57 Startup Lessons

Today I came across this excellent blog post by Slava Akhmechet, founder of RethinkDB, that lists 57 startup lessons he’s learned over the years.  If you’re an entrepreneur, or if you’re considering starting your own business, you should read his post.  Here’s a few lessons learned, just to whet your appetite:

#8 — The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.  Pick a small set of non-negotiable rules that matter to you most and enforce them ruthlessly.

#12 — If you haven’t earned people’s respect yet, fundraising on traction is an order of magnitude easier than fundraising on a story.  If you have to raise on a story but don’t have the reputation, something’s wrong.

#19 — Starting with the right idea matters.  Empirically, you can only pivot so far.

#35 — Don’t guess.  Measure.

#56 — Do everything you can not to attach your self-esteem to your startup (you’ll fail, but try anyway).  Do the best you can every day, then step back.  Work in such a way that when the dust settles you can be proud of the choices you’ve made, regardless of the outcome.

You can find the full blog post, with all 57 lessons learned, here.