Life Lessons

Date: May 29, 2024

It's been about 10 months since I put my startup to rest. I've had time to reflect on the lessons I learned from the experience. Letting go of something I had invested so much time and effort into was very hard. I had to come to terms with the fact that I had failed, but was it really a failure? Failure is a part of the journey to success. We've all heard that before, but I didn't truly realize it until now. I am grateful for the experience and the lessons it taught me. As I reflected, I identified several things I wish I had done differently or known how to approach. I hope that by sharing my experience, I can help others who are going through the same thing.

From the start of my journey, I was so focused on bringing an idea that I thought was cool and hip, thinking all I needed was someone to write me a check to have a startup. My goals of building a venture were misaligned with the goals of building a successful startup. You see, fundraising does not guarantee success; it's a great milestone, but when you get that funding and have no idea what you actually need the capital for, you are stuck. I spent capital on unnecessary things that I thought would help us as a company.

The second thing I did was being lazy, and not in the terms of stopping work on the company. My background started as a software developer; I knew how to code and could have built the product myself. However, I wanted to have the perfect startup with two cofounders—one technical and the other not so technical, good at product and sales. This was a grave mistake. I spent time hiring not-so-qualified people, spending time we didn't have, trying to get them to build my dream. I hired so many people for things that I should have been taking care of myself at that stage. I wanted a full agile environment instead of just shipping and listening to our small user base, but I did the exact opposite.

The third thing was not cutting out noise, which is important for a founder. You have to not listen to what is going on around you. That doesn't mean you just cut out everything and not watch what your competitors are doing, but cut out noise that doesn't make you productive or make your product/business better. I was paying attention to what everyone was doing and wanted to do the same thing. I remember in 2020, I was cofounder & CTO for a fintech where the CEO was so focused on what the competitors were launching and wanted to do the same, not focused on our customers at all. Somehow, I ended up doing the same things.

The fourth thing: SOLVE A PROBLEM. One thing I learned early on in my entrepreneurship journey is that if you truly solve a problem that someone needs, you won't sweat over acquiring customers. The first app I built and sold was a sports app where for $5.99, you were able to watch any NFL games you wanted. I made over $50k with that within 3 months during my freshman year of college. Somehow, I did not follow this later because my goal was if I raised VC money, I would be successful. I was so focused on the wrong things that I forgot the most important thing.

The last thing I learned was to be patient; things don't happen overnight, and you have to take things one day at a time. Be focused and be patient. In the last 11 months, I have been working on a new project and have been following these lessons, and I can say that I am in a better place than I was before. I am excited to see where this new journey takes me. I will be a father soon and am grateful for what I have learned.

I am going to be writting more here as i go throught this journey of being a father and a startup founder. I am grateful for the experience and the lessons it taught me. As I reflected, I identified several things I wish I had done differently or known how to approach. I hope that by sharing my experience, I can help others who are going through the same thing.

Thank you for reading.