Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

Chapter 66. 50 Startup Lessons Learned in 12 Months

James Maskell

Just over a year ago I started work on Vinetrade. Looking back, it’s amazing to see just how much I’ve learned, how many skills I’ve developed, and what I’d do differently if I were to start another company or build a product today. Inspired by a surge of recent posts by other founders on the lessons they have learned, I thought I would post my own.

In no particular order:

1. You need to just get on and build something. It’s easy to have an idea—building a product is the hard part. Just getting started is a big leap and will set you apart from so many others who never even get this far.

2. You need a good knowledge of code. It’s critical that you know how to build software, or at least what’s involved. If you don’t have a firm grip on the basics you’ll struggle to execute your vision. It is pretty easy to get to grips with the basic concepts, and there’s no excuse not to. Sites like Codeacademy and Treehouse will help you get to grips with the basics.

3. Don’t spend too much time debating which technologies to use. Mark and myself spent a couple of weeks playing with Rails and Django before trying to decide which we preferred and which was the best. In reality, there’s barely any difference—just pick what you’re most comfortable with and run with it.

4. Your minimum viable product can be much more minimal than you think. We built a Rails app with many features, a nice design, and worried about scalability and infrastructure. We could ...