my job to make my dream happen, my co-founder told me that he didn’t have enough money and he might start looking for a job.

Now, let’s put the pieces in the right place, so that you get an idea.

Two months before this happened, I had convinced my tech co-founder to jump on board. He was out of job at the time and excited about starting something new. After 8 weekends spent on working and meeting with him (plus the nights afterwork), I decided it was about time to take things to the next step and quit my job and do what a successful entrepreneur should do. Focus on the startup and nothing more!

Let’s get back to that moment when I heard my tech co-founder was thinking to look for a job. I literally thought “FUCK!”. I quit my job to focus on the startup and he looks for a job, AWESOME!

I had few moments in which I thought perhaps I should take a break from him and find another co-founder. However, I was too excited and too convinced I could make it, to stop right now. If I would show him I was awesome he would follow, I thought. So, I did what every normal person could do. Look for money!

The hunt for accelerators-soulmate began! 

If you are new to the startup world, meaning your dad is not a famous entrepreneur, you didn’t study at Stanford, Oxford or wherever else other rich people go to study so that they can then drop and fund a startup, you don’t know many other founders; perhaps, the best shot you’ve got in your gun is to look for accelerators.

Money, network and great mentors is their promise! How can you turn this down!?

I need to digress a moment, before I keep going with my story. Accelerators deserve more than just one blog post, there are so many considerations to be done that I could write for hours. For now, I will limit this to my experience and tell you what actually happened to me.

We are based in a cool startup city with  quite few accelerators. We had difficulties at the beginning because we applied for the famous ones and we got most of the time the same nice answer “Please, show us traction and then we can take you in consideration” (If I had traction, I would have talked with VCs, not accelerators, anyways…)

After 4/5 unsuccessful tries, we decided to shoot a little bit outside of our nest. Go for the unknown and look for money (remember my tech co-founder was looking for jobs). Another 2 tries and we got called to a lesser known startup accelerator in another city. The deal was better than others we would have got from well-known accelerators…

I was happy to go and show the world I could make it!

The experience lasted for 3 months. We had to move to another city, away from friends and girlfriends; but we were not scared (maybe worried), we were making our dream come true after all!

In this post, I want to focus on the people behind the accelerator, rather than the experience itself. The persons who were “making the revolution happen in their city”. A new city for startups, slowly raising to the international spotlights.

It all started with great intention and awesome programs. Weekly meetings, mentoring with super people, meet-ups with other founders to exchange ideas, and much more. It was all planned, then the program started. Here are few numbers for you:

How many times did we have a “CEO” meeting in 3 months? Once

How many times was there a “tech” meeting in 3 months? Once

How many times have we met as a team with these persons from the accelerator (let’s remember they are part of the board)? Once (after 2 weeks in the program and not all of them were at the meeting)

How many times have these people actually checked our product? NONE

How many times have these people given us feedback on tech/business decisions? NONE

Instead, they spent 3 months creating a barrier between all founders in the batch and themselves. Their attitude was flat towards us, as if we didn’t existed. However, they didn’t miss a chance to tell us “Release as fast as you can! Now!” (the mantra of every startup). They softly threatened us, saying that they would not invest further if we didn’t do as they wanted. Yes, there was this option. To some, they were even rude and pushy with no real reasons.

I was not looking for a school and kind people to tell me where to go. I was looking, however, for experienced and professional people to mentor me through my first months in the startup. This didn’t happen. These persons focus their energy on the wrong things, mocking us rather than helping us; creating unhappy founders working long hours and talking bad about them during cigarette breaks. FUCK, it was like being employed!

The worst (and perhaps the lowest) moment we reached was at the final meeting, discussing what we had done and what they thought, and what was going to happen next.

They spent more than half of the time telling us we spent too much money on useless things (they didn’t know exactly on what). They suggested crazy things, such as that I should have rented out my apartment (my girlfriend was living there) or of course having my girlfriend paying for everything while I was playing in startupland.

The best, however, was the attitude. The boss attitude; actually the worst boss attitude. Judging our work with no real idea of what we had done (remember how many times we met in 3 months).

Did I fail at my startup? No. They failed me.

Perhaps one day, when my startup will not be alive anymore, I will write down names and everything, but for now the key point for everybody looking at accelerators is: look for professional people; look for partners; meet with them beforehand if you can; talk with them and talk with other startups who joined their program (perhaps best with those who failed); do not underestimate the damage that unprofessional people can do to your startup; do not let bossy unprofessional people push you towards something it’s not yours!

Remember, accelerators, like co-founders, are soulmate. They will stay with you till the end of your business. Make sure you don’t fuck it up at the beginning, nothing good can come out of that.

