Okay Alex. I’ll put it on the list 🙄 is our at Sup. When he’s not leading our awesome engineers to build awesome stuff, he likes to bug and I. However, this time, he actually had a good point. Alex CTO Rich pretty Rather than defining a list of rules that would us grow, we spat out a list of how we could fuck this whole thing up. This is a lot easier and can be used as a ‘not-to-do’ list. help So, here it is: 1. Over complicate things Make quick decisions — don’t over complicate things and waste time. No one cares if the copy on your flyers isn’t perfect. Get on with it. And do things that don’t scale. You never know… they just might. We gave these out outside Facebook’s office. Hehe. 2. Be greedy When it comes to working with partners, don’t be greedy for a deal. Brevity of negotiations is very important. Of course you want to get a good deal, but there comes a point where you will reach diminishing returns, waste time and hinder relationships. Accept it and/or move on. 3. Ignore results You need to obsess over results. How did they compare to your projections? Experiment. Evaluate. Cut/Repeat. 4. Get emotional Don’t get attached to ideas. You had a great idea for a growth stream. Turns out it was a shit idea. Oh well. Get over it. Don’t do it again. 5. Give up Whilst it’s important to cut streams that don’t work, you also need to exercise tireless persistence. I think they call it ‘grit’… 6. Forget target CPA Spending money is fun. Don’t get carried away with growth streams that have no potential to deliver an effective return on investment. For Sup, ‘cost per acquisition’ (CPA) needs to stay low. 7. Get complacent A few weeks ago, we had a sweet day on , followed by a feature on the App Store. Product Hunt Mama, I made it! Our numbers went crazy and I felt like the fucking man. Our 📈eventually turned in to a 🔔 and it was time to get back to work. Don’t let this happen. Don’t get complacent. Growth is lagged. No work today = no results tomorrow. Which leads me nicely on to… 8. Be dormant Do something every day. If there’s one activity we have found to work, it is activity itself. Doing something every day just works. 9. Neglect to plan Doing something every day isn’t possible without planning ahead. Write a growth calendar, so you can plan daily activity for the month ahead. 10. Make inconsistent decisions Establish a framework from which to make decisions. For example, ‘Will this activity get us more users?’. When it comes to deciding on new product features at Sup, we go back to ‘Will this help our users see their friends more?’. Hope this helps. Always happy to chat. Tweet me.

Too Long; Didn't Read

Developers: Build Less. Deliver More. [Learn how]	

How to f*ck up your startup

Too Long; Didn't Read

Danny Lowney

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

How to f*ck up your startup

Too Long; Didn't Read

Danny Lowney

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

RELATED STORIES