Status Updates From How I Built This: The Unexp...

Nowhere is this clearer than with co-founders who are actually married. The work they have to do is harder and more urgent because there is no avoiding whatever issues they might have.

As a founder, you have to be very intentional and deliberate about how you create the culture of the company. It starts and ends, I have come to understand, with shared values.

"what usually look like good ideas are bad ideas, and what look like bad ideas are good ideas, because the problem with good ideas is that everyone tries to do them, and as a result, there's no value to be created there." Second, he said, "you need to do the thing that you believe you are the best person in the world to do, where you have a unique proposition, given your story, to solve a problem."

What unifies every successful founder who has survived the crucible of growth, who has endured through the trough of sorrow and fought for product-market fit, and who has chosen not to quit but to push forward. All of them have done whatever it takes to stay alive, to make it another day, to get their product on shelves, to get customers in the door, to get vendors paid, to get investors to write checks.

"Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do."

Telling your story is a more cost-effective way to take your advertis ing beyond usefulness and efficacy and efficiency as topics of conver-sation. It's like a growth hack that enables consumers to connectto your brand in a deeper, more personal way, which is a big part ofhow you differentiate and de-commodify your product, create brand log-alty, and set yourself up for long-term success.

bootstrapping as long as you can is the best thing for the company because you own the entire company ... Use your credit cards, do anything you can so that by the time you go to angels you have built a working prototype and have some users. You'll likely be valued higher and will suffer less dilution.