Thread by @jspujji

Starting a business can be painful.

You feel lost 97% of the time - the ups and downs are gut-wrenching.

I wish I had a cheat sheet of principles for my first startup.

So I wrote one.

Here are 40+ learnings about entrepreneurship I wish I knew sooner:

1/ Tenacity is the most important trait for building a company.

It is not intelligence, creativity or salesmanship, but sheer determination.

Wake up every day and push the ball forward.

2/ Making decisions is hard; but a 'bad decision' outweighs no decision every time.

As you learn, you will even start to make good decisions.

3/ Never be the bottleneck for someone to get work done.

4/ Your customer is king. Focus on them as early as possible and as often as possible.

Teach your entire company to do the same.

5/ Remember and remind yourself that you chose this path.

Don't feel bad for yourself and don't EVER expect people to feel bad for you.

6/ Co-founders you trust and like are FAR better than co-founders with complementary skill sets.

7/ Go slow with Advisors; make someone demonstrate persistent interest in you and your company before issuing shares or compensation.

8/ Product is hard. It requires depth, iteration, and lots of saying ‘no’.

Let me repeat: product is hard. Build this DNA as early as possible.

9/ Engineering and shipping software is a discipline like practicing medicine. This means you need real expertise and you can't outsmart, brute force or "hustle" your way through it.

10/ When your company is growing quickly, expect everything to break down every 6-9 months. This isn’t really avoidable, but move quickly to fix it.

11/ Don't be in a huge rush to grow and scale - take your time to understand customers, the market, and your own product. This is vital later.

12/ Competition is usually a sign you picked a good market; don't obsess over competitors.

At most, they are a source of data about your customers' needs. Obsess over your customer.

13/ Any analysis ahead of action is purely speculation.

You really do not understand something until you've done it.

Analysis post-action can be driven by real data.

14/ If you are constantly using your authority to get your team to do things as you see them, something is wrong.

Instead try to use data, logic and persuasion.

15/ Related to the above, if you are ALWAYS right, something is wrong or people are lying to you. Accept when the data is not in your favor and admit when you were mistaken.

16/ Constantly ask the question, "What does great look like?" for people, product, processes, and everything else.

Your biggest threat (especially as a first time entrepreneur) is not knowing this, and not being able to identify it.

17/ Invest in training and development early. For yourself and your whole team. Hard skills and soft skills. This is incredibly high leverage and high ROI.

18/ Retained executive search can be incredibly valuable as they have the ability to bring candidates who you never could bring on your own; contingency recruiters are generally a waste of money.

19/ Your (at least) first 20 hires join because of you and your vision. Realize what that means as you run the company.

20/ People are people. They are all different from each other; they all have good days and bad days, and everyone enjoys being recognized and praised.

People need to be motivated, guided and empowered.

21/ Compensation is NOT the top motivator of most people. Working on something interesting, and seeing their impact on the bigger picture usually is.

22/ As a founder/owner/manager, you are not the same as your team.

Even if you sit next to them, joke around and hang out.

Your ability to impact someone's career (and therefore their life) makes you different.

The sooner you realize this, the better you will be at your job.

23/ If your goal is to be liked by everyone, you will likely fail at that goal and not be a good founder/leader.

Your job is the success of the company first, and ideally to be respected and understood by your team.

24/ When it comes to business results, be ruthless. But when it comes to individuals, be very compassionate.

25/ Almost without fail, if at any point you think in your head, "this person is not good, we should let them go," then you are probably right.

Try to do it as soon as possible but compassionately.

26/ Have company lore. Humans have been passing on stories verbally for ages. This adds to the fun of company building, and binds people together more closely.

27/ Emotional ups and downs don't really go away even as you grow and see some success.

The great things aren't as great as they seem and the bad things are usually not as bad. Keep calm and move forward.

28/ Intuition and your "gut" are more data (or experience) driven than most people admit.

You are unlikely to have intuition on day 1, but after thousands of hours you will "feel" the answer faster.

29/ Feedback is a gift. Don't just give it frequently but seek it all the time, in multiple different ways. Create a culture where feedback is viewed as a gift and given frequently.

30/ Have everyone "assume positive intent." Assume people want to do a good job, want the company to succeed, and want to grow in their career.

Even if these aren't all true, it makes one more open minded and less petty.

If your team does this, 99% of conflicts go away.

31/ You will make lots of mistakes. Lots. Forgive yourself and keep on chugging. Try not to make the same mistake twice and you should be fine.

32/ Leading and managing people well is NOT an innate talent. Get a coach and a mentor and learn as much as you can.

You will improve continually over time.

33/ A great lawyer is worth it.

A great lawyer (and any great advisor for that matter) has an opinion and can explain it well enough to convince you. Bad lawyers/advisors either ask you to take their word for it or worse, do whatever you ask and then send you the bill.

34/ Find a great accounting person as soon as possible.

Review all cash out and all cash in, regularly. Understand basic accounting (3 statements), and cash flow management. Know what working capital is.

35/ Accountability is your job, and it must be done consistently and constantly.

No part of the company (as a founder/CEO) can be 'handed over' to someone else. Your lack of understanding is not an excuse to be inconsistent, and not constantly keeping the bar high.

36/ Be authentic and genuine. Share bad news as much as you share good news.

Your team, your customers, and your investors will always appreciate the truth. Always.

37/ A great executive has an immeasurable positive impact on your company; unfortunately, a bad exec has a similarly negative impact.

Even worse: knowing which is which in an interview process is extremely hard.

38/ Bring on an "HR" person earlier than you think you should.

Let's face it - most folks want to complain/vent to someone. Without an HR person, you are that person.

As a founder, you take this complaining too personally and too seriously.

39/ You may think that your company's problems are unique to you and that you are the only company with these problems. In reality, most things you face are much more common than you realize.

Talk with other entrepreneurs/CEOs regularly.

40/ There is no such thing as a momentary lapse of integrity.

If someone is dishonest, it is likely not the first time and definitely not the last time.

When you first see it, take decisive action.

41/ Revenue cures all known business problems.

Prioritize it at the right time yourself, and have the right people prioritize it continually.

42/ If you enjoyed this thread, follow me @jspujji

I tweet Bootstrapped Giants stories and entrepreneurial lessons every week.

RT the whole thread to share this advice with the world!!

43/ You improve what you measure.

44/ Individual success is a function of company success.

If someone puts themselves ahead of the company, they do not belong.