The Tuesday Roundup
For this week’s Tuesday Roundup, I’m going to add some context to last week’s post on early startup mistakes to avoid, including some resources that may help you on your journey.
The first mistake was mishandling the cofounder deal structure. There are many different ways to split company ownership, and the best one for you depends on a number of factors. This video by Y Combinator gives great insight into the thought process behind equity splits. Y Combinator recommends that you always split 50-50, but this resource from Harvard Business School details three different ways to approach the equity split and the pros and cons of each.
Next, I discouraged building without knowing your first customer. This thread by Andy Johns clearly communicates why your first customer should be narrowly targeted. It also includes some helpful examples of first customers.
Another common mistake I wrote about is assuming growth will come from the next great feature you haven’t built yet. This essay by Brandon Chu gives a helpful framework for quickly shipping your MVP with a focus on maximizing customer value.
As with the time value of money, the time value of shipping is a simple idea: delivering customer value now is worth more than delivering value later.
If you choose to deliver value later, you need to account for inflation in user expectations, and your eventual product needs to be much better to compensate.
I also discussed the importance of having a grasp on the financial side of the business. This short video from Y Combinator gives a great explanation of three of the most important financial metrics for founders: burn rate, runway, and growth rate.
I hope these resources help you avoid common founder mistakes. That’s all for this week’s roundup. Let me know what you think on Twitter or here on Substack.