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Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table
Founder Impostor Syndrome Never Goes Away

What are the most important skills a new Founder needs?

Wil Schroter

What are the most important skills a new Founder needs?

Founders-skills.png

Most Founders have a "certain set of skills" that apply to one aspect of their startup, whether it's deep product knowledge or incredible domain expertise from their previous job.

Unfortunately, in a startup, we sorta need to be a jack of all trades because we're often the only person doing all the work!

Let's assume that you could only invest the bare minimum in the various aspects of your startup operations.

Here's the least you'd need to know.

What about finance? Do I need to know the numbers?

At the very least a Founder should understand how an income statement works.

That simply means "here's where we're making money, here's where we're spending it, and here's how much we're making (or losing)." If you didn't understand a balance sheet, or complicated projections, or anything else, you'd at least have to understand where the money came in, and where it went out.

Side note — I meet very few Founders who know any of this.

Should I be great at marketing?

Even if you don't know anything about marketing, you'd absolutely have to understand the fundamentals of how marketing performs.

That means knowing how much it costs to acquire a customer, how well your new prospects are converting to paid prospects, and what your total revenue earned per customer is (so you know you're acquiring customers profitably).

If you know those numbers, the rest is a matter of testing channels to deliver those results.

Do I need to learn to code or design?

While lots of great companies are built by genius coders and designers, you don't necessarily need to know their trade first hand to know how to leverage these skills.

A good Founder knows what code and design can do (to affect the product) even if they don't know how to do it themselves. The key here is to understand the fundamentals of code and design so they can be properly applied.

And yes, those fundamentals are crazy important these days.

What about "management?"

Once you get into more overarching skill sets, it's hard to be an "expert" per se.

While it helps to have experience, many young managers figure out "management" through on the job training, mostly out of necessity, but also because most companies only have a handful of employees to manage in the formative years.

Need more help?

Clarity.fm is a great resource to get advice from experts who have "been there and done that". Check out this review from a popular Clarity expert who explains the magic of one entrepreneur working with another.

In Case You Missed It

8 entrepreneurs reveal their #1 critical skill. We learn from eight different entrepreneurs — including Tim Conley and KISSmetrics Co-Founder Hiten Shah — the one skill or activity they focused on that made their startup successful.

3 marketing techniques every startup must master. Roy Morejon — Co-Founder of Enventys Partners — breaks down the basics of engaging your audience through storytelling, analytics, and lead generation.

Forming new habits and learning new skills. Entrepreneur and Marketing Jedi Sujan Patel discusses how to adapt, learn new habits, and teach yourself things you never thought you would spend time learning – let alone trying to master — as you're building your startup.

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