57 rules startups

Already several very good lists of rules for startups have been written by talented and experienced people ( here and here ). I want to add one more to the collection. These rules, I worked out the last four years. If you are creating a company, I hope this will ease your way.

People

1. If six months after the start of the company with 2 to 4 people in the team, your startup does not make enough profit to pay your bills ( ramen profitability, well written by Paul Graham ), then something goes wrong. (Perhaps it was your choice - not to be a profitable company, but you have to make sure that this is the result of your decision, and not the impact of the market on you)
2. Divide stock evenly between the whole team.
3. Always schedule your vesting.
4. Make decisions together, but determine one CEO whose word will be decisive. Do it on the first day.
5. Your CEO authority is changing. It grows if you make decisions leading to victories, and it goes down if they lead to defeats. Do not try to “crush” authority if you do not possess it.
6. Morality is very important. If you work too long without a win, your investors, employees, family and you yourself will lose hope. Work at the limit of opportunities - just not to get into this situation.
7. Pick up your starting team very carefully. It should be pleasant to work with everyone, everyone should have at least one feature that helps in the field in which you work, everyone should be very effective and practical. Everyone should have a sense of the product, an understanding of its purpose and a common vision of the product and the company as a whole.
8. Follow the execution of company standards. Choose a few important rules, without which normal work, in your opinion, is impossible and make everyone follow them.
9. Dismiss people who are complex in nature, unproductive, unreliable, impractical, or who have no product sense. Do this without hesitation.
10. Small differences are good. Too much disagreement is deadly. Dismiss people who cause them. You work well + you behave badly == you are fired.

Fundraising

1. If you give more than 15% of the company in any of the rounds, you are not working properly. Satisfactory, but not perfect.
2. If you haven’t earned respect yet, fundraising on growth indicators is much simpler than ches on company history. If you are collecting money for stories, but have not gained a reputation, then you are doing everything wrong.
3. The goal of fundraising is to create a minimally viable product. Repeat this at each meeting until you create it.
4. The advice of most investors is useful for optimizing and scaling an existing business. Listen to them.
5. Investor tips will not help in creating a product - this is your job
6. Don't get stuck on the fundraising process. Complete the plan and continue.

Markets

1. The best products are not created in a vacuum. They win because they stand out from other products designed to perform the same task. Find your niche and be the best. If you can't find your niche, then something is wrong.
2. Work on problems that already have a solution and that have great potential for growth. If it does not change the user experience of a large number of people, do not waste time on it. For example, Google affects billions of people by helping with daily tasks. It changes people's behavior and changes their perception of the environment. Aim at creating a product of the same size.
3. It is very important to start with the right idea. Experience shows that while you can only turn.
4. Understand that the market is very productive and valuable ideas come to several teams almost simultaneously.
5. Grasp new ideas because they could have been caused by social or technological change. Cling to the train as early as possible, but make sure that the introduction of new technology will really make the product better.
6. If the idea did not work before and there was no social or technological change, stop working on it. (This is the theory of market productivity. If the idea was worth completing, you would do it. Why try again if nothing has changed?)
7. Market education, which does not need your product, is a lost battle. Think of your ideals and visions, but respect the trends. If you think that the world needs poems written in iambic pentameter, sell hip hop, not sonnets).

Products

1. Product sensation is paramount. Understand this as quickly as you can. Your development skills will not help you in project management.
2. Do not create what is already there. Customers won't buy it just because of your name.
3. Make sure you know why users will have no choice but to switch to your product, and why they will not go back. Do not trust yourself - check everything as possible.
4. Ask two questions about each feature in the product. Will people buy your product because of it? Will people stop buying your product because of its absence? The absence of the second leads to a negative answer to the first question. Do not work on the feature if both answers are not.
5. Create a product that will be bought, despite the problems, and not because there are no problems. The first satisfies the client and is well paid, the second is difficult and takes an eternity to create.
6. Be wary of chicken and egg products. Make sure your product benefits instantly.
7. Understand the difference between people who can buy your product and people who simply express their opinion about it. Pay attention to the first. Ignore the second.

Marketing

1. The product comes first. If people like your product, they will notice even the smallest announcement. If people do not like your product, no marketing will help.
2. Try to embed marketing into your project. If possible, use the effect of YouTube (your users will tell friends about updates) and the effect of Facebook (if someone uses your product, his friends will use it too)
3. Watch Jiro's Dreams of Sushi and follow the same steps as in the movie. Take a few small tasks, complete them and complicate each day.
4. Constantly calculate your effectiveness. Remove things that do not work, double things that help you.
5. Do not guess. Calculate.
6. Market for your users. Paying attention to people who do not buy your product is a waste of time and money.
7. Do not say things that your competitors have nothing to answer. For example, your competitors cannot say that their product is fast, if you say that your product is very fast, it will be the wrong way to market. Now, if your competitors can say that their software is designed for Python programmers, then if you say that yours is designed for Ruby, you will do the right thing. Apple may break this rule. You are not.
8. Do not show arrogance towards your competitors. It will not help sell a product, but it can destroy a good relationship.
9. Do not reject all criticism. Use it to improve the product. The most vehement critics can turn into your best customers if you take them seriously.

Sales

1. Sales fix everything. If you missed everything else, you will survive it if your product sells well.
2. The product comes first. To sell a product that everyone likes is easy. Selling a product that nobody wants is a difficult situation.
3. Be prepared to wait for sales while your product is between these two borders (everyone likes, nobody likes). Even if you do not sell anything, you will receive an important experience.
4. Evaluate everything. Talking to users who are most likely not to purchase your product is a waste of time.
5. Inbox is easier than outbound. (Try to create a product so that the customers themselves come to you to pay for it)

Development

1. The speed of development comes first.
2. Reduce complexity. The simpler the product, the faster you will start selling it and the sooner you will be able to correct problems.
3. Choose implementations that bring 80% of the benefits at a cost of 20% of the workforce.
4. Use pre-made components whenever possible.
5. Use the “sprints”. Make sure they last no more than 1-2 weeks.
6. Be wary of long projects. If you do not fit into the race, do not create it.
7. Avoid long improvements. If you do not fit into the race, do not do it.
8. If you have to do something that doesn’t fit into the race, do a structured review of it, as detailed as possible.
9. Working on an unnecessary thing for a whole month is like not appearing a month at work at all.

Company management

1. Do not waste time choosing an office building, an accountant, cleaners, furniture, payroll, etc. Make sure everything is ok and keep working.
2. Take time to find a good inexpensive lawyer. You will notice the difference.

Own well-being

1. Try to tie your self-esteem to a startup (you will not succeed, but try). Work so that when the dust settles, you can be proud of your decisions, regardless of the outcome.
2. Be sure to get out somewhere. Go on an excursion, go to relatives in another city, go to the disco, play chess, tennis, whatever. It will make you more efficient, and the people around you more happy.