32 Insights on Founding, Building & Running Startups
Founding, building, and running a startup is an exhilarating rollercoaster of highs and lows, risks and rewards, sleepless nights and breakthrough moments. As an entrepreneur, you're constantly navigating uncharted waters, juggling multiple hats, and making decisions that could change the course of your business in an instant. It's a world where few things are guaranteed, but one thing remains constant: the lessons you learn along the way are invaluable.
In this piece, I'll share 32 insights that shaped my own entrepreneurial journey and will hopefully inspire yours. These aren't just tips or surface-level advice — they're the hard-earned truths that can transform how you approach your startup, how you think about failure, and how you build a business that not only survives but thrives. Whether you're in the early stages or in the thick of scaling, these insights will help you navigate the wild and unpredictable landscape of entrepreneurship.
Ready to jump in? Let's go.
#1 JUST START
The most valuable experience is experience. Even if you're new or not certain you know what you're doing — start anyway. Experience often works counter to serendipity. Perfectionism can paralyze you. Start your thing, get it out there, and iterate as you go.
#2 BRAND MATTERS
Make your brand so enticing that people want to wear it on their t-shirt, put the sticker on their computer, and talk about it on social media. Creating a brand that resonates and connects deeply with the core values of your target consumer is Holy Grail territory.
#3 SCARCITY DRIVES DESIRE
People place more value on rare or highly limited products. Consumers happily pay more (often, a lot more) for products that are sold out or otherwise unavailable. This supply & demand dynamic of human desire is very important to understand.
#4 CASH FLOW ON THE BRAIN
Cash flow should be on your mind morning, noon, night. Positive cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. The more your business cash flows, the less dependencies it will have. Prioritize cash flow over vanity metrics and valuation ALWAYS.
#5 NOTHING IS OUT OF REACH
Steer clear of haters, doubters, and naysayers, especially those perpetually commenting from the sidelines. Their issue, you must know, isn't with you; it's with what your ambition or success says about them.
#6 CREATION > CONSUMPTION
We glorify consumption but underestimate the power of creation. Watching, scrolling, buying—it’s easy. But making, building, putting something new into the world? That’s where the real magic is. Consume, sure. But create? CREATE. CREATE. CREATE.
#7 LEVERAGE IS A SUPERPOWER
Find it. Build it. Stack it. Multiply it. The right leverage turns small moves into massive impact. Use whatever you can to gain leverage—then leverage the leverage.
#8 'ZIG' WHEN EVERYONE 'ZAGS'
Following trends is often a status game that doesn't work. True innovation and market leadership come from blazing new trails. Challenge conventional wisdom. Create new paradigms.
#9 CULTIVATE DEEP WORK HABITS
In an age of constant distraction, the ability to intensely focus on cognitively demanding tasks is a superpower. Develop routines that protect your time for deep work.
#10 ZERO GUARANTEES IN BUSINESS
Just because your business is killing it today, doesn't guarantee anything about tomorrow. Stay hungry, humble, and always adaptable. The business landscape can change rapidly, so never take your success for granted and always be prepared to pivot.
#11 MASTER 'NO' TO PRESERVE YOUR 'YES'
You need to see every 'yes' as a commitment of your limited resources, and hence, a risk to reaching your goals. Learn to decline opportunities not specifically accretive to your core mission. Look around and compare those who say 'yes' a lot vs those who say 'no' often and you'll see exactly what I mean.
#12 AVOID PEOPLE WHO PLAY STATUS GAMES
Status-seekers prioritize appearance > virtue. Status-signalers prioritize performance > substance. Both hinder learning, collaboration, progress, and innovation. Look at me gets you nowhere. Instead focus on authenticity, genuine contribution, and mutual growth.
#13 STORYTELLING IS A BUSINESS SUPERPOWER
Storytelling is the single most important human superpower. Look at any successful person, product, or company and you'll see powerful and highly emotive storytelling in its DNA. The best rendered, most compelling narratives connect at the deepest, most emotional levels.
#14 SEEK OUT REAL, GENUINE, HONEST FEEDBACK
Be it from friends, bosses, mentors, colleagues, and customers. Most people don't want honest feedback. They would actually rather you lie to them and tell them what they want to hear. There's no learning down that road. If you really don't want to hear the truth of the matter, then don't bring the matter up
#15 BE RADICALLY TRANSPARENT WITH YOUR TEAM
Open communication aligns interests and builds trust. Be honest with your team. Share both the successes and the challenges with them to foster a culture of ownership, trust, and collaborative problem-solving.
#16 THE BEST NEGOTIATORS TALK 10%, LISTEN 90%
Active listening is the cornerstone of effective negotiation. Only by truly understanding the other side's motivations and needs, can you craft win-win solutions that work for both of you.
#17 YOUR NETWORK + YOUR REPUTATION IS EVERYTHING
The strength of your personal brand — your reputation and the value of your network — is your greatest asset. Cultivate and leverage strong, supportive relationships and deep, specific expertise to carry you through your entrepreneurial journey.
