Article

Biggest mistakes first-time founders make

Y Combinator (Michael Seibel) · Y Combinator Startup Library Free Beginner

This is the plainest, most credible list of the traps that keep founders from their first customers, written by the people who have watched thousands of startups try. It names the exact failure modes you are asking about: not knowing where your first users will come from, not talking to users, and prioritizing press and hiring over getting the product in front of real people. Treat it as a checklist of what to not do, not a formula for success.

• The founders who struggle usually have no concrete answer for where their first users will actually come from, so decide that before you build.
• Talking to users is the work, not a distraction from it: skipping real conversations is how you build something nobody asked for.
• Chasing press, hiring, and polish before you have paying users is a way to feel busy while avoiding the hard part.