Top 5 Learnings After Mentoring 100 Startups

Even if you create a startup that fails, you’ll:-Get a great education-Learn about growing a business first-hand-Be more respected by peers for taking a risk and pursuing a dream-Have built a network in the process-If you’re young, take asymmetric business risks

My biggest takeaway from this whole experience was that luck plays a big part in the startup journey (both good and bad). Also, shit can change fast in this startup game. Hot one day and barely holding on the next. About to sell the company, to about to be fired, to back to closing an acquisition. More than anything though I learned that if you rai... See more

As a seed-stage investor at First Round Capital, I get to meet a lot of founders who are exploring and validating their ideas. It’s an exciting time for them and, as a former founder myself, I relate to the thrill and anxiety of just getting started. You believe you’re onto something and feel ready to bring your idea to life, but there’s also a lot... See more

The most counterintuitive secret about startups is that it’s often easier to succeed with a hard startup than an easy one. A hard startup requires a lot more money, time, coordination, or technological development than most startups. A good hard startup is one that will be valuable if it works (not all hard problems are worth solving!).

In hindsight, my professional and personal experiences have taught me valuable lessons through forced humility, and my advice to all budding entrepreneurs and founders out there is: to always trust your instinct, be fearless when choosing courage over comfort, and remember that failing is A-OK!

startups represent the wizardry of building something out of nothing. That is hard to do. And to do it very well is harder than the average job.

Building startups outside of an established tech ecosystem is hard: there’s so much inertia and friction you have to fight that without existing momentum to draw from. You face a prohibitively steep climb out the gate.