I have been reading some fantastic startup blogs lately, all of them eye openers in various aspects.

Here I am trying to summarize in a concise way, some of the key lessons from these readings –

1. The most desirable form of investment is from customers, sales bring your company an investment that also pays interest.

Sales >> Bootstrap >> Friends/ Family >> Angel >> VC

2. The idea of minimal viable product is not to build a half assed product, it is to build only the most important part of the product and ship it out the door. Let the product breathe in hands of real customers, only then you will realize what are the features that your users really care about and should be a part of the product.

MVP helps you discover the true essence of the product.

3. Most startups seek validation at the wrong places – VCs, angels, mentors, peers, friends, self. The only person whose opinion matters is the customer, the customer who is going to pay for using your product. All other forms of advice are the sum of other people’s experiences on what they have seen before, which might be right in one particular set of circumstances but not necessarily yours.

Understand with clarity the context of your issues and use advice appropriately. The biggest mistake that startups do is not that they don’t take advice, the biggest mistake is that they don’t know when and from whom to take it.

4. Solve a real problem. Engineering, design, marketing, sales are all means to an end, the end being creating value and brining it to the right people.

That’s it for now.

Cheers!!