Why building in stealth mode is a rookie mistake

Startup founders: Each milestone just reveals the next problem. Hit your revenue target? Now you need to scale. Scale successfully? Now you need to systemise. Build systems? Now you need to optimise. The goalpost doesn't just move. It multiplies. Because success is a skill set, not an end goal. The skill of solving increasingly complex problems whilst maintaining your sanity. The skill of managing growth without losing your identity. The skill of leading others whilst still figuring yourself out. But nobody tells you this when you're starting out. They sell you the fantasy that there's a finish line where everything gets easier. There isn't. There's just different, more interesting problems to solve. And if you can make peace with that reality, entrepreneurship becomes a lot more enjoyable.

Building a startup is not complicated. Yesterday, I met a consultant who had a terrible take on how startups are built, and it really messed with my mind. The deeper I dug to figure out how many companies that person had actually built directly, the answer was none. It took me just five minutes to realize it was all talk and hot air. Too often, advice comes from people who haven’t lived the journey. It disrupts a founder’s focus. Talks about valuation, growth hacks, metrics… all the noise that startups hear too early makes the journey unnecessarily complicated. The reality on the ground, how startups are actually built, is a completely different dimension. Only founders and stakeholders who have lived those moments, where every decision directly impacts survival and the company’s future, truly understand it. I honestly don’t believe the founders of Amul, Lijjat Papad, Balaji Chips, or Cycle Agarbati were thinking about pseudo stock prices. They were just staying relevant to their customers, holding on to the old while finding new ways to grow. Sometimes creating value in an existing market, most of the time building a new market. Building a business takes time. Markets change, customers change, and dynamics change. Founders solve the same problem again and again, refining the customer journey every day, and eventually reach a point where customers recognize the value they have created. This journey, until your customers speak for you, is not glamorous. You come home after 15 hours of work and still sit down to plan a better direction for the business, especially in the chaos and with limited resources. Every founder wakes up with a choice: solve the problem, build something that actually matters to the customer, or give in to the noise. If you’re starting a startup, sooner or later, you will face this choice too. If today is that day, stop taking advice from people who haven’t built a company themselves or don’t have real skin in the game. Meet your customers; they will help you find real value and figure out your position in the market. Take your time to get the right people in the company, even if it’s an intern doing a tiny task for the future. Hire only if they match your ethos. A company is the energy of you and your team, reflected by your customers. Nurture that energy every day and focus on solving real problems with your core team. And if you have extra time, talk to your customers. They will give you the best insights, far beyond any pseudo consultant’s advice. That’s my 50 cents after wasting two hours of my life with someone valuing the stock of the next IPO. God bless that company. I hope this helps someone who is starting their journey as a founder.

Your startup probably won’t fail because of your idea. It’ll fail because of you. Let’s be honest: Your idea is probably good enough. But execution? That’s where most startups collapse. Here are 18 founder mistakes that kill startups from the inside: 🚫 Single Founder → You need someone to challenge your thinking 🚫 Bad Location → Build where your customers are 🚫 Marginal Niche → A tiny market won’t save you 🚫 Derivative Idea → Clones rarely win long-term 🚫 Obstinacy → Listen. Adapt. Repeat. 🚫 Wrong Platform → Right product, wrong place = dead launch 🚫 Bad Programmers → Tech debt is a killer 🚫 Slow Launching → Speed wins. Perfection doesn’t. 🚫 Early Launching → Too soon = user confusion 🚫 No Specific User → Who are you really building for? 🚫 Too Little Money → Starving your runway kills momentum 🚫 Overspending → You don’t need that neon sign yet 🚫 Too Much Money → Yes, it can kill you (false confidence) 🚫 Poor Investor Management → Silence creates suspicion 🚫 Sacrificing Users → Users leave. So does traction. 🚫 Avoiding the Dirty Work → You’re not above sales, support, or cold emails 🚫 Founder Fights → Misaligned values = startup death 🚫 Half-Hearted Effort → If you’re not all in, don’t bother Startups don’t usually explode. They bleed out from these little mistakes. ------ You don’t need to have it all figured out to build something great. First Time Founders

