Five Lessons from Launching Five Startups

Looking back on my experience with 13 startups in different roles, I’ve learned five key things about what makes early-stage startups successful.

Speed of Iterations Is Everything

The most critical metric at the start is how quickly you can iterate. When it comes to product or marketing experiments, founders should think in days and aim to keep testing cycles to one week or two at most.

Investments and teams help with scaling, but first, you need something worth scaling. Ironically, a larger team often slows progress during the launch phase, as each new member adds complexity to communication.

The same applies to fundraising. Raising money too early, before achieving product-market fit, often leads to overspending and a habit of solving every problem with money and people—even problems that don’t need solving.

Founders Must Be Self-Sufficient Early On

Your founding team should be well-rounded and equipped to iterate quickly without relying heavily on outside resources. I believe three co-founders is the ideal number. Together, you should be able to handle user interviews, build landing pages, run ad campaigns, develop a prototype, set up SEO and email campaigns, close sales, support clients, manage accounting, and raise funds.

You don’t need to master everything but must know enough to avoid gaps. This minimizes delays and wasted resources. Once you see signs of product-market fit, you can hire specialists—and managing them will be much easier if you understand their work.

You Need an Unfair Advantage

Of the five startups I’ve built, I only had an unfair advantage in two. Not surprisingly, these two were the most successful and became profitable immediately.

When launching Getintent, a real-time bidding advertising platform, I was the Head of Growth at a major online retailer. I had years of experience as a client using similar platforms. I knew their limitations and managed millions of dollars in ad budgets through agencies. My co-founder, Vlad, was a pioneer in real-time bidding technology, having worked on one of the first platforms of its kind.

From day one, we knew what to do and how to do it. Our first clients were advertising agencies that already knew and respected me from my previous role, allowing us to secure clients immediately.

A similar story unfolded with Blackfriday, a seasonal aggregator of Black Friday offers. I knew the market so well that it took us just a couple of months to convince top retailers to join our mega promo. In the first two days of launch, we had five million visitors, millions in sales for our partners, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions for us.

In contrast, Apptivise, a smart TV platform for launching proprietary video apps, failed. I won’t go into why we launched it, but my lack of domain knowledge was the key issue. Without understanding the market, we faced endless learning curves and made costly mistakes that slowed progress.

Hints and CRMchat fall somewhere in between. These startups originated from my passion for organizing knowledge and information. Passion is an excellent motivator, and it has fueled my tireless efforts. However, the lack of an initial unfair advantage has been a challenge. It took me two years to understand the market and develop a unique perspective.

If you try to compete without domain expertise, you’re up against 100+ startups that know the market better than you.

Your Team Is Everything

Launching a startup is grueling, and you need camaraderie to sustain energy. Paul Graham said, “Startups don’t die when they run out of money; they die when the founders run out of energy.” Team conflict is one of the biggest energy drains. You need to be extra careful managing team relationships, avoiding toxicity, and learning to accept each other's limitations.

When issues aren’t addressed early, they often build up over time, harming relationships, creating unnecessary tension, and potentially killing your startup.

At the same time, relationships where founders are friendly and supportive but avoid challenging each other can also be harmful. Constructive conflict helps uncover blind spots and biases.

Startups Reflect Their Founders

A startup is a mirror of its founders. Your internal conflicts, values, and personal growth will inevitably shape your company’s culture.

This is why many founders prioritize self-development. As they grow and improve, those changes ripple through the team and the business.

The real danger lies in misalignment—when founders are unaware of their own values, strengths, and weaknesses. Without this self-awareness, building a strong and effective culture becomes nearly impossible.

Speak soon,

George Levin

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