[debt]

"1) Build a product people actually want and need and will pay money for"

This piece advice seems leftover from a bygone era as this is so fundamental that I wonder does it even bear saying?

Again, if you're building something people don't want or aren't going to pay for, something is seriously fundamentally wrong and you should try to define what you're even trying to achieve; that is, you're not even trying to build a business but may think you are.

In most industries, making money is usually the very first thing that happens and, in some cases, happens before a thing is built or a service is provided.

Starting a business == making money. Maybe it's not profitable, but money should be changing hands. If that's not happening, go back to the drawing board and question everything.

We're not in the Dropbox circa 2013 era anymore.

[vincentmarle]

On the other hand, the battle-tested formula for startup domination is:

1) Get to <insert singular mind-blowing metric, like 1 billion users or 1 million drivers>, whatever it takes (bending the laws of unit economics or bending the law in general).

2) Monetize.

[anonymous5133]

Even though that advice is obvious, it is so relevant and I see lots of people who don't actually follow it. Yes, hard to believe but it is true.

How many times do you see a "show HN" post where the project being showcased is just a very simple project. I am not sure if people are just showing it for feedback or if they want to make the project into a startup eventually. A lot of these projects I see seem like they are just simple features but the developer wants to commercialize it. Problem is the current version of the project is so simple that I rarely see any real market for it unless the project is something really amazing.