Want to improve your startup prompts? Check out our guide on prompt engineering. It covers everything from the basics to advanced strategies. Writing clear prompts can drive real business results. Start with clear objectives. What do you want to achieve? Next, keep it simple. Use straightforward language. Avoid tech jargon unless necessary. Focus on concrete examples. Engage your reader with relatable scenarios. Ask creative questions to spark ideas. Make your prompts actionable. Encourage users to take the next step. In 2025, effective prompts can set your startup apart. At Fe/male Switch, we support you every step of the way. We help you refine your ideas and writing skills. Ready to take your prompts to the next level? Let’s build your startup together! Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/dqCFpYZM 🫡 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐧𝐨𝐰: https://femaleswitch.app 🔈🔈🔈 🫵 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬, 𝐡𝐢𝐭 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖

92% of self-storage owners succeed.  95% of startups fail.  Why? Startups test new products, new services, new ideas. You're building hope. Self-storage is different. ✅ Existing business.  ✅ Proven demand.  ✅ Real revenue. You're buying proof. Can you still mess it up? Yes. Skip due diligence? Overpay. Ignore the market? Struggle. But here's the difference… Startups fight for survival from day one. Boring businesses fight to grow something that already works. 5% success rate vs 92%. I'll take boring every time.

Last week I met a founder working on his first startup. He's about 15 years older than me and has more years of experience in his domain (martech sales). He spent the last two years and a few hundred thousand dollars to build a basic working product and gain some users. He knows it's not going well: no focus, no clear idea of who the customers are, what the product should be, what's the revenue model, or how to raise the very needed capital. That's why he asked for my advice. I listened for 1.5 hours. Then I spent 30 minutes reflecting to him his situation and outlining his strategy for the next 12 months. The 12-month strategy had 5 steps (milestones/goals): 1) Close the 6 customers you told me about 2) Take those signed contracts and talk to the investors you are already in touch with to raise the money you need for a 12-month period 3) Use the money you raise to get the right people to build the product and build the product properly (!) (comment: "If you fail at doing this and you don't deliver the product per what you signed, you can close down and find something else to do") 4) Deliver the product to the customers on the delivery date you signed on, preferably before that 5) Grow by selling the same product to 100 new customers of the same type. This entrepreneur spent two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get to the make-or-break point without knowing what to do. It took me 30 minutes to understand the situation and give him an effective strategy to succeed. Experience is always valuable. That's why I find it absurd that investors would bet on an 18-year-old with no experience than on a 40-year-old with domain expertise. That's not serious. I like serious. After building five startups, I know what to do and how to do it better than many people, definitely better than people with no experience building startups.

As an entrepreneurial leader, getting advice from other entrepreneurs and learning from my own success and past mistakes is for me an every day practice to bring my best game forward. I attended an event yesterday hosted by Catalina Daniels and James Sherman who provided invaluable insights from their book "Smart Startups". They interviewed many entrepreneurs, summarized some pearls of wisdom, and busted some myths along the way. Here are a few things I took away from the discussion: There are 3 essential components for start up success: 1-Large opportunity (not just large market). Focus on solving a pain point, and ensuring you can validate actual demand. 2- Founder/Founding team should have relevant skills, deep understanding of the customer. An operating background and technology skills matter because execution and delivery of the product is key to customer retention. 3- Passion for the idea. Startups need fuel to navigate the ups and downs. Without passion, there is insufficient motivation to persevere. And that's what it's all about. On Validating Demand of your product/service: Do it cheaply. Revenue does not equal product market fit is achieved. You can have revenue without true market validation. If you don't validate the demand your growth will stall. Create a front end that appears like a real product and invest minimally in proof of concept. Most importantly seek customer feedback that looks like "this is saving my life" and "when can I buy this". Good feedback is insufficient. It needs to be GREAT! If it's not great, you don't have validated demand. Grateful to Catalina and James for distilling years of entrepreneurial wisdom into actionable insights (many more in the book!). The lesson for me: The bar for validation is higher than most founders think. Test early, listen hard, and let passion fuel the long game.

