Steve August’s Post

To All the Founders Grinding Day and Night ⤵ Remember, building something incredible from scratch is no small feat. It’s a path filled with uncertainties, but every challenge you overcome is a step closer to your dream. 🚀 Stay Focused, Stay Driven! Don't measure your progress by others' timelines. Your journey is unique, and your perseverance is what will define your success. Here’s to turning visions into reality and transforming challenges into opportunities. Keep pushing, your breakthrough moment is on its way! #Founders #StartupJourney #StayFocused #StayDriven #FounderMindset #StartupGrind #Breakthrough #FoundersAshram #Perseverance

The Grind and the Glory of Start-Up: VC Meeting, Pitch, Rinse and Repeat Let's talk real for a sec. The startup life - it can feel repetitive, right? Pitch deck, VC meeting, pitch again, rinse, repeat. Don't get me wrong; there are days I dream of a more monotonous routine (is that even a word?). But here's the thing: This grind? It's a privilege. Think about it. We get to meet incredible people - potential investors, future partners, industry rockstars! Every interaction is a chance for stellar feedback and a new perspective to fuel our growth. Sure, it can be tough, but the validation we get when we connect when our vision clicks with someone else's expertise - that's magic! Startup life is a rollercoaster, for sure. The highs are epic, and the lows can be brutal. But that's exactly why it's not for everyone. It takes a special kind of grit to weather the storms and celebrate the wins with equal intensity. And when you do, the feeling of accomplishment is unlike anything else. So, to all my fellow founders out there, hustling and grinding: Let's keep the fire burning! Though challenging, the world needs our ideas, and the journey is paving the path to something incredible. Here's to the ups and downs, the lessons learned, and the immense fulfillment that comes with building something meaningful. What’s your experience? Is it all worth it? Would love to hear how you were able to navigate the high and low. #startuplife #founders #grateful #growthmindset #nevergiveup #LACI

🚀 #Founders – One of the biggest startup risks is operating on untested assumptions. I’ve seen too many founders fail because they built an entire business model around what they *thought* was true—only to find out later it wasn’t. 😬 Here’s how to identify and validate your most critical assumptions: 1️⃣List every assumption you’re making about your product, market, and customers. Example: "Our target customers want X feature." 2️⃣ Prioritize assumptions by risk. Which would cause your business to fail if they were wrong? 3️⃣ Test them. This could be through customer interviews, a landing page test, or even a pre-launch offer. Here’s why it works: By validating key assumptions, you avoid building a product nobody wants and increase your chances of success. When assumptions are tested early, you can pivot fast—before investing too much time or money. Take action: This week, pick one assumption and test it with real customer data. It’ll save you months of guessing! What’s an assumption you’ve tested recently, and how did it go? Drop your insights below. 👇 ♻️ Repost this to share with your network👍 #EarlyStage #StartupLife #Founders #LeanStartup #TheFoundersForge

Building something from scratch doesn't mean you have to build it alone. Startup culture glorifies 100-hour weeks and solo heroics. But your personal bandwidth eventually becomes your company's biggest liability. Most founders mix up independence with ambition. This mindset blocks the exact creative breakthroughs that got them excited about starting companies in the first place. If you're ready to scale your impact without burning yourself out, watch my full conversation with Alison Campbell, Founder & CEO at unBurnt, to learn how successful founders stay true to their vision while bringing in the right support.

Here's a HUGE sign that you do NOT have Product/Market Fit!⚠️ When you have to make it hard for people to leave your product/service...⛔ Instead of making it hard for them to even imagine WANTING to leave!😍 Even worse when you need to SUE to make sure that you can continue to trap customers!🕸️ Creating a "sticky" product is NOT about holding people hostage Or at least it shouldn't be. And while big companies can get away with this, startups who are building their brand reputation and create positive momentum should NOT try to set traps. Focus on understanding and delivering value! It really is that simple. Get your customers to rave about you. Give them a reason to make you their default. Provide a dopamine rush... Let them stop if they want to.. . And monitor the departures. It will be better to get a signal EARLY that people are not getting the value they want. That will give you the chance to make adjustments before the hole in the boat becomes too big to avoid a crisis! How do you motivate customers to stay? What's your high level strategy? Share if you care....👇 -------- #EarlyStage #StartupLife #Founders #LeanStartup #TheFoundersForge https://buff.ly/3A8w2oI

Is incorporating a company really a big deal? Since watching "The Social Network," I've wanted to build a startup. Yesterday, I finally incorporated my first company. It felt like a natural step, but is it really a big deal? 🤔 Many of my friends have companies, so it seems common. But when I think back, eight months ago, I had no idea, no team—just wanted to reach my goal. People thought I was crazy. Fast forward to today: we have a company and our first investment. What seemed impossible is now reality. We often underestimate our achievements. Each step, big or small, matters. Turns out, once you have a product and customers, getting investment isn't a surprise. Incorporating becomes another step. But each step is a milestone. 🚀 Thank you to all the people that supported me in the hard moments, that listened to my problems and always stood by my side!

Ready to turn your Proof of Concept into a Market-Ready Product? Okay, so you’ve validated the feasibility of your idea with a PoC - now what?  It’s time to build an MVP that delivers value! ✨ But transitioning from PoC to MVP can be tricky: how do you bridge the gap between feasibility and market readiness? We’ve broken down the process to guide you through 🗺️ Let’s dive into the essentials and ensure your MVP is built for success! #founders #earlystage #productdevelopment P.S. More insights are waiting in our blog: PoC vs MVP: A Comprehensive Guide for Early Stage Startup Founders. Link in the comments! ⬇️

"Woke up today decided to kill my ego, never done me no good no how." -Sturgill Simpson Conviction is super important. So is humility. We have to create space for ourselves to be wrong, or else we'll be too slow to learn what's right. For many #founders, finding the right balance will be central to their venture's story. You've got to be wrong sometimes to get to right. Some startups are so afraid to fail - and become so path-committed - that they oblige themselves to doing things wrong for way, way too long. Reason 5,098,956 why I love working in #VentureStudios: they give founders room for discovery along the way. They accept that failure is often on the critical path to success.

Founders, stop begging for investor introductions, especially when you don’t know these people from Adam. Every week, I get requests from someone I barely remember from a five-minute chat in 2019, asking for introductions to prestigious people from my network. Spoiler alert: it’s not going to happen. My introductions are like my grandmother’s secret recipe—reserved for those I trust and who won’t make me look like a total amateur. I’m not about to open doors for someone who can’t even spell my name correctly, even though it’s right there in the message (pro-tip: it’s spelled Shaun, not Shuan or Sean). So please, don’t try to raid me or anyone else you barely know for their investor contacts. It won’t work and will only make you look like you’re trying to crash a party you weren’t invited to. #startup #founders  #venturecapital

Do you have at ONE Must-Do deliverable for this week? Have you written down the benefits of getting it done? The consequences of not getting it done? Will you do this every week? Will you keep track of your weekly successes? Learn from the times that you've broken your commitment? If you keep a written record... ...you will either be surprised at the concrete record of your progress... ...or surprised how often you didn't follow through. The first will keep you motivated and making continuous progress.🚀 The latter will give you a concrete metric to improve on.📈 The challenge of being a CEO/Founder, is that no one else will really hold your feet to the fire. So it's up to you to make and keep meaningful commitments. That's how you'll make progress. And focusing on ONE thing will help you prioritize. What's your method of making sure you are making weekly progress? Share what's working for you with other founders....👇 ----- ♻️ If this was helpful...Share if you Care👍 #EarlyStage #StartupLife #Founders #LeanStartup #TheFoundersForge