Surround your self with smart talented people who have done it before. There are a lot of young bright entrepreneurs that think they know everything, but I have learned with age comes wisdom. Find the smartest people you know and soak it in, ask questions, meet for breakfast just learn as much as you can. These guys have done it, they have failed and succeeded and they know things. Learn.

Believe in your idea. You are the number 1 salesman of your product. People are attracted to your passion. Next thing you know they want to be your friend on Facebook/twitter/LinkedIn/path etc. and share your product with their friends. Build your army, be transparent and have integrity.

Hire smart developers. And keep the good ones. The entire future is being written by these guys right now and they are in short demand.

Design is Sexy. I know for a fact sex sells. Your UX/IA and product better be sexy. We live in a visual world and people love the sizzle. With my background in design I can tell you the good products/designs evolve over time. Don’t be scared and embrace feedback. Your design is done when the problem goes away. I tell every young guy I’ve hired there’s no “crying in web-design.” and I mean it you need tough skin and your work should be iterative. Its not graphic design anymore.

You’ll have haters. They will laugh at your po-dunk furniture and write passively about you in blog posts but all this just means you’re doing something right. In some ways they’re jealous because the spotlight is no longer on them.

Legal! You live and learn or die and burn here. These guys are expensive. Trust me the cheap ones will cost you more because it takes so many times to get it right, the expensive ones well, they get it done quicker but their rates are crazier.

You may not be a finance or numbers guy but the devils in the details and everything should be tracked. Analytics are the most powerful tool in business besides instinct. Your learn to love funnels, cohorts, average this average that…blah…blah…blah…

Your not cool just because you’re an Entrepreneur. Their wasn’t some club I became a member of because I took the leap. Actually your broke, tired, alone but you get up everyday motivated to  give all you got and see what the outcome is. Then you get up to do it all over again the next day.

When to take the leap. I can only speak from my own experience here, but for me I spent 6 years at a startup that sold to a large publicly held company. I wanted to exercise that knowledge and apply it to my own endeavor. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was ego, maybe it was craziness? It  probably was a mixture of all 3 and then some but hey when you know you know. No regrets. Just focus.

Launch. Well in the great words of Steve Jobs “Real artists ship” I’ll let you know as soon as we do, stay tuned…Follow our progress at www.mobilefwd.com or our app at www.trivi.al

Spread the love. Find someone you to can coach, remember you get out what you put in!  Besides, you never know who might help you shape your idea in to the next big thing while you’re chowing down a burger over lunch.

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