- “KISS – keep it simple. You should be able to explain any area of your business in one minute, from product, to business model to marketing strategy. If you can't, you aren't focused enough.”
- “Solve a specific problem. It's hard to be a Facebook. It's a lot easier to find a problem that people really care about and a solution people are willing to pay for.”
- “You need a technical co-founder. You see a lot of people thinking they have an idea and can just outsource the development. It won't work that way. You need to be willing to give up 50% of your company if you don't have the resources or expertise you need. You need that person as in it as you are, because contractors don't stay up until five in the morning when something goes wrong.”
- “Perfectionism can be crippling. The product can always be better. You need to get it in the hands of the consumer, or you miss your window of opportunity.”
- “We put together the team of me, Peter Kistler and Evan Watson.”
- “We created a visional plan. We mapped out what we wanted to do and tried to visualize the product.”
- “We made sure that everyone was fully committed to the project. Pete and Evan took a leave of absence from school, and I made sure I didn't have anything to fall back on. We tried to make sure that it was all or nothing.”
- “We started a blog. We talked about what was going on in the space. It was important to build an audience in our niche while we were building our product.”
- “Finally, we identified things we could change to help average people dealing with search issues, and we mapped out ways to make changes.”
- “Only raise money when you need to. Don't raise money for the sake of raising money.”
- “Only take smart money. If you can't imagine calling your investors at four in the morning with a problem, keep looking.”
- “Only hire the best; don't settle. Hiring someone who isn't the best in a startup will cost you more in the end. Find the best engineers, marketers, etc., in your industry and pitch them like VCs. You need to offer the equity.”
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