Every failed startup we have seen had one thing in common: Not because the founders are lazy. Not because the idea is bad. They fail because they lack this three basics every startup needs: - No real funding strategy. - No proper infrastructure. - No execution support. Motivation alone doesn’t build a business. Structure does. Here are 3 ways to reduce your risk of becoming part of that 90% 👇 1. Don’t chase big funding first Most startups die waiting for investors. Start with customer money. Even ₹1 from a paying customer is stronger validation than a promise of ₹1 crore. 2. Build your support system early Alone, you’ll burn out. Surround yourself with mentors, co-founders, or communities who’ve already walked the path. They’ll save you years of mistakes. 3. Create an execution roadmap Ideas fail when they stay in the founder’s head. Write down your next 6 months in steps: prototype → customer test → refine → scale. Then execute it ruthlessly. Failure will always be part of entrepreneurship. But founders who build structure around their hustle don’t just survive. They give themselves a real shot at being the 1 in 10 who succeed. Founders: Which of these 3 do you struggle with most?

I Just Started Reading a Book that Tells Me to Stop Focusing on…The Customer?!?! Ten years ago, Dr Michael Burcham was my Starting A Venture professor at Vanderbilt. His lessons didn't just stick; they became a core part of the operating system for every effort I’ve participated in since. Dr Burcham just dropped his new book, “The Art of Startup Failure”, and seeing a chapter titled: “Focus on the Competition (Rather than the Customer)”—well, it made me stop and remember every hard lesson he taught me about avoiding startup mediocrity. This book is a gold mine of treasure for any founder in the trenches right now. It forces a brutal gut-check on everything you think you know. Here is a raw truth I discovered in the pages: So many companies out there obsessively (and many times blindly) copy features from their competitors. They end up building a complicated Swiss Army Knife of a product that their core customer may care nothing about—too many features, zero focus. We find that our clients aren't asking for the Swiss Army Knife; they are drowning in the current complexity of “AI Possibility” and yet all they really need is an “Awesome Corkscrew” to solve one painful problem perfectly. The book’s has so many tradition challenging nuggets, one secret I found in this chapter is that: The competition isn’t the target; their failure is the target. For Stable Mischief, we realized the biggest hurdle that businesses have in deciding to adopt an AI strategy is a massive Trust Deficit. SMBs are paralyzed by intimidation and information overload. They're not looking for the 50th feature-rich tool; they're looking for their first trusted step. Jumping into a fast changing new technology that can have such a huge impact, can be a bit overwhelming, which is why we are fanatical about listening to our clients and taking those steps with them. We partner with our clients on their journey, to help them create their own renaissance. If you’re ready to challenge your own growth strategy, you need this book. It’s a gut-check on everything you think you know about strategy, product, and scaling. What is the "Swiss Army Knife" your industry is currently building, and what is the single "Awesome Corkscrew" solution your customers actually need? Go check out Michael Burcham's book—the link is in the comments! #ChallengeTheTradition #ForgetWhatYouThinkYouKnow

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬: 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐬 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 After working with tens and hundreds of early-stage startups, I've noticed a pattern. Most founders get excited about their "brilliant idea" but skip the hard work of actually validating it. Here's what I wish every entrepreneur understood before they build their first product. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒈? An idea isn't just a cool solution you thought of in the shower. It's a potential answer to a real problem that people actively face, desperately want solved, and are willing to open their wallets for. The key word here is "potential" – because until you validate it, it's just an educated guess. Your job as a founder isn't to fall in love with your solution. It's to prove that your solution actually works for real people in the real world. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝑰 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 I always tell the startups I advise to think of validation as a series of checkpoints, not a single event. Start lean – really lean. Use whatever resources you have to test your core assumption: does this problem actually exist, and do people care enough to pay for a solution? This might look like landing page tests, customer interviews, or even manual processes that simulate your eventual product. The goal isn't to build something perfect. It's to learn whether you're solving a problem that matters. Once you've confirmed the problem exists, then you validate whether your specific approach resonates. Can you turn your lean experiment into something that looks like a real product? Will people actually use this real product when it's launched? And critically – what are they willing to pay for it? 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬: if you're planning to raise your first cheque, specially if its pre-seed, VCs generally expect you to have moved beyond the just "product launched" quote. They want to see evidence that you've discovered something real in the market which your product can solve. They're not just betting on your idea – they're betting on your ability to execute and find product-market fit. The founders who succeed aren't necessarily the ones with the most revolutionary ideas for products. They're the ones who are obsessed with understanding their customers and relentlessly validate their assumptions which can be scaled. What validation challenges are you facing with your startup? I'd love to hear about your approach in the comments. #LeanStartup #Ideation #IdeaValidation #PreSeed #Funding #Startups