Try to spend as much time selling as possible, especially if you
are a technical
founder. At the beginning phase of a startup, I
think the purpose of developing a
product is actually not to sell
it but to teach me how to sell and understand
what's wrong with
the product. The purpose of the product is purely
educational and
hopefully allows me to learn from users' perspectives.
I keep telling myself that I should spend at least an equal
amount of time and
effort on selling as I do on developing the
product, and ideally more.
One recurring mistake I found myself making is that I spent way
too much time
developing the product and way too little on
selling. I often develop a product in
weeks and try to sell it in
one day, only to find that no one signs up. Then, I think
the
product is bad and go back to developing.