Find Your Soulmate! – Part 1: The Co-founder

In a startup finding partners, from co-founders to investors, is like finding the soulmate in real life. One might not see it like this at first, but reality is that if your business lasts 40 years, you will share everything with your partners!

I didn’t see it this way, then I learnt.

I made mistakes in choosing my partners. I believe mainly because I never had to look at partners in that way. I truly think that choosing the wrong partners doesn’t mean that they are not capable or unprofessional and viceversa. I rather believe there is not a good chemistry and that’s it. 

The first partner that I had to look for was a co-founder. I was pretty lucky because I had a friend who just looking for the same thing. Changing life. So, thanks God, I didn’t have to go to these meet-ups to find co-founders. It was pretty straightforward and easy. We knew each other well enough to take it to the next step after only 2 weeks chatting about doing business together.

Obviously it was not just friendship. We mutually respected each others and we believed that we could make the job well. However, things are not always as easy and smooth as they look like.

I am a business person, with a business background. I make mistakes every day and I am little bit crazy. I change multiple times roads and plans, with no apparent reason. I think, think and think again about what I am doing and ways to improve it.

On the other hand, my partner is an engineer. He needed structure, a plan and a salary. He didn’t really appreciate my continuous stress in finishing up the product asap. He didn’t understand the need to validate the idea before building a product ready to host 1.000.000 daily visitors.

I don’t think I am a born entrepreneur. I learnt to think fast and make mistakes. I read a lot about startup before I made one and try to understand what made sense. I learnt to live one year without salary without complaining about it. My co-founder did not. I think it’s just a matter of not being mentally prepared of what can happen when you run a startup or what you need to do when being a co-founder. I personally think that I also don’t fully understand what a co-founder should do.

When I had to close the door to my startup, I didn’t regret having chosen him as a co-founder. I didn’t regret him anything. However, I learnt something useful: don’t listen to those tech guys who write on famous blogs that say you need a techy as a co-founder.

No, you do not need a full tech co-founder on board from day one!

You can find out how to build a prototype or also to make a stupid and basic MVP by yourself. You might ask help around if you want, but you do not need an engineer from day one! Unless this engineer is a business driven person that can add value to the business part. A product is just a product if there are not enough resources to market or promote it. A startup is just an unknown business, if you are not at least in two trying to sell it to the world.

Most tech guys are shy and have difficulties being social, this is a fact. Of course, I also met some techies who were more sociable than I am, but guess which one is the exception?

This is the ugly reality I found out by having my startup. And I learnt the truth only by doing. Everybody out there pretend to be a damn expert in something, be your own expert, make mistakes, learn and try again.

Just to clarify, I am still friend with my co-founder. However, we weren’t made to make a startup together. We had good time and we had great experience, but we were not soulmate.

When I say run, you run!

How fast did it all start? Pretty fast. What conditions have led me into making my own startup? A lame job, because of a lame company. Plus, a sense of unhappiness combined to the feeling of doing something new.

The startup idea came in my mind a night at a party. I talked with my girlfriend about it, who believed I was crazy, but nonetheless she supported me. Probably she never thought I would have actually quit my job.

Then it all happened.

After a couple of weeks I had convinced a friend to be my co-founder. He was also looking for something new. I needed a tech guy to code my idea and support me in the journey. Plus, all articles about funding a startup say that you need a tech guy on board, so I did it.

I moved quickly and one day I quit my job.  That’s another thing you constantly read in articles about startups. “Focus 100% on it. If you keep your day job you won’t make it”. Like a good student I did that one too.

I texted my co-founder-to-be and told him the news and he was probably more scared than I was about it. I told my girlfriend about it, and she probably saw all the opportunities of getting married in 2014 gone, for a long time.

But I was excited and I started to run.

How long did it take to turn the idea into a business? Not long. The next thing that a good entrepreneur is supposed to do is to get the money before he has a business! That’s what I did. I started to look for money.

Who did I know? Nobody, I was a “first time entrepreneur” after all. So, I started looking at accelerators and incubators. A way to form myself as an entrepreneur, get the money, and get the network. That sounded awesome!

After 2 months of working on something undefined elbow against elbow, I got our startup into an accelerator. Not a famous one (that’s another story for later), but still we were happy. We had the money and we succeeded where others had failed. Get the first investor. Get some real people (outside of my mum) to believe in us.

In less than a month from that date, we left our home for another city to join the accelerator. We did what we thought was good for our business and ourselves. I was satisfied and scared.

I thought I made it and now was time to play. I looked back with my co-founder and realised that in less than 3 months with nothing in our hands we have got pretty far. We were full into it!