A Starter Guide for Starting Your Startup
[with Insights from Other Startups]

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”

– Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder

It is always the best time to be an entrepreneur. So, yes, 2019 has definitely been the year of the startups. Just like 2018 was and just like 2020 will be. Since it is an evergreen topic, there is an evergreen industry that exists just to serve startups and consuming all of their ideas, tips, and suggestions can seem a bit overwhelming.
Thus, Hacker Noon has condensed all of that knowledge into three simple nuggets:

✳️ Launch Yesterday, Repair Today, <if you are a tech startup>

Don't do that if you're building ships, airplanes, or the Hyperloop. But, if you're a tech startup, launching yesterday is something that all VCs swear by.
No product is perfect at launch. Why else do you think every piece of software out there has a version number embossed right next to the name?
Reid Hoffman, the Founder of LinkedIn sums it up best - "If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.”

✳️ Get Street Kicks before Getting Kickstarter

This one's tricky and is applicable to bootstrapped and crowdfunded startups.Give people something to believe in if you want them to invest.
For example, the sponsors of this newsletter started out with a newsletter called Morning Cup of Code that reached 6,000 readers in no time.
They're now building their magazine - Human Readable Mag. Check out their Volume #0 which is available here for a FREE download.
It was after this that they set up their kickstarter campaign, not the other way round.
Do check them out as a token of thanks for sponsoring this newsletter for .

✳️ Build for Your Customers NOT the Investors

If you've never said no to an investor, maybe you've only met investors with hearts of Gold OR, you are bending over backwards already. Since the former can be as mythical as unicorns, it is the latter that we must focus on.
Investors, especially VCs, might have their own ideas that they feel is the right direction.
But, it is you who must diligently survey your existing and targeted customer base for their habits and requirements to arrive at decisions that serve them best.
Always remember, the investors are buying into your vision, but the customers are the ones who'll be buying your products.
If you want to read more about Founders' learnings, experiences, and challenges while running a startup or fundraising, we've curated our best stories on entrepreneurship and startups from Hacker Noon - Your Greenest tech publication. Ever.
If you have a few (or many) experiences to share, you can become a contributor on Hacker Noon too. Simply create an account, and join 8000+ contributors sharing their knowledge and expertise with the rest of us. Maybe you'll even get featured on our next newsletter too.
Without further ado, let's get started about startups.

How Allison and Gregory Robinson Raised $11 Million For "The Mom Project"

You can’t underestimate the “first-time founder wait,” especially for early investors who are really betting on a founder. There is an unquestionable difference between successfully running a business and the ability to grit through and grow one from nothing. It’s hard for investors to evaluate that.
A family business is an uncertainty for an early investor as well. They have a formula: how many risk factors can I control? They know startups are a grind. It’s going to be really hard before it’s good. Adding a family dynamic on top of that? People get squeamish about it.
There are so many examples of how family makes a startup stronger, though. A strong partnership and mutual trust is an advantage. I consider us to be in that latter camp. But couples starting a business together have to be pragmatic about these factors.
Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Nathan Beckord

50+ Useful Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs to Ensure a Successful Product

Being an entrepreneur is an altogether different ballgame.

You need to be prepared for it with the right tools and resources because running a business means you need to be perfect on every front, right from getting an investor to handling payments, to managing your team and looking after customer requirements.

This is the same, no matter what kind of business you run; it could be a website selling flowers, or it could be a business specializing in e commerce apps. There is no compromise in the fact you need to have certain important features in your business offerings to get them up and running.

And, there are some very good tools and resources to work this out. But how do you know which are the best tools for business, especially when there is a vast pool out there?

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Cabot Technology Solution

How I Went from a Failed Facebook Interview to Founding A Profitable Business in Under 12 Months

But, I ended up being really frustrated. Was I that bad as a software engineer? Did I lose my computer science skills? I started doubting myself and my technical abilities. So badly, that I decided to do something about it to regain them. I didn’t want to become one of those high-level executive directors that are too far away from operational teams.
A few years ago, I read an article explaining that Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon coded at least one day each month even being a busy man in a huge organization such as Amazon.
This article always resonated with me. How a CTO can be efficient and productive for its organization if he loses the link with technical topics and does not understand the suffering of his technical teams?
What a better way to stay updated on computer science evolution and to understand issues met by engineering teams than by keeping coding regularly throughout your career?

