My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring Founders

[@codelucky]

A disciplined approach to understanding problems, validating ideas early and continuously learning.

[@ticneslda8929]

How did you achieve this? You're one of those exclusive channels, I like every video right from finding them. I already know it's going to be valuable...! Thank you very much. May you continue to live a fruitful life.

[@andresromerodev]

What an awesome video for brand new founders! Thank you.

[@AshMaurya]

Glad it was helpful!

[@simoncrann9430]

My favourite tip 3:41 ! It has changed the way I perceive everything! The tip I have the most trouble with is 9:10 and yet it is clearly the best advice! Your content is awesome Ash! Looking forward to the next video!

[@hmongprospreneurialgroupll5166]

Very concise and comprehensive.

[@WealthyChronicle]

Ash, you make it sound so easy! But what about those of us with full-time jobs and families? Any tips for balancing startup dreams with reality?

[@AshMaurya]

I bootstrapped my products with a full time job and two toddlers and coincidentally have a time management / focus video coming out this week :) It’s not easy but a right action, right time focus makes it manageable until you’re ready to take the leap full time.

[@Xoze514]

Thanks! Subscribed

[@pere_gt__stgtsport5467]

I really appreciate your style. No fluff. Respect and thank you for great advice! How would you advise to do this when developing a Hardware product/business? Primarily regarding certifications and safety? I have a working product that I am testing and is 99% functional. And I also think that I need to start offering it. I am a lone founder, and I don't want outside financing before meaningful sales. I have some interest but no commitments/preorders? How to proceed in the leanest way possible?

[@AshMaurya]

I’d use the demo process to turn some of that interest into tangible commitments. The main difference between hardware and software is the added complexity of managing batch sizes and I’d use that to your advantage by publicizing real scarcity. And sure certifications and safety are important for live deployments but these are often a matter of time and not what’s riskiest. You can often drive early adopters to a tangible commitments and depending on the use case sometimes even early access use in lab or other controlled environments for piloting purposes.

[@pere_gt__stgtsport5467]

@@AshMaurya Thank you Sir for this quick and helpful reply... Really want to start selling to check for true value of my idea/product. I think I have an understanding of scarcity regarding HW products, but I will emphasize it more. Certifications are a "chicken and egg" dilemma, if I don't have them I can't sell, and to grow I need to get my device to the hands of true users to grow my outreach. Of course, I am in a process of creating marketing content, but as you often say, I need early traction. Have to find a workaround just to get a few sales. Thanks and best of luck with your channel! It is severely under subscribed... 😶‍🌫

[@RaymondOkafor-f7l]

‼️ Please does anyone know where the clip in 2:49 is from?

[@abcdwxyz3819]

4:39 But how would you give a demo to sell if you haven't built it?

[@AshMaurya]

Why does a demo have to be a working demo? The art of the demo is showing the smallest thing that gets a customer to buy. Think screenshots, pppt presentations, and storyboards before working prototypes.

[@liveandletsride]

I'm 3.5 months into creating a copilot for engineers querying their BIM 3D construction models and basically finished... I've done everything you say I should not do. Realized that the app is cool and useful for people like me but does not solve a problem. What should I do next?

[@AshMaurya]

I would commit to NOT building anything more until you can sell what you have. The best way to do this is through carefully scripted customer problem discovery conversations. If you're a reader, my book (Running Lean) walks through the steps and also coincidentally walks through a architect/vr model construction case study :)

[@owaiskhan09]

Sounds interesting, I'm a bim coordinator can I see it?

[@ramirocastellon2921]

I'm interested too

[@liveandletsride]

@@AshMaurya Thanks for your feedback. I'm getting a customer discovery colleague on the team to help me with that

[@Danilo182]

One more customer for your product here😅

[@Hammad-v1i]

Can u explain more should sell before you build

[@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057]

Would you demo to the same people you originally did customer development / problem discovery with?

[@AshMaurya]

Yes - provided they met your early adopter criteria.

[@albertcona6499]

How can I ask for pre-orde or down payment if my idea is to only generate money if they book the service of the vetted professionals in my SaaS?

[@AshMaurya]

What does booking a service entail in terms of upfront monetary commitment? If you’re not asking for any upfront commitment, even partial, you probably should and there’s your preorder.

[@mmkamalraj8931]

Great work... One question. With the Agentic IDEs, selling (software ideas) before building can lead to sharing the idea which can be easily built with AI. How to tackle that?

[@AshMaurya]

That’s a topic I’m covering in an upcoming video.

[@Rollexm]

The think statue. I need one.

[@sayandsathish2159]

I did the stupidest thing of quitting my job with just an idea and nothing else

[@AshMaurya]

you can still prioritize de-risking this idea as quickly as possible or potentially even testing multiple ideas in parallel with the the added bandwidth by staying focused on the right risks.

[@Kr1tikal_BMS]

I have created a platform for e-commerce where users can showcase their products in 360 views and Augmented reality. Pretty easy to use and easy to integrate to any websites. We have completed stability tests, r&d and have few paying customers with good feedbacks. We are looking to scale up our business. Any suggestions on How to scale ?

[@AshMaurya]

If you have demonstrated a working business model at small scale (customer + problem + solution + monetization), scalability comes down to distribution (channels). Rather than thinking of this as a 0-1 switch, this 10X, What would it take to get 10x the number of customers you have where x can start with a small number. When you achieve the goal, repeat a couple of times.

[@Kr1tikal_BMS]

@@AshMaurya​​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠Thanks for the reply! What i understood from your advice Finding the right channels to do marketing is what we should focus on. Isn’t that right Ash?

[@AshMaurya]

@@Kr1tikal_BMS Yes, provided you've validated your ICP, pricing, and offer first with your current paying customers.

[@Freedom20255]

I want to build i have had this idea over a year.😢😢

[@AshMaurya]

Why not start acting on it? You don't need anyone's permission to start.

[@Freedom20255]

@ I am trying to save up for the app. I am not a developer so. I need to say and pay them. Thanks for caring…

[@AshMaurya]

@Freedom20255The thumbnail of this video is sell before you build… I’d recommend following the demo-sell-build process outlined there before investing in app to avoid spending on the wrong thing.

[@Freedom20255]

@ Thanks for that man!

[@ldandco]

What about government regulation ? it can be excruciating running a business even in several Western countries like Australia Canada with all the taxes, laws, regulations, red tape.

[@AshMaurya]

@@ldandco what business are you trying to start?

[@ldandco]

​@@AshMaurya financial trading ... I am a Software Engineer... have a prototype for algo trading with UI ... it sounds simple obviously, but this is just 1% of what the software does... To make things really complicated, solicitors are still trying to figure out if I need an expensive license as they may deem the software as an advisory service (which is not) but then again, there is lots of things to overcomplicate something that could be simpler

[@Soya8827]

Saas is dead right? Anyone can build there own software with ai. Then will someone buy a saas?

[@Sanscripter]

is the value in the app or in the data?

[@stefanburger07]

Solving a real problem is key, software is just a tool.

[@Soya8827]

@@stefanburger07 thanks for sharing your thoughts. But my doubt is if I have a good saas product, then someone can easily clone it with ai right?

[@stefanburger07]

@Soya8827 no, not necessarily. Do not overestimate the abilities/drive of competition