Week #13, my mistakes so far
About starting a not-yet-business
This week, I started a bit tired and low, but this is when I got to work harder. A quick update: I haven’t finished any of the GPTs. I am close, which is the hardest, and I think I can get one done soon.
In other news. I have been learning, re-learning, and reflecting on what I am doing business-wise. I read Paul Graham’s essay Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas? (bronze), other articles and watched a few startup videos. I really recommend PG’s essay! I felt he was talking to me, lol. I love his essays!
He pushes founders to think: Of all the things we could do, is this the one with the best chance of making money?
This quote got me thinking as well:
The purpose of a company, and a startup especially, is to make money. You can't have divided loyalties. - Paul Graham.
You could say it is pretty obvious, and hell yes! It is! But, it hits differently if you really think about it. To be honest, I think I had divided loyalties, and I had been denying it.
It is hard enough to make money with a company that it is better to devote all your energy to do that rather than trying to work on cool or fun stuff. Novice founders overoptimize for this, and that is usually a mistake. Non-profits are great for later when you are already a millionaire or a billionaire!
So, what am I doing about it?
A few things. I am thinking hard about all of the things I have been doing wrong. Here is a list of a few:
CodePortal is a solution in search of a problem. I am fixing that now. I loved the space and the solution so much that I was trying to fit it into any problem I saw! Classic mistake! 😅
I haven’t made a single dollar, and I am 8 months in already and burning 🔥💸
I have been overthinking and overengineering the solution to the inexisting problems I am solving. This one hurts because I was very critical about this when I worked at companies and when I co-founded startups before (as the tech/product guy), but now that I am alone and directing the ship, it is damn hard to do. However, I am learning!
I am thinking about how to fix all of these. I still love the space and the set of problems in the area in which CodePortal is. But, from now on, I will ONLY tackle real problems and take validation and experimentation seriously.
Part of the remedy is to launch quickly and often and move on, so I will do that no matter what.
This feels like the right thing to do. So, I will stop putting it off and start doing it now! Oh, also, I started learning about Facebook ads with makerads.guide, it is looking good so far!
See you next week!