Lessons learned in the first 100 days of entrepreneurship

Jessica Choi, founder, Hirely, tells Tech in Asia that the toughest lessons are learned and the most bitter pills are swallowed during the earliest days

It’s been 100 days since my partner and I decided our side project, Hirely, was worth our time with real potential to become a great company. 
 

Here are the most important lessons we learned during our first 100 days.

Be where your clients are
There were weeks where we spent every evening at a start-up networking event. I used to get terrible FOMO (fear of missing out). We started going to places and events where our clients were, which translated into real business. We found time spent meeting early adopters was a lot more exciting than giving your auto-pilot pitch to every person you meet at yet another start-up event.

Everyone wants a say, but take advice for what it is?—?an advice
We’ve been very lucky to have a lot of people show genuine interest even at such an early stage. The other side of that equation is that seemingly every person we meet wants to give an opinion on all aspects of our business. Thank them for the advice, quickly internalize it, and move on.

Fundraising is like dating
We started receiving reverse inquiries from angel investors and VCs within weeks into the ideation phase—a lot earlier than we thought. The experience was reminiscent of my dating days. Look for a partner that shares your vision, buys into you, a partner who will help bring your business to the next level by bringing more than just a cheque.

Carve your niche and focus

Hirely started out as a marketplace for all local services. For various reasons, we carved out the verticals to focus on one—Events. It helped us tremendously in refining our overall value-add to our end-users and paying customers. 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.