Dear SaaStr: What Are the 5 Things Every Founder Should Know In the Early Days?
My list:
- Slow it down if you don’t have a great co-founder. Another idea will come, but it’s almost impossible to thrive without an amazing co-founder. More here.
- You always need about 25% more than your raise. So always raise 25% more than you think you need, even in an angel round. But don’t spend that 25%. Maybe even put it in a different business bank account. A bit more here.
- You’ll lose a year to a truly terrible VP hire. They’ll hire an entire terrible team, your revenue will slow, and they’ll spend a ton of money doing it. You are better off with No VP than a bad one. More here.
- Competition doesn’t kill you. Not having a 10x feature kills you. Giving up kills you. But even the best competitors don’t try to win in every segment of the market. And even the best competitor doesn’t have 100% market share. More here.
- You can and will grow your TAM (market size) later. It’s OK to start in a small segment of a large market. Better to win there first, usually. More here.
