Crossposting this short Twitter thread:
1/ That feeling in the air & your body just prior to releasing your startups first product to the š is 1 of the best youāll ever feel professionally.
A unique (& kind of amazing) element for me was not needing to juggle the upcoming launch w/ existing production or user issues.
2/ The phase that follows/followed was pretty amazing too. For us, that meant a friends & fam period following internal employee testing. It takes effort to develop & manage a program such as this but itās worth it because of how much youāll catch & fix + for the ambassador aspect.
3/ By the way, rolling out a consumer lending product is trickyā¦ so many variables.
Example: Apple denied our iOS app since we were essentially in beta (we couldn’t guarantee weād always be accepting new applications). š§ thrown. Stressful but š several āļø calls & a few description changes later.
4/ Opening up for GA (general availability) is exhilaratingā¦ I remember spending nights & weekends just staring at & monitoring various systems as people w/ no personal connection found & interacted with what we builtā¦ then more & more people. I lived inĀ Amplitude Analytics,Ā Sumo LogicĀ and Google Analytics.
5/ Be careful and prepare your mind & body for this time period. Now and the foreseeable future will be the very opposite of the pre-release honeymoonā¦ juggle-mania.
6/ We worked so hard & often, without anybody telling anyone they needed to. Iām reflecting on why (compared to most other working environments).
First reason coming to mind is ROE (Return on Energy). Is there ever a higher expected ROE for employees than during a startups 1st yr?
7/ 1 of the biggest realizations I came to immediately after we got going was how little glamour there is. Itās hard, hard work, and thereās no hiding.
The only glamorous time in startup life is prior to day 1 when the initial team is formed, $ās raised, and you quit your job.
I guess another would be following a nice liquidity event š¤·.
8/ Iāve helped some friends make career decisions. I always surprise them when I explain the lack of romanticism & glamour compared to their expectations based on the media. That belief is so šŖ that they have a hard time believing me (until they text me 3 months after joining).
9/ I donāt tweet this with the intention of saying anyone shouldnāt join a startup because of the lack of glamour. Iām strictly just trying to help with expectation setting & mental preparation. Itās important to make sure youāre making career decisions for the right reasons.
10/ By the way, if you need a guiding light for decisions, this one can help: