Startup lessons: Start small, be patient, & do things that don’t scale

It has been four months since my business partner and I launched our web-based platform here in Singapore. As a first-time co-founder, I am keen to share some of our learnings when it comes to getting a startup off the ground; particularly for those of you out there who might consider doing the same.

We are, of course, very much at the humble early stages of proving our concept and the odds are stacked against us being successful. However, it is my hope that by sharing some of the key lessons we learned along the way we might help to inspire others and be inspired ourselves.

Start Small

As you tread ever closer to launching your business, it is very natural to build a significant amount of confidence when you clear those obstacles which at the outset seemed like almost insurmountable challenges. Such confidence often leads you to dream big and, more dangerously, follow up such thoughts with related actions. These actions have every chance of diluting both your product and your early audience’s association with it.

Don’t try to be everything to everyone at the outset because that simply doesn’t work. It is far better to mean something on a deeper level to just a small group of people, regardless of your ultimate ambitions. While many of your friends and family might not fully associate with your product at the beginning, don’t let that put you off. By starting small and staying focused on the original problem you are looking to solve, you are much more likely to achieve your longer term ambitions.

Be Patient

In a world that is increasingly looking for, and extolling, the virtues of the most recent billion dollar tech startup, it is easy to become a little despondent a couple of weeks after the euphoria of launching your business. There are very few short cuts that I’m aware of which quickly build a sizable audience and genuine following for your product. Growth hacks might work conceptually but often end up leading to a leaky bucket of users, particularly when not backed up by a depth of offering simply unobtainable at the beginnings of a startup.

Thankfully, there are almost unlimited ways to reach and engage with your intended audience. It does, however, take the consistent implementation of a well planned strategy, coupled with some creative thinking, for an audience to start discovering you. Don’t for one instance think this outcome can be achieved at scale overnight because for the vast majority of those billion dollar companies, the very same challenges held true.

Do things that don’t scale

Now, this will no doubt seem as counter intuitive to you as it initially did to me when I first considered it in the context of growing a startup business. However, I think it is one of the most valuable lessons a startup founder can learn when it comes to acquiring users of your product, and I believe it can be equally powerful when applied to building out the product itself.

It was an article I read by Paul Graham, of Y Combinator fame, on the early days of AirBnB which summed up this concept best for me. AirBnB was really struggling to gain momentum following the launch of their platform before they were advised to do two things. The first piece of advice was to get out of the office and spend time with their early adopters who were predominantly located in New York; not a small undertaking for the founders of AirBnB who were based in San Francisco. And the second piece of advice they were given was to hire a professional photographer to improve the photographic content of the early adopters’ apartments on AirBnB. This approach further helped AirBnB as they looked to acquire new users by providing those users with a free and valuable service, while also helping to improve the overall quality of content on the AirBnB platform itself.

Our Approach

We would be the first to admit that a number of these key lessons were brushed over when we launched our platform. It is the quick learning from such mistakes which I believe will ultimately provide any startup business with the greatest chance of success.

Image Credit: Startup Live Vienna