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The agony of a first-time founder
by
Annabel
https://hackernoon.com/the-agony-of-a-first-time-founder
thanks for sharing. working on my pivot now and leaning into deep user research, which I didn't do enough of the first time. Now trying to strike the balance between research and building.
Really good read! Definitely resonate with a lot of these points especially the validation section.
It's funny how many founders think just having an idea will make a successful business - myself included. You soon realize that the idea is just the start of it and you have to know so much more. I always advise college grads to get experience (ideally at a startup) before trying to launch their own. You'll learn A LOT that way. After my first startup failed, that's exactly what I did, and I made way more mistakes than you, you didn't do so bad. Launching my second startup was way easier with the knowledge of having worked at a successful startup.
Great insights! You point out a lot of things that went wrong but in reality, it looks like you did pretty well. Most of the 'mistakes' are typical among first-time founders. Interested to know whether you're working on anything else right now.