#18 WRITE WELL TO GET INVITED INTO THE RIGHT ROOMS
It amazes me how many people underestimate the importance of clear, compelling writing. Good writing is at the very heart of effective storytelling and communication. If you want to open doors to opportunities and influential circles, learn to write well.
#19 EMBRACE CALCULATED RISKS, NOT RECKLESS GAMBLES
Even the most experienced entrepreneurs sometimes find themselves overboard without a life vest. You must be ever vigilant about the difference between smart risks and foolish bets by always assessing potential outcomes, having contingency plans, and learning from the many inevitable failures.
#20 PEOPLE PAY MORE TO GET A PEEK BEHIND-THE-SCENES
Ours is a culture obsessed with access — far more than substance. The unseen, the exclusive, the behind-the-curtain moments — these hold irresistible allure. Give people a glimpse of what they’re not supposed to see, and they won’t just pay; they’ll pay a lot more.
#21 WITH HIRING — IF IT'S NOT A 'HELL YEAH' IT'S DEF A 'HELL NO'
This one is more about intuition and listening to your gut than anything else. If you're not very excited about a new hire, they likely won't be a game-changer for your company. Wait instead of settling.
#22 THE INTERNET CAN BE LOTTERY TICKET OR A PRISON SENTENCE
The internet has changed everything. Ignore it at your peril. Alternatively, the internet has also created and exacerbated many serious societal issues you must avoid in order to get the best out of it while steering clear of the worst it has to offer — addiction, isolation, and wasted potential. Use the internet as a tool, not an escape.
#23 STAY CURIOUS, HUNGRY & OPEN—SUCCESS CAN DULL YOUR EDGE
The higher you climb, the easier it is to think you have it all figured out. Curiosity fades, hunger softens, and new ideas start to feel like distractions. Don’t let it happen to you. No matter how much you’ve built or learned, keep approaching problems with fresh eyes. The best — Elon Musk, Peter Thiel — never stop questioning, never stop rethinking, never stop pushing first principles. Neither should you.
#24 HUMANS UNDERVALUE WHAT WE HAVE & OVERVALUE WHAT WE WANT
The endowment effect skews our judgment, tricking us into chasing the next shiny thing while dismissing what we already possess. This cognitive bias drives impulsive decisions in both life and business. As an entrepreneur, leverage this tendency — design products that spark desire and a fear of missing out. But as a consumer, recognize it for what it is — and resist it at all costs.
#25 BEFORE YOU KNOW WHAT TO BUILD, KNOW WHO YOU’RE BUILDING FOR
Product-market fit isn’t a lucky accident — it’s an obsession with understanding your audience. The best startups don’t just make things; they solve real, specific problems for real, specific people. Before you write a line of code or design a prototype, get crystal clear on who your customer is, what keeps them up at night, and what they desperately need (even if they don’t know it yet).
#26 HIRE PEOPLE BASED ON HUNGER, INTEGRITY & WILLINGNESS TO LEARN
You can teach skills. But ambition, drive, and character are inherent. When hiring always default to what you cannot teach or buy.
#27 PEOPLE, GENERALLY, ONLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT OR IMPROVE THEMSELVES
Generally, we are a selfish species. There are huge business opportunities in understanding and exploiting people's obsession with themsevles, what they look like to others, and how they are perceived by them. Don't ignore this brute fact.
#28 ALWAYS TRY TO GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS A LITTLE MORE THAN THEY EXPECT
Exceeding expectations, even in small ways, creates loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. REMEMBER — it's often the little touches that people remember and appreciate most.
#29 NETWORKING ISN'T WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR ME, BUT WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU
People fundamentally misunderstand the value and role of networking. Networking is not about what your network can do for you, but what you can do for them without asking for or expecting anything in return. Do this long enough with the right people and it will PAY BACK TENFOLD OVER TIME.
#30 THE BEST BUSINESSES FEEL MORE LIKE MOVEMENTS THAN PRODUCTS OR SERVICES
The most successful companies don’t just sell something — they stand for something. They create a vibe, a belief system, a community. They don’t just attract customers; they rally believers. When a business taps into something deeper — identity, belonging, purpose — it stops being just a brand and starts becoming a movement.
#31 STARTING A COMPANY IS A WASTE OF TIME IF YOU'RE NOT COMMITTED TO GOING ALL THE WAY
Starting and building companies — especially those in new or bleeding edge markets or those designed to scale quickly — is intense, grueling, exhausting, and sometimes, even downright painful. If you aren't fully committed to going all the way, it's not worth the incredible effort and trouble you'll go through.
#32 DON'T EVEN THINK OF STARTING A COMPANY WITHOUT FULLY UNDERSTANDING 'WHY NOW & WHY ME?'
Founder-market fit is also crucial for startup success. Why, specifically, are you the right person to solve this problem or create this product, in this moment? Your answer to this question should be obvious and overwhelmingly compelling.