What I learnt in my first year as a noob founder

Over the past few years, I’ve worked for several startups and a VC firm, served in the Israeli army, sold people’s stuff for them on eBay, built websites for clients, organised all kinds of events and much more. Without a doubt, I’ve learnt more this past year than all those years combined.

Before starting Mapme, I had never been a “manager”, raised money or scaled a product. As we made progress early on, I became increasingly anxious. We hired our first employees. What would my relationship with them be like? We raised a convertible note. What comes next? We need to show consistent growth. How do we do that?

Fortunately, I surrounded myself with cofounders, advisors, employees and friends with 10 times more experience than I did. Without them, I’m sure we would have imploded a long time ago. They’ve helped me become more confident in both myself and my product.

Since starting the company, I’ve tried to jot down lessons, mistakes and thoughts from my experience. That’s the only way to improve. After making our dashboard, deck and investor update public, I decided to also share my personal reflections here on the journey so far. The items on this list may be very obvious for some. But as a first time founder, it’s taken me time to learn these things. I hope that this list can provide value to other “noob” founders like myself.

So here it goes.

Management

Founders should serve their team, and not the other way around. It’s their responsibility to make sure everyone is happy and motivated.

Being strict about work hours is a motivation killer. With Slack, Drive, etc, you can work anytime, anywhere.

Communication skills are key.

Micromanagement kills motivation. Do everything you can to prevent it.

Having a clear roadmap helps.

Do everything you can for your employees. Cut your salary, drive 200 miles, show you care. Even the smallest things make a difference. Show you care and they will reciprocate.

Listen. Your team may have incredible ideas to share, don’t let them go to waste. Many of the good things happening at Mapme today have come entirely from the team raising ideas.

Encourage learning, new technologies, informative meetups, reading. Your team’s knowledge should grow with the company.

The CEO’s role

Fundraising

Support

Hiring

Communication

Networking

Growth

Overall