Dan Martell - Advice For First Time Founders (How Not to Fail)

00:00:00.000 you know that you're not building something nobody wants because that is the ultimate risk

00:00:04.400 in the software world.

00:00:18.540 Hey there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur, investor, and creator of SaaS Academy. In this

00:00:23.660 episode, I've got a really fun one, okay? I was on Twitter the other day and I asked the

00:00:29.720 question about you know what's the biggest fear you have as a non-technical founder starting a

00:00:35.720 software business okay so i got everybody's answers literally i've got like 55 000 followers and i had

00:00:41.720 dozens of replies and i took all the replies and i put them into three answers to the biggest

00:00:48.440 buckets the biggest fears and i want to share with you like i know if you're starting a software

00:00:53.720 business and you can't write code that's a scary proposition like you if you're starting a

00:00:58.520 restaurant and you'd never cooked a meal but you're just passionate about being in the hospitality

00:01:04.040 in the restaurant space like there's a lot of motivation but crazy fear anxiety that you're not

00:01:08.920 gonna you know get any customers come through the door uh you're gonna get somebody sick with food

00:01:13.960 poisoning you're gonna have a menu that's too complicated or that isn't profitable or there's

00:01:19.000 like all these pitfalls that you're not even aware it's the unknown unknowns right so what i want to

00:01:24.040 share with you is what i heard from twitter and the three areas that is going to help you overcome

00:01:31.320 these fears because if you don't know my story i've built over um 30 different prototypes okay

00:01:38.760 and a lot of them i didn't even code so i've built a ton of prototypes clickable prototypes

00:01:43.640 you know code-based prototypes i've scaled and exited four software companies i've coached a

00:01:49.640 thousand plus SaaS founders, software as a service people that are in the technology industry.

00:01:55.000 I've invested in 50 plus companies. I tell you all that so you understand that like

00:01:59.320 my background is one thing, building technology companies, building software, managing engineers.

00:02:06.920 So all these three strategies are based on that level of experience. And I want to give it to you

00:02:13.160 if you're in anxiety and fear and doubt and concern, I'm hoping that this is going to help pull you

00:02:18.760 through because what I know is that when we build software, we unlock the human potential that's in

00:02:25.040 the world. If you think about it, every tool, software is tools, it's workflows. Steve Jobs

00:02:29.860 called it the bicycle of the mind. Every software will help people get their time back, make less

00:02:35.820 mistakes to be able to be more creative. And that's why I'm so passionate about helping software

00:02:41.020 founders grow and scale and help you if you're thinking about getting into it. So here's what I

00:02:45.940 got number one skill development so here's the deal if you start your software business

00:02:50.900 and you completely fail here's what i know is you will develop a new skill you will become

00:02:56.340 better at managing projects on a remote team probably managing software these are all things

00:03:03.780 that are actually very very valuable in the market you know i recently hired a new program lead

00:03:09.780 and his background the the person that's leading this had a failed startup software

00:03:15.220 or how to fail a software startup and what i love is that anybody starts building a technology

00:03:21.460 company they build the skill of product management they build the skill of talking to the market and

00:03:25.700 trying to translate that into a workflow and interface activities and that is an incredibly

00:03:34.100 valuable skill that for me translates into program ownership you know product development so you know

00:03:41.060 don't underestimate how valuable going into the business and developing new skills like i know

00:03:47.780 when i started coaching in my youtube channel one of the biggest skills i want to develop is

00:03:52.580 communication and i knew that the more i did this the more i got in front of a camera and i talked

00:03:57.780 to people and guess what one take right took me months to get to this point where i can get in

00:04:02.580 front of a camera and just talk about the strategies that i knew in my heart when i was talking to a

00:04:07.540 to a friend at a dinner table,

00:04:09.020 I didn't need an outline, I didn't need a script,

00:04:11.140 I didn't need a teleprompter, why can't I talk about it?

00:04:14.260 Just the same way I would do to a friend at a dinner.

00:04:16.420 And that skill, even if I failed,

00:04:19.200 even if my YouTube channel didn't get 10 bazillion views

00:04:22.440 and 10 million subscribers,

00:04:24.260 I knew it was something worth learning for me

00:04:27.640 in everything I do, and I wouldn't change a thing.

