The reality of life as an early start-up founder

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.”  – Guy Kawasaki

Question, does anyone else feel like we only see the ins and outs of a founders life AFTER they’ve struck gold? 👀

By the ins of their life, I don’t mean every detail from breakfast selfies to an evening nap. I mean, what do founders do when they’re busy building the next Clubhouse? How did Airbnb become the Airbnb that we know today? And, what steps did these founders take to raise funds and acquire their first customers?

There are so many people sharing advice about starting a business, but very rarely while they’re in the midst of doing it. And, by the time founders start shedding some light on their experiences, there are seevveeral missing pieces of the puzzle. Forget teaching me “how to design the perfect pitch deck”, I need to learn how to validate my business idea first!? Personally, I find this information disconnect problematic for a few reasons, like…

• 🛑 Falling on your face can feel like a failure when the reality is it’s often a lesson to be learned. Let’s not expect everyone to know what they’re doing from day one.

• 🎊 Glorifying success without showing the hard work that goes into it, drives a culture of instant gratification (when what you actually need is a lot of patience and willpower).

• 🤫 No one talks about being a founder while having a job (full or part-time) while also juggling life. It’s almost automatically assumed that if you aren’t working on your business all the time, you just won’t make it.

Which makes me think… without stories from founders who are going through the process of building their business now, how do the rest of us get a feel for what we should be doing?

That’s where this newsletter comes in. I really want to give founders like you —or aspiring ones — an insight into what it’s like to build a business in the moment. I don’t have all of the answers but I’ll share every game-changing thing that I can with anyone who cares to listen.

For those who are wondering who I am and what I do, here’s a brief intro. Hey, I’m Jade, founder of a SaaS beauty booking platform called Mane Hook-Up. I launched my business in 2019 and, in the two short years I’ve been doing this, life as a founder has often felt overwhelming. Especially as I’m a big picture person with A LOT of ideas and initially started off as a team of one.

In fact, 50% of the time, this is how I feel 👇🏾😂

To help all of the founders out there, I’ll be sending out a newsletter every two weeks, and you’ll get to see:

• 💡 Lessons of the month — whether it’s a win or a fail, I’ll reveal the biggest lessons I’m learning from start-up life.

• 🛠️ Founders toolbox — tools and apps are my jam, so look out for reviews and recommendations on any tools that find a permanent place in my work routine.

• 🙋🏾‍♀️Q&A — feel free to send me any questions and I’ll answer as many as possible — just reply to the emails or leave a comment.

Hopefully, we’ll navigate our way through the chaos together and come out even stronger like a phoenix rising from the ashes. That picture was a little bit overdramatic… but you get the idea.

That’s it for now, but stay tuned as this month I’m working on:

• Acquiring new users (as an introvert who doesn’t like sales) 😅

• Preparing to launch a brand new SaaS platform 🚀

• Finding support without a budget 💰

• Switching developer teams (woo this one was A LOT) 💻

• Balancing all of this with a part-time job and life (wish me luck!) 🤔

If you want to learn about any of the above, make sure you subscribe 👇🏾

P.S. Feel free to leave your questions in the comments!

P.P.S. I love connecting with new people so you’re also welcome to drop me a line on Twitter or Instagram.