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Thomas Thelliez

What David Ogilvy teaches about Marketing in the digital world

Testing is the most important word in the dictionary of Marketing. Sure, testing might turn into a failure, ‘but if…’*Fill in the blanks*
In today’s world, A/B test is something most platform provides. ‘Scale what works, drop what doesn’t.’ should be the motto of every marketer.
Even seeking feedback from other people can help. A Freelance Digital Marketer friend of mine works at a coworking place. He always asks diverse people (a fintech guy, an e-commerce gal, and others) to proofread his emails. Due to this, his emails always get more than 30% CTR.
Long story short, never stop testing. If you don’t have the budget, test on friends and colleagues.
Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Juhil Mendpara

5 Great Email Marketing Hacks for Startups

Your potential clients spend a lot of time online along with their smartphones. The best way to get in touch with them and to maintain it is an email that is easily readable and clear. You can inform your current and potential clients about your promotions, offers, and business in general. Also, we can highlight other crucial points:
- you keep contacting with your customers in real-time;
- you can personalize your messages;
- you can observe and analyze results of your campaigns;
- you can target your emails to set relationships with every client.
Moreover, this tool is pretty affordable, which is a significant point when you have a strict budget. Ads and promotions on social media, in fact, are more expensive than emails, while the second option can bring more conversions.
Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Roman Onischuk

Once Upon a Time In the East — A Product Manager's Story

Stop multitasking. Getting a number of things off your to-do list is good but it does not mean you have to do it all at the same time. Concentrating on one task gives you more time to think (and act) as compared to doing it with several other activities on the side. Multitasking requires you to split your attention complicating your thought process.
Be relentlessly aggressive to onboard your first user. There are no perfect products! Give it to user testing, they will find a new bug every time. Something will need to be changed or rethought. And that’s normal. There is nothing to worry about. Just release it, collect feedback, then improve it. Early in a product’s lifecycle, that has to be one of your milestones.

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Kumar Shubham

Why I’m Launching a New Programming Magazine in 2020 [Part II]

F**k it. I’m posting.
12:05 AM. Nothing yet. Maybe it’s time for bed.
12:07 AM. Still nothing. I mean, what did I expect?
12:12 AM. Not even a single up vote?
12:12:30 AM. A single upvote. And a new subscriber. Finally some movement!
12:15 AM. Nothing. That’s it. I should be happy I got any.
12:30 AM. Nothing. But I’m not happy.
01:00 AM. 30 upvotes. 60 new subscribers. Google Analytics is trending upwards. Oh, so you thought you would be sleeping tonight? Silly brain.
02:00 AM. 90 upvotes. 600 new subscribers. I need coffee.
04:00 AM. 120 upvotes. 1,800 new subscribers. Google Analytics says I have 10,000% increase in traffic. You don’t have to be smug about it.
05:49 AM. The sun is rising. It’s the best weather in years. At least that’s what my brain is telling me. But my brain isn’t working right now. 140 upvotes. 3,000 new subscribers. Front page on Hacker News. I need another coffee. But my legs aren’t working either.
I crash.

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Panagiotis "pek" Peikidis

Lessons Learned From A Literal Billionaire

Let’s keep this as simple as we can, and look at their $1 cheeseburger. We’ll estimate that they’re spending $0.83 on advertising per cheeseburger sold. I’m not wholly sure that’s the case, but it works for this example. So that’s 83 cents to get the customer to spend $1.
A whopping 17 cents in profit.
Not a whole lot, is it? Definitely not the kind of profit that you need in order to be as successful as McDonald’s. So how do they do it?
“You want fries with that?”
They don’t stop at just selling you a cheeseburger. They sell you fries and a drink. They sell you ice cream (If the machine is working, that is).
All of these extra things? Those sales are pure profit. The advertising money has already been made up by the sale of the burger.
They aren’t spending more on advertising once you’re already in the door.

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Patrick Lee Scott

Babies at Work: It’s Weird that it’s Weird

As it turns out, having babies at work is fun!

I’m biased, because one of them is mine, but people are always popping their heads in to give the baby a big smile and try to get one in return. Also, when the baby’s there, people know them, and what would otherwise be a potentially over-wrought personal life topic becomes more interesting and relevant to your coworkers (whether or not they have their own kids).
They’re all just a tiny bit invested in this thing that’s the new center of your universe, and it helps everyone get along better, and empathize with the new parents more effectively and sincerely.

Most of us are pretty much pre-wired to find babies charming and happy-making. After all, if we didn’t, we might stop making them, and bye bye human race. They trigger endorphins, remind us about innocence and pure intentions, and just make us all laugh—because babies are funny!

Having babies around has made the office just plain feel better, and having more in common with each other makes us feel more connected.

Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Leah Silber

The Problemeter: A sheet that helps startups solve the right problem

“Fall in love with the problem not the solution, and the rest will follow.” That’s the advice from Uri Levine just before he sold his startup Waze to Google for $1.1 billion.
Is your startup building a solution looking for problem? How do you know that you’re solving the right problem?
An excellent primer on building a better mental model around solving for the problem and not leading with the solution is the thought-provoking talk by Y Combinator Partner, Kevin Hale during a very well conceived 26 min presentation.
Kevin’s advice is that the difference between a startup and a typical business is that a startup is built for rapid growth. Your main objective early on is to figure out what problem you are solving and if its worth solving.
Read full article or {TWEET THIS} by Marc Howard