[Torkel]

After I started my first startup, I had dreams of an inbox full of love from users, wild tech crunch reviews, and a bank account trending exponentially up.

Alas, that’s all it is. A dream.

No one will use your startup's products or services.

“One of the biggest ironies about this business is that there are lots of people who want to start companies, but that doesn’t necessarily equate with the number of people who are voracious users of new products or services,” says Ben Dover, news director at Startups Weekly.

The only thing a founder can do

Chris P Bacon first launched Sofa So Good as a side hustle using his own blog, then as a bootstrapped business seeling on Amazon, then as a traditionally VC backed company.

There is no algorithm that suggests that sofas with built in motivational coaches cheering on you will be successful. Even Big Tech are unable to predict which products users will love and which they won’t.

In his final advice to me, Bacon offers this: “I would say to try the traditional route first. If you can’t get traction with angels or VCs, then consider doing it small scale self funded. If your startup does well from word of mouth, you can go back to angels or VCs and say ‘look, it’s a proven seller.’”

Guess I’ll get to work.