StepLadder

It's been a long road, but we finally released the beta of StepLadder. Getting to this point has been a series of highs, lows, detours, and setbacks.

Four months in, I brought on a co-founder. Ten months in, we split and I rebuilt our entire platform. Some mornings, I've been tempted to throw in the towel.

Here are the two things that have kept me going:

1. Absolute obsession with the problem
2. The degree of pain being experienced by our audiences

The problem we're solving has been eating at me for the last decade—and every time I talk to hiring managers and recent college grads, it reinforces just how real and painful the problem is and how excited they are for a solution like StepLadder.

Some quick thoughts on where things went off the rails and things to do differently next time around.

Stay focused on shipping. Don't get distracted by accelerators and opportunities you're not ready for. Validate, build, get feedback, iterate, launch, get traction... then look for opportunities that will increase your traction. Not before.

Trust your gut. Don't bow to peer pressure. Feedback from VCs and managing directors sowed the seeds of doubt that led me to hastily bring on a co-founder. The decision wasn't a "HELL YES!" decision, which ended up meaning it wasn't the right decision. Stay true to yourself and trust your gut.

Figure out your truly minimal MVP. Hindsight is cruel. This week, I realized that my go-to-market approach doesn't even need a platform. It will help, and now that we have it we will be able to iterate and scale faster... but we could have been generating revenue sooner with something much simpler.

-Rion