00:04:30.420 I've gone live every Monday, not live,

00:04:33.160 but I've published every Monday for the last six years,

00:04:36.080 I haven't missed a week ever, and I don't plan to.

00:04:39.260 I gave myself a 10-year commitment, which is a long time,

00:04:41.360 but it's kind of how I roll.

00:04:42.800 And that skill development is valuable.

00:04:46.080 So I want you to think about that.

00:04:48.160 And I really want to encourage you to just do it,

00:04:50.100 but that's one of the big beliefs that I want you to adopt.

00:04:53.360 Even if the whole thing fails,

00:04:54.940 you will be a better person because of it.

00:04:56.420 Number two is find a technical friend.

00:04:59.620 So, you know, if I was starting a restaurant,

00:05:02.280 I would definitely find a chef.

00:05:04.860 I would probably find two or three.

00:05:06.360 I actually know who I would reach out to

00:05:07.800 because I've thought of this so many times.

00:05:09.020 Anybody in business at some point thinks to themselves,

00:05:11.960 I should own a restaurant.

00:05:14.180 And then they work out the numbers and they go,

00:05:16.840 man, what a bad business to be in.

00:05:18.920 And usually go back to the thing they were doing.

00:05:20.460 That's always been the case for me.

00:05:21.920 I haven't even invested in a restaurant as an investor.

00:05:24.840 And look, I have friends,

00:05:26.460 like my buddy James crushes it,

00:05:27.840 25 million a year in one location.

00:05:30.720 Those are the exceptions.

00:05:31.740 And if James was starting a restaurant

00:05:33.160 you want investment here's my money but for all those building software businesses find a technical

00:05:40.120 friend okay so i remember when i was building my company uh spheric and i needed to build even a

00:05:46.200 new part of the code i found this guy named scott wadden scott was working as a teacher at the

00:05:53.080 college the way i found him is how i tell a lot of people is call your local college and ask who

00:05:57.240 their top students are in the programming class and what was funny is everybody kept saying because i

00:06:02.360 Because I would talk to the students and I would say, who's the smartest program we've

00:06:05.380 ever met?

00:06:06.380 And they go, Scott.

00:06:07.380 I was like, Scott, your teacher?

00:06:08.380 And they go, yeah.

00:06:09.380 And I just kept hearing that.

00:06:11.600 So eventually I asked Scott to have coffee.

00:06:13.520 We met at this coffee shop on Mountain Road at Tim Hortons, right next to the Community

00:06:18.060 College.

00:06:19.060 And I remember him showing up.

00:06:20.060 He looked like the Unabomber. 1.00

00:06:21.060 He had a big freaking beard and glasses and a big winter jacket. 0.92

00:06:25.300 And he looked like a technical person, a guy that liked to write code and listen to music. 0.93

00:06:30.260 And I remember talking to him and there's just something about his demeanor.

00:06:34.740 He was obviously bright and talented, but he was also somebody that I was like,

00:06:39.000 man, this guy's a really kind human being,

00:06:41.080 somebody that I could spend some time with.

00:06:42.760 So I invited Scott to help me work on this new project

00:06:46.300 and go deep on the analysis of what we were trying to do.

00:06:49.500 And over time, eventually he left the college and came and worked with me full time.

00:06:53.000 And we ended up starting another company.

00:06:55.300 Clarity was founded because Scott was my technical co-founder.

00:06:58.420 But even before that, I want to encourage you

00:07:00.620 to just find some people around you

00:07:02.500 that you're technical friends.

00:07:04.220 So you can learn from them.

00:07:05.220 So you can ask them to look at what you're doing.

00:07:06.700 So you can protect yourself

00:07:08.340 from getting scammed from other people.

00:07:10.180 That's a big idea.

00:07:11.580 And then finally, this is the big one, okay?

00:07:14.820 And I've talked about it so many different episodes.

00:07:17.620 It's pre-sell before you build, okay?

