WHAT EARLY-STAGE FOUNDERS THINK THEY NEED:
- $5M seed from Sequoia for the value-add;
- TechCrunch article about “the vision”;
- A couple of 10x engineers;
- Growth Hackers & Salespeople to sell the product for them;
- Amazing logo & MacBook stickers for “strong brand”;
- #1 ProductHunt launch;
- Strong profile & presence on social media to sell to everybody automatically;
- SEO because “it’s free and it scales”;
- To work like a lion;
- To make it in 3-4 years.
WHAT EARLY STAGE FOUNDERS REALLY NEED:
- To bootstrap, or go through YC; or a $1M seed from any VC who does not get in the way;
- To ask for brutal customer feedback daily; tolerate it and act on it;
- A lean, ambitious & motivated team (or just the founders really);
- Strong willpower to push through getting slapped by the market for years before finding strong product-market fit;
- A repeatable, scalable growth channel that returns $2 or more for every $1 they put in;
- To put in consistent effort every single day;
- A 10-15 year timeframe expectation for success/exit.
