After business school, I pushed forward with a venture that did not work out. These are the lessons I learned along the way. I hope they help others thinking about starting their own tech venture:

Know how to code
For a tech startup, it is crucial that at least one of the founders can code. This is important because the founder(s) need to be directly involved in architecting the product.

Contractors
Contractors will never work as hard as founders or employees.

Iterate
Get to market as quickly as possible and iterate. Don’t over research. In fact, don’t even write a business plan. What you find out from customers along the way will surprise you. Focus on building a product that your customers crave even if it makes making big changes.

Fundraising
Unless you know a billionaire or have a track record of success, be prepared to invest your own money to build the product and get to proof of concept.

Press
Forget PR. The amount of quality leads from even a major newspaper article is not that much.

Many startups use PR to get funding. Don’t be one of them. Focus your time on customers, revenue and other meaningful results.

PR should be an effect of your accomplishments not a cause.

Admit Defeat
Things big and small will go wrong. It’s better to admit, learn and face them head on rather than to keep looking at the bright side — you may end up going blind.