Entrepreneurship

I sold my first product on Feb. 12 2017 when I was 16 years old. I have the paypal receipt framed hanging on the wall.

This page is a collection of lessons learned since then.

Note: This is from my experience in B2C, I have never done a B2B business.

PAID customers != Free Customers

I have released products for free thinking that users would give good feedback or be willing to pay for a premium version.

This is not the case in my experience. Free users rarely convert to sales and they also have different pain points and expectations compared to paying customers.

Free products are good for brand awareness but they don't prove product-market fit.

Sales come in waves of exponential decay

When you launch a product, you will get a wave of sales from your initial press release and marketing. Sales will quickly decay exponentially.

The decay rate depends on the source. E.g., if from YouTube, then it's governed by the YT algorithm which may be different from other sites for example.

It's very tempting to extrapolate your $500 sales day into a $15k/mo business, but this doesn't happen.

Assume sales will decay >2x/day. You need to go out and find customers. They will not come to you.

Market feedback ASAP

You have no clue what the market response will be until you actually start selling.

Get feedback from PAID customers early and often. Because you literally know nothing until you get sales.

It's a shitshow.

Lots of universities have launched entrepreneurship programs. I think this is excellent. People should be encouraged to pursue their ideas.

With that said, I find that there is a culture of toxic positivity that can be unhelpful and downright misleading to newcomers.

In my experience, almost everything fails or doesn't go as planned. It's a shitshow. Embrace it.