FWIW, and as you’ll no doubt have gathered, various of the issues you encountered are commonplace with software startups. But avoidable, particularly by involving or recruiting people with suitable business experience.
I note neither your post nor any comments seem to mention management or business experience as such. I don’t know if you or others involved had previous experience of running a business, but maybe little or none. The common startup model of figuring it out as you go along only works up to a point; things tend to descend into chaos sooner or later.
Managers are generally somewhat looked down on, particularly maybe by geeky types, who underestimate their importance. (Cf Eliezer recounted somewhere a meeting I think with a VC manager, who made some astute remark, and Eliezer was astonished to realize that there were very smart people in business. Why wouldn’t there be?) But business is no different from other skills (e.g. coding) - it isn’t straightforward, and years of experience is really valuable. You can’t just figure it out yourself or read up on it, you learn by doing. So involving or recruiting experienced managers (e.g. project managers, sales & marketing managers, indeed CEOs and CTOs) is very important. If it’s a small startup, maybe only one experienced businessperson is required early on, but it’s precarious with none.
FWIW, and as you’ll no doubt have gathered, various of the issues you encountered are commonplace with software startups. But avoidable, particularly by involving or recruiting people with suitable business experience.
I note neither your post nor any comments seem to mention management or business experience as such. I don’t know if you or others involved had previous experience of running a business, but maybe little or none. The common startup model of figuring it out as you go along only works up to a point; things tend to descend into chaos sooner or later.
Managers are generally somewhat looked down on, particularly maybe by geeky types, who underestimate their importance. (Cf Eliezer recounted somewhere a meeting I think with a VC manager, who made some astute remark, and Eliezer was astonished to realize that there were very smart people in business. Why wouldn’t there be?) But business is no different from other skills (e.g. coding) - it isn’t straightforward, and years of experience is really valuable. You can’t just figure it out yourself or read up on it, you learn by doing. So involving or recruiting experienced managers (e.g. project managers, sales & marketing managers, indeed CEOs and CTOs) is very important. If it’s a small startup, maybe only one experienced businessperson is required early on, but it’s precarious with none.