Top 10 things that I learned while building my startups in the last 5 years!

1. You’re not doing this alone. You have friends, family, your investors, and employees rooting you on. Talk to them
2. Everything seems like it sucks — metrics go up and down. Customers leave. An employee quits. Product/market fit could be a lot better. But this is how it feels even if it’s a rocket ship. Important to put into perspective
3. Your job changes dramatically over time. Your first job is to build the machine — the product that attracts the customers and generates revenue. But eventually, it turns into a job where you’re building the machine that builds the machine. It’s all about hiring, leading, managing, etc., etc. Prepare for this to feel weird when it transitions — especially spending 25%+ of your time hiring
4. Everyone’s gotten very data-driven these days, which is great, but you should set your strategy, and then your metrics should follow. It’s to verify that your strategy is working — having a lot of dashboards is no substitute for strong product insight and strategy.
5. Some people say to stay off Twitter and forget the distraction. I say the opposite — find interesting, knowledgeable people from social media, and DM them to meet in person. Stay outbound. Use it for recruiting, networking, fundraising and more.
6. Raising money is a really, really important thing. It can feel like a great milestone, but it’s just the beginning.
7. Ben Horowitz’s book The Hard Things About Hard Things is the best book about being a CEO and managing your own psychology as you set out to do this crazy hard thing. It’s fantastic. Read and re-read it.
8. Also, read and re-read High Output Management by Andy Grove.
9. Build long-term relationships with your employees, investors, and people in the ecosystem. Hopefully, your startup thrives, but maybe it won’t — and you’ll still want to build a long-term network because there will be more to do in the future
10. Don’t worry about generic startup advice — including lists like this one :) Make sure you find advice that’s tailored to your startup’s stage, industry, and specific situation. Talk to experts who are willing to dig in.

Ok, that’s my first 10 :)