I’ve spent the last 4 years working in and founding startups. Now I support communities of founders and people with dreams. Together, we’re building the future, one challenging step after another. In light of what I’ve witnessed and learned as of late, I’ve put together this brain dump of learnings. [break]

Note: These are in no particular order of importance.

1. If your CEO throws a chair across the room during a morning meeting, walk out.
2. If your startup hires a non-engineer, slaps him with an engineering title, and hopes for the best, chances are your work isn't properly valued.
3. If your startup refuses to give a better title to a junior dev just because of their age, they have messed up priorities.
4. If your CTO won't go to bat for any of the engineers when they deserve a raise, don't expect it to magically happen for you later.
5. Don't bet on building on other peoples' platforms. You're subject to their terms, and their terms may change.
6. Don't work for someone crazy no matter how much they want to pay you. Seriously.
7. Only embark on a startup with founders you trust.
8. If you're an engineer, work on a product that requires engineering. If the product is complete and money gets tough, a startup will focus their resources on sales.
9. Expensive parties are nice, but they are totally worthless and don't convert to sales.
10. Stick with what you know and love. For instance, if you're used to working with virtual goods and services, physical goods and services are going to be a tough beast to tackle. [See comment for an edit]
11. Be careful who you choose as your cofounder. If they come in name-dropping and seem too good to be true, chances are they are bullshitting you. Perform due diligence on everyone.
12. If people volunteer to work on your startup with you, don't change the vision. The vision is what you sold them on. Or, instead, change the vision democratically, and then execute unilaterally.
13. Don't be the only engineering member of a founding team when the founding team has exclusively not been in tech and aren't technical themselves.
14. People that have been screwed over with problems with their cofounders in the past are more likely to project problems on to your relationship.
15. Get everything in writing. People have a tendency to go back on their word.
16. Not all issues should be handled with a hammer, some things require a very delicate touch.
17. Being a solo founder is difficult. The most difficult part is managing your own psychology. Having a partner helps, but make sure they can deal with the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.
18. Try to not bring your problems home, even if you work out of there.
19. Make press relationships. It's never too early to start cultivating these relationships, but be warned they get swarmed with weirdos all the time.
20. Always follow through with what you say you're going to building. One of the only things we have sometimes is our word.
21. Managing people is hard. Managing effectively is a talent. Not a single managing method works generically, people are individuals.
22. Find a network of entrepreneurs that want to help and support you. Anyone serious about building products can join the SF Tribes entrepreneur meet-up. Ping me for an invite.
23. Good design is worth its weight in gold. Finding a good designer takes a ton of time.
24. People will trust your product if it is designed well.
25. You start building community with your first user.
26. Building communities is difficult. It happens organically and often times very slowly.
27. Always be measuring! Always. Always. Always. Learn to love your analytics.
28. Everything is a channel. Learn to find what medium your audience engages with the most.
29. Exploit everything you can out of that channel in every way.
30. People will often over-promise and under-deliver. Do the opposite.
31. If you join a company and later discover their ethics are a bit shady, you should probably leave. Your reputation is important, and the network of business here works on trust.
32. Cut negative people out of your life. Not critical people. Critical people are great. Keep them close.
33. Find genuine people and cultivate those relationships.
34. Give more than you get with your network.
35. Be honest with yourself and others, people talk and industry circles are very small.

Bonus:

1. Release early, improve often.
2. Don't spend too much time on a proof of concept.
3. Tests and Security are always the first things to go in any project.
4. Meeting in person is always better than an email.