I've interviewed 5 founders of billion dollar startups.

Here's what I learned:
CTFU

"Catch the F*ck Up"

Startups are about speed.

If you don’t have urgency, you lose.
Successful people don't find hard things easy to do.

Instead, they've trained themselves to be better at hard things.

Create habits so small that they are painless.

h/t @JamesClear
Be short and to the point with important people.
Co-founders aren't people you meet at networking sessions.

They're your friends.

Get your smartest, hardest working friends and convince them to start a company with you.
How to recruit the best people

People fear joining startups because of financial risk.

Show how pay might be 1% lower next year, but more in the long-term.

"If it doesn't work out, I will find you a job at a great company. "

Reframe the risk, remove the fear.
If you are excited to use your own product every day.

Other people will be too.
Don't take startup advice from:

1) Your friends

2) Your parents

3) People who haven't built startups
When you say, "we don't need your money"

guess what investors want to do?

hint: give you a lot of money
"First principles thinking is stupid.

If you're a genius, it'll take you far.

For everyone else, it's f*cking useless."
Focus on ONE thing in your business.

And spend a year becoming the best in the world at it.

Focused improvement wins.
Network like your startup depends on it.

Because it does.

Your network and great cold emails are the key to hiring great people and getting the best investors.
The best mentor is actually a peer who is building their own startup.

Learn from what they do well.

Steal that and discard the rest.
If you want to help the next generation of business builders, retweet the first tweet below! https://twitter.com/chrishlad/status/1380548368343121931
For more top-secret insights, follow me @chrishlad
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Thank you @pinar_io for visualizing the thread with a poster!

Very cool👇
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