6 ms·
What's your biggest challenge as a founder?
The conversation always seems to be focused on either finding co-founders or funding. That's really the surface level problem. Essentially the outcome. What's holding you back as a founder? It'd be awesome to dig deeper than surface.
- fivedicks 6mo ago[dead]
- RedsonNgwira 6mo agofunding is the main problem
- bysyd 6mo agoIf funding, is it access or knowledge of what funding exist? Or something else entirely?
- hhcoder 6mo agoI like tarpit ideas too much apparently
- bysyd 6mo agoKnowing what ideas to invest in both your time and value to others can be hard. Simple is scalable, complex often creates obstacles. Can you explain what you're building so that anyone can get it. If you have to over explain the value then the idea may be too trepid.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- didgetmaster 6mo agoIf you are trying to bootstrap your startup, then one of your biggest challenges is trying to find co-founders who can/will put as much skin in the game as you do. Everyone wants you to take all the risks while sharing all the rewards.
- hhcoder 6mo agosecond that
- raw_anon_1111 6mo agoThat’s not true. Most of the time it’s the founder who wants early employees to take all of the risks by paying them much less than their market value with the promise of statistically worthless illiquid “equity”. Especially bad when it comes to non technical founders with nothing but an idea, who put “ai” in their names and convinced YC to fund them.
- allinonetools_ 6mo ago[flagged]
- kathir05 6mo agoDistribution. You might have best idea and best product. But if no one knows it, then its nothing. Getting in front and hands of users and making them use your product is the key challenge. "Why would user choose your product over existing established competitors?"
- bysyd 6mo agoDistribution is definitely challenging even for startups that are well funded. Funding or no funding, while the latter may help it doesn't change user adoption rate. So many great products unfortunately don't get a chance because of distribution.
- mparas 6mo ago1. Distribution 2. Splitting time between family, day job, and building the product.
- alex_ayoub 6mo agothe cold start on sales. getting there when you have no brand, no warm intros, and you're doing pure cold outreach as one person is the grind nobody talks about.
- codegeek 6mo agoFinding people who take their career/job seriously and actually care. And no, it is not just a money problem.
- Philword 6mo agothe co-founder problem is real but honestly i think the funding side is just as brutal, especially if you're building something tangible - like a physical business or anything that isn't pure software. most platforms just aren't built for that. i stumbled on https://wepitched.com https://wepitched.com a while back and it's one of the few places i've seen that actually tries to connect non-tech founders with investors in a structured way. doesn't fix the co-founder thing obviously but at least the 'finding money' part gets a bit less opaque