Kyle Hanslovan

While I strongly agree with a lot of this content, it feels quite generic and missing needed nuance. For this section detailing security research, it’s worth highlighting how many real-world positions need to specialize within certain domains. It’s key to understand the depth of domain expertise needed to be successful. For example, two separate companies can advertise a “Malware Analyst” position: one expects basic dynamic analysis skills while the other expects deep reverse engineering experience. Seek clarity to maximize your success.

I wish this blog addressed assessing a startup’s ability-to-execute sooner. A prospective customer shouldn’t waste cycles on reviewing financial stability or legal compliance if the startup cannot deliver due to issues like capacity.

In my experience, capacity is the most under-evaluated differentiator that impacts availability, quality, and the ultimate outcome a prospective customer is paying for. When evaluating capacity, inquire about industry-specific nuances that could overwhelm their offering. For accountants, consider the rush to file taxes or extensions on tax day. For an HR product, it could be mass submitting end-of-year feedback in December. For cybersecurity, think about an incident impacting all Windows computers. Your confidence should rise and fall with the startup’s understanding of your capacity concerns.

As a founder who has scaled past $50M in revenue, fewer things bother me more than fellow startups who skillfully skew a prospective customers’ confidence without outright lying. To greatly reduce your organization’s chances of falling for track record marketing, focus on harder to manipulate leading indicators of success such as unincentivized reviews from verified purchasers. Avoid overweighting the importance of awards which are often tainted by pay-to-play schemes—with the exception of community nominated/voted recognition. Lastly, heavily consider how pattern matching against attributes like investor caliber or a founder’s alma mater doesn’t dictate future success—the best VC and universities all have graduated “C average students”.

I would complement this “fail fast, fail often” feedback with the reality that it’s still better to not fail in the first place. If I was guiding a group of entrepreneurs, I would first emphasize the importance of quality expertise from directly relevant mentors that have already “been there, done that”. By standing on the shoulders of these giants, you can often avoid their failures—saving the “embracing failure” concept for their most unique and differentiating hurdles they’ll encounter.

Purpose is a great personal motivator—it gets aspiring entrepreneurs through the rollercoaster of ups-and-downs. However, having clarity of your startups’ mission is something your customers, employees and investors can rally behind. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.