90 THINGS I’VE LEARNED FROM FOUNDING 4 TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES
On October 27, 2010 I wrote a blog post about the “57 Things I Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies.” It has been awesome, flattering, and humbling to see that post went viral and has been seen by so many thousands of people — mainly aspiring entrepreneurs — and has been translated into many languages.
This past week while I was in Tokyo for meetings with potential partners for Fab, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on startups. The discussion quickly turned to those 57 things. Amazing. Thousands of miles away and two years later, people still want to talk about those 57 things!
As the questions came in, I realized that my 2010 list was great for what I had learned as of 2 years ago, but it also was in desperate need of an update to include what I’ve learned more recently, especially as we’ve pivoted from fabulis to Fab in 2011 and then scaled Fab to more than 7.5 million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months.
So, here goes.
90 Things I’ve Learned Founding 4 Tech Companies:
- Find your company’s One Thing. Your One Thing falls at the intersection of 3 truths:
The one thing you and your team are most passionate about.The one thing you and your team have a realistic shot at being the best in the world at.A huge untapped market opportunity.If what you’re doing does not fall at the intersection of those 3 truths, you’re doing the wrong thing.
- Only do your One Thing. Everything else is a distraction. Don’t do side projects. Don’t take unnecessary meetings. Anything that distracts you from executing on your One Thing is just that, a distraction. Say no to everything that does not contribute to your One Thing.
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