00:07:21.020 And if you, like, this is the reason why I say

00:07:25.140 starting an event is one of the most powerful things

00:07:28.060 can do as an entrepreneur because it's going to teach you the whole thing it's going to teach you

00:07:32.380 what to name the event how to recruit speakers how to sell tickets how to manage logistics and

00:07:37.020 it has a finite date you know many of my friends that i've met it's because i've encouraged them

00:07:41.900 they were like trying to be entrepreneurial and i was like just start an event and they did the

00:07:45.980 event and they learned all these skills and then they realized they wanted to be in business and

00:07:49.500 i like them and hey let's build a business together and literally some of my my buddy

00:07:53.740 Marcel. That's how we became business partners. He called me up. He wanted to start a business.

00:07:58.400 I wanted to do an event. He wanted to help me with the event. I said, don't do my event,

00:08:01.480 do your event. That's an awesome idea. And he did. And it just kept snowballing from there.

00:08:05.580 And I share that because the pre-selling before you build, essentially that's how events work.

00:08:11.480 You build an events page and you pre-sell tickets to the event. And then hopefully you sell enough

00:08:17.020 tickets that one day you got to deliver the event. And people think, well, I can't pre-sell

00:08:22.240 my software yeah you can well who would i sell it to that's the problem guess what you could go spend

00:08:28.080 100 grand to build your software and you're still gonna have that same problem so if you can't solve

00:08:31.760 that problem before you build the software it's still gonna be a problem that you're gonna have

00:08:35.520 to solve and and to me that has always been my approach everything i've done even today pre-sell

00:08:43.200 i just got involved i sit on the board of a company called pila and they came out with a

00:08:46.880 a new product called Lomi and we did the largest crowdfunding product launch. It was $20 million,

00:08:54.080 20 some millions in the ecosystem ever. So even today in my world, when we have access to tens

00:09:00.520 of millions of dollars on the board of this company, we did pre-sales. We listened to the

00:09:07.460 same philosophy. Why? Because the biggest risk in any business is not the product risk. Can we build

00:09:12.760 this it's does anybody want to buy it and those are the three things that i see non-technical

00:09:18.960 founders make the mistake all the time it's the fear that keeps them up at night and i'm giving

00:09:23.240 you the answer to overcome it and that's what i heard on twitter and those were my replies to all

00:09:27.980 those people that are saying this so quick recap number one understand that even if you fail and

00:09:33.560 you probably will 80 chance you'll probably fail you will develop some new skills number two

00:09:38.120 that if you find a technical friend they can give you advice you're going to reduce the potential

00:09:42.620 of building you know bad code but you'll also find somebody that could become your technical co-founder

00:09:47.980 maybe in this company or a future company just like in my case scott did and then finally make

00:09:53.340 sure you pre-sell before you launch before you go and raise money from friends and family and spend

00:09:58.220 all this time building stuff like go find some customers talk to the customers get them excited

00:10:03.020 about it have them make a financial kit commitment to you so that you know that you're not building

00:10:10.140 something nobody wants because that is the ultimate risk in software world so i hope those three

00:10:15.340 strategies landed for you that help you overcome the fear because at the end of the day i really

00:10:20.700 really really encourage you to start something software is one of the most rewarding industries

00:10:24.940 it's why the valuations are so high it's why you see multi-billion dollar exits on a daily

00:10:30.700 and it's why i think you know i've gotten to the position i'm at i just absolutely love the

00:10:36.380 the reoccurring nature, the subscription nature,

00:10:38.660 the predictability of the business model.

00:10:40.760 It just speaks to the chaotic world I grew up in.

00:10:43.000 So I just wanted to share those ideas with you.

00:10:45.940 And if you like what you've heard,

00:10:47.300 please subscribe to this channel and leave a comment below.

00:10:50.000 Let me know what was the number one takeaway for you?

00:10:52.640 What did you need to hear most today?

00:10:55.100 And as per usual,

00:10:55.940 I want to challenge you to live a bigger life

00:10:57.580 and a bigger business.

00:10:58.980 And I'll see you next Monday.

00:11:00.220 Have a great day.

00:11:06.380 Thank you.

Dan Martell - May 23, 2022

Advice For First Time Founders (How Not to Fail)

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