5 Important Startup Lessons That I've Learned as an Entrepreneur

By David Mercer

Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend the final round of pitches at our local Google startup incubator. Truly, a fantastic experience to watch a group of energized and creative entrepreneurs fighting for the chance to enjoy the considerable resources available for the winner.

But, something was missing from all of their pitches. Either a business had a great product/service and had been hard at working improving it, debugging it, and generally fussing over each little detail, or, they had an idea of what they wanted to achieve with a plan to get it to market...but no product.

I have been starting new businesses for years now--some have succeeded and others have failed. But, after attending this event, I realized that many first-time entrepreneurs were learning the same hard lessons that I had also experienced.

I jotted down a few of these lessons and came up with a list of five important things that I have learned from working on my own startups. Knowing these things would have definitely saved me a lot of time and effort back when I was starting out.

1. Great ideas are rarely a flash of genius.

Coming up with fantastic ideas for startups is more like building a jigsaw puzzle--you need to have all the pieces in place in order to complete the entire picture. Spend time learning new and varied things, meet different people, look at what resources are available to help you get started.

If you can't come up with a new idea after doing this, it doesn't mean you can't do it, it means you "don't have enough puzzle pieces on the table." Iterate the process, and eventually you'll come up with something new and innovative.

I really like this iterative approach that builds up new concepts, experiences, connections, and learning in order to continually improve your ability to make unusual and unique connections that may end up being developed into fantastic, profitable businesses.

A great way to start is to browse over a creative list of business ideas for inspiration. The ideas themselves may not be what you’re after, but they may spark a different idea that works for you.

2. Failure is part of the entrepreneurial process.

In fact, being a successful entrepreneur is about failing multiple times but learning from those failures in order to apply the lessons to the next idea.

Over time you become experienced and wiley enough to make something succeed. But, if you never fail it means you never push your boundaries, and that is a strong indicator that you may not have what it takes to succeed.

Another way to look at it is this: if you never fail it means you never really challenged yourself. It’s unlikely that any true entrepreneur would be satisfied without the feeling of achieving something they didn’t think they could.

3. Find an early path to revenue.

Do whatever it takes to get at least a few paying customers as quickly as possible. With paying clients on board, you can follow their lead to learn about what features and functionality are most important to them.

This also helps to validate your business idea and your business model because if you can’t find 10 people willing to pay for your product/service, then it may prove difficult to get 10,000.

I’m not a salesperson by nature--I hate having to try and sell stuff. My attitude is generally something along the lines of "look at my awesome ideas and accept their value as self-evident."

Unfortunately, this is not how life works, because no one really cares what you are doing until they do. And, the only way you get them to care about what you are doing is to pitch them, convince them, cajole them, and sell the concept and idea to them.

And if you can’t sell, then bring on a partner who can. After all, it’s better to have a share of a pie than 100 percent of nothing.

4. The development phase is not 'the business.'

Most entrepreneurs spend far too long developing their product or service instead of getting it onto the market. Ultimately, the startup that gets to market earlier and builds relationships with customers (and industry influencers) will grow faster and grab more market share, squeezing out those still in development before they even launch.

This is where most tech-oriented entrepreneurs fall down. They waste months and years on development doing everything possible to avoid actually getting out there in front of critical, harsh, but paying customers.

5. Build relationships quickly.

Meet with new people in the industry as quickly as possible. It’s very difficult to succeed when you have no one in your corner. Meet journalists, other entrepreneurs, influential business people, celebrities, anyone who can increase your reach, introduce you to playmakers, generate buzz, and so on.

So those are my five most important lessons that I learned. I basically did everything wrong and wasted a lot of time and effort, but provided you are prepared to keep learning you'll always find a way around or over the obstacles in front of you.