The Biggest Mistakes First-Time Founders Make - Michael Seibel

Thanks so much Michael. I am learning a lot from you guys. Much appreciated. 🙌🙌🙌 YC

Spoken like a true gate keeper.

1. Giving VC too big a stake, and losing control of their company and ideas. This destroys their idea long term as it is ruthlessly altered to be a more attractive purchase for a large company. Then you get edged out of your own company, and if you aren't careful, you get diluted so badly you have no money either.
2. Not protecting yourself from the inevitable lawfare waged against you by those very VC, who have convinced a large group to sue you into oblivion so they can dissolve you, mop up your IP, and sell it anyway.
3. The rest is details

Well I just came across your videos and seem to have made all the mistakes! Took me forever to get the product (mortgage originator software) ready. So many details! Learned a lot in just a few minutes. TY.

Not launching is imho the biggest mistake. Everything else can be rectified, but if you never launch, you'll never know what's wrong

Great video, really helpful - thanks for sharing

You rock! You just so generously share your knowledge….God bless you!

I love this advice, but I hate how most startup advice is geared toward apps or software startups that have no associated hardware.

Solid advice. Thanks man.

Useful content. Really enjoy watching the videos in this channel. For a startup founder this is educational as well as entertaining.

Insightful

😂🤣🤣, he looks like amit shah, but he is one of the founder of Twitch. 🤣😂

Thanks amit shah

Micheal was born a 'startup whisperer'

this guy climb on the shoulders of some great co founders . thats step one

michael siebel's short videos are so valuable!

Wow! The simplicity with which this is delivered is noteworthy!

Thank you for this videos. High Schools and colleges need to add an startup class in their curriculum.

I would reframe the second one to be "helping users you don't know well enough". As long as you understand a user base well enough you can build products for them even though you don't really care about them but rather focused on making money from them.

I wonder what is the most mundane solution that has been funded by YC and has become a successful startup.

Excellent video Michael & Team amen.
Terribly awesome information. Appreciate humble truths for sure. Maybe we'll see each other one day!

Thanks for sharing,
James, Rescue Kitty😺 & Snowvan!

Thanks for the tips. I think I have made a bunch of these on other , but so far not this time 😀🙃😏

Hey Michael, so true! Don't you think startups should be obsessed about customer satisfaction and wowing customers at every turn and turn them into your brand ambassadors?

His every word matched, listening to him is like a 7 minutes MBA!

Your videos are very helpful, thank you for sharing

I am listening to all his videos and it’s ammmmmmazing , can’t thank him enough

Very Impressive for solopreneur

Great video Michael! Your way of explaining is so simple and easy to understand.

This is gold

Very useful! I can relate many of them!

love this guy

From bjp to y incubator amit Shah is best 😂

true

Vending business like massage chair requires low investment. Anybody can own vending machine because it's easy to manage and can generate revenue quickly. It is very profitable and low entry costs and have the ability to scale over time.

I love to listen to Mike break down this issue. No wasted words, straight to the point!

i think biggest mistake first time founder can make is that they decide to go like a first time

Such great info here!

is it better to copy a business and build some cash flow instead of jumping into wild idea and risk losing your own savings

"Better to build a crappier product and release it sooner" - Totally dont agree by this. Particularly in software business (Programs, games, etc) this is a disaster and an example to be avoided. I can name 50 products in the software business but I will quote only one, the most well-known and recent: Wolcen. The guys took a marvelous, next gen arpg with so much potential and they release the product very-very early so it was a disaster. I will not go into technical details so as not to go into too much detail but the numbers says all: For the first week they had average 60k players - yes 60k- only on steam. Now they have average 500. Realy. From 60k player base droped to 500. So totally disagree with this.

I love how concise it is. They really value the time of the people watching (and their own I guess).

Very sane and sober advice

Sir why don't you write a book something like zero to one for startups.
We hope you will make this happen

Thank you Amit shah

We need more videos from Michael Seibel. There hasn't been any for a while, and I thirst for his knowledge.

Every single thing he said I have been through in my first Startup; Michael, when are you writing a Book?

Great video

Love the content, sir. More power!