20 years of being a startup founder, 10 lessons learned:
John Rush@johnrush
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Aug 10, 2024
~2 min read
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20 years of being a startup founder,
10 lessons learned:
10 lessons learned:
2
1/3. Tried it all
> viral mobile app
> b2c
> b2b
> enterprise product
> e-commerce
> marketplace
> hardware
Lesson learned:
> never do mobile apps and b2c unless you have an audience beforehand.
> viral mobile app
> b2c
> b2b
> enterprise product
> e-commerce
> marketplace
> hardware
Lesson learned:
> never do mobile apps and b2c unless you have an audience beforehand.
3
2/3. All modes
> Bootstrapped
> Angel funded
> Self funded
> Government funded
> VC funded
Lesson learned:
If you wanna build value - bootstrap.
If you wanna feel cool (and fail) - VC-backed.
If you wanna feel important - Government funded.
If you wanna be f*cked - Angels
> Bootstrapped
> Angel funded
> Self funded
> Government funded
> VC funded
Lesson learned:
If you wanna build value - bootstrap.
If you wanna feel cool (and fail) - VC-backed.
If you wanna feel important - Government funded.
If you wanna be f*cked - Angels
4
3/3. Many countries.
> Norway
> Russia
> Turkiye
> US
> UK
Lessons learned:
> When young, be in US/UK. Both locations are obsessed with work. I remember being invited to a meeting at 8pm in London office. I thought it will be informal meet with one guy. But when I arrived the office was full of people still working.
> US is full of people emulating "founder/startup life" rather than actually doing it. Be careful to not end up in this circle. Find the real founders. Those are beasts. Enter YC, Alchemist or 500 startups to grow your network really fast.
Austin is too chilled. It's okay for successful founders, but not for youngsters.
> Norway had a brilliant era in 2010-2014 when there was not much money given to startups.
Then more easy money came into play and ruined everything. Easy money isn't always good.
> Russia and other similar countries have people who never wanna pay for SaaS and apps. When we had over a million in revenue with a cinema startup, I had a Russian friend who had the same startup in Russia, serving lots of clients and making 3k a year. So we had same number of clients and I had 1M in revenue, he had 3k.
Always start international(English) and go local after. What works for English audiences is usually gonna work for most local audiences, too. But it won't work other way around.
> Turkiye was great place to start my conversion from VC backed into Bootstrapped/Self-Funded. I moved from Oslo to Istanbul several years ago when prices were so low that I could rent a villa here for the money I got by renting out one of my tiny apartments in Oslo.
If you wanna bootstrap: MOVE to a place with low cost of living. Turkiye isn't such place anymore. Look toward asia I guess.
> Norway
> Russia
> Turkiye
> US
> UK
Lessons learned:
> When young, be in US/UK. Both locations are obsessed with work. I remember being invited to a meeting at 8pm in London office. I thought it will be informal meet with one guy. But when I arrived the office was full of people still working.
> US is full of people emulating "founder/startup life" rather than actually doing it. Be careful to not end up in this circle. Find the real founders. Those are beasts. Enter YC, Alchemist or 500 startups to grow your network really fast.
Austin is too chilled. It's okay for successful founders, but not for youngsters.
> Norway had a brilliant era in 2010-2014 when there was not much money given to startups.
Then more easy money came into play and ruined everything. Easy money isn't always good.
> Russia and other similar countries have people who never wanna pay for SaaS and apps. When we had over a million in revenue with a cinema startup, I had a Russian friend who had the same startup in Russia, serving lots of clients and making 3k a year. So we had same number of clients and I had 1M in revenue, he had 3k.
Always start international(English) and go local after. What works for English audiences is usually gonna work for most local audiences, too. But it won't work other way around.
> Turkiye was great place to start my conversion from VC backed into Bootstrapped/Self-Funded. I moved from Oslo to Istanbul several years ago when prices were so low that I could rent a villa here for the money I got by renting out one of my tiny apartments in Oslo.
If you wanna bootstrap: MOVE to a place with low cost of living. Turkiye isn't such place anymore. Look toward asia I guess.
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4/3. I failed most of my startups, but here are 24 I'm running now:
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x.com/johnrushx/stat…