What NOT to do in the first 12 months of your new startup
I’m pretty excited to start writing here. Super cool and useful articles that really helped me in my first year and a half pursuing the pot of gold with my awesome (in my eyes anyway) startup. The thing is, if I read some of these articles before starting, it would have saved me a lot of mistakes, time and money. On the other hand though, it wouldn’t have allowed me to share this piece with you.
So you’ve decided to board a plane that is most likely to crash (sorry Boeing) and to start your own company. You’re young, ambitious, smart, cocky, stupid and ignorant. You have already made the decision, so let me try to make your first year a little bit more comfortable by sharing some key points of what NOT to do in your first year as an entrepreneur.

Incorporate
For investors, incorporation is key. For revenues, incorporation is obviously a must, but my biggest advice to you: wait with incorporation until the very last moment. Why? Simple, it costs money, effort and maintenance. You will need a lawyer to handle the procedure, you need to pay the tax or justice authorities (depending on the country of incorporation) and you need a bookkeeper/accountant to handle the necessary maintenance (yearly statements, tax returns, etc.). Trust me, it’s a hassle that you’d rather save yourself for as long as possible. I am lucky to have my mother’s cousin as accountant, that hasn’t taken a penny from us so far and takes away a lot of headache. If you don’t have this luxury, just wait.
As for legal matters, founders agreement, it is a bit tricky and the factor of mutual trust becomes key. Having a founders agreement drafted, doesn’t necessarily cost a lot of money, but it costs effort and if I’m not mistaken you need to incorporate first. You anyway want co-founders you can trust, so why not draft up an e-mail or an unofficial piece of paper that states the terms (even use one of many generic templates for founders agreements online) and the moment you need to incorporate, handle the founders agreement.

Over-accelerate
Accelerators have many advantages and in my eyes only minor disadvantages. My advice to you, don’t over-accelerate. What do I mean by over-accelerate? Don’t jump from one accelerator to the next. Participate in an accelerator that can help you with your current needs and challenges, absorb the content of the program, use it’s network and mentors and move on from there.
My startup did a 5 month early-stage accelerator, helping us to transform from an idea into a working product. A few weeks after, we were accepted into another great program of 3 months, leaving us little room to breathe, think and actually get some work done.
Accelerators can really help you steer in the right direction, saving a lot of time in certain aspects and preventing you in some cases making some critical mistakes, but they do take a lot of your time in the sense of content sessions, workshops, events and meetings with mentors.
I’m all for accelerators, especially if you’re new to the startup world. It gives you a great framework of help and puts you into a certain focus and work mode. If the accelerator does not take equity or cost money, you have almost nothing to lose. If you get one good lead or connection out of it, it’s already worth it. The only thing I advise, is don’t jump from one into the next, like we did. Do an accelerator, absorb, learn, work and after a while (not talking about weeks or months here guys, but more like a year), figure out which program would be of most value to your current stage, and go for it.

Withhold doubts
Startups are like rollercoasters. Many ups and downs, even in the same day. You have to grow balls of steel in order to deal with it, and in this process, comes a wave of doubts. Doubts about the idea, your team, yourself, you name it. It’s a natural process of the mind and anyone claiming not to have those doubts, is either lying or on some amazing drugs.
Don’t withhold them. Share them with your team, your mentors, your support system. It’s ok to show vulnerability. It actually shows your human and you’re open for feedback and help. I’ve learned to have daily short “sharing is caring” sessions with your team, really sharing your challenges and have everything open for discussion. It’s the only way to learn and to grow.

Withhold communication
It sounds obvious, but it’s not in real-time. You are super busy, a million things to do, a million e-mails to write, following up, etc, etc. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, withhold communication. Make sure everyone in your team knows what’s going on, so they will feel comfortable doing the same. Especially for the young CEO’s out there. Get it out of your system that you’re in this corner office on the top floor. You’re not, keep both feet on the ground and climb out of your executive tower. Your team needs to know what’s going on, the same reason you’d want to know what’s going on with them.
Plan weekly management meetings, deep-diving into every aspect of the company (product, tech, marketing, finance, fundraising, etc.), come with clear action items and summarize.
I highly recommend to plan monthly “founder sessions” which are more like mutual therapy sessions, exposing your feelings and give feedback to each other. My partner and I are the complete opposite, in every aspect possible. We’re still learning to communicate with each other and we still have a long way to go, but these sessions really help! Invest in your team and partnership, above everything else. This is my opinion.

Act according theories and methodologies
Theories and methodologies, I’m not a fan. Everyone tells you to read the “Lean Startup” and work according to this methodology. Nice and everything, but you should do what’s right for YOUR company. I’m not saying these methods don’t work, but many startups focus too much on perfecting implementation of the methodology to their startup, that they’re wasting time that could’ve been spent on growing your company.
So there you have it, my first of (hopefully) many to come on Medium. Since I’m still a young, ignorant and stupid entrepreneur, you might not agree with what I wrote, and since we spoke about honest feedback, I’d more than appreciate yours!
