And there you have it – quick and dirty lessons that every entrepreneur should know.  Follow these strategies to avoid sleepless nights, prevent ulcers, and make your startup journey generally less painful.

There are a few common themes that run throughout the book that are worth highlighting.  These strategies cut across all stages of the entrepreneur’s lifecycle.  They form the core of the Agile Startup philosophy, and winning entrepreneurs understand them innately.  Find ways to incorporate these themes into your own startup strategy.

In no particular order, they are:

• The name of the startup game is to reduce your risk by turning assumptions into facts as quickly as possible. Assumptions and survival are inversely correlated – the more assumptions you make, the less likely you’ll survive.
• At least a few of your key assumptions are dead wrong, so go talk to the people who have the answers.
• When in doubt, act. You don’t know enough yet to waste time thinking and planning.
• The team is the most important piece of the startup puzzle. It’s also one of the hardest to get right.
• The next most important piece is the market. If you can find an underserved niche in a large and growing market, then half of the work is already done for you.
• Nail the business model before you start scaling the business. Prematurely building your overhead expenses before solidifying your business model is one of the most common startup killers.
• It’s hard to find meaningful differentiation, and harder to build barriers to entry. Try anyway.
• It’s not a startup until you build something, and it’s not a business until you sell something.
• You must F.O.C.U.S. as an entrepreneur, and in all aspects of your business. Unless you want a war story about how your startup crashed and burned, stay focused on the most important activities.
• Never forget Rule #1, and have fun. After all, if you’re not having fun, what’s the point?

If you want to chat with Matt, don’t hesitate to reach out!  Use the form on the Contact page.