Lessons learned from building multiple companies and what actually matters when starting out.
Building a startup in 2025 is both easier and harder than ever before. Easier because the tools are incredible, funding is (relatively) accessible, and you can reach a global audience from day one. Harder because competition is fierce, attention spans are shorter, and everyone thinks they’re building a startup.
I’ve co-founded AdEspresso and Breadcrumbs, advise multiple startups, and have seen countless others succeed and fail. Here’s what I’ve learned about what actually matters when starting a company in 2025.
This isn’t another “10 steps to startup success” post. These are real, hard-earned lessons from someone who’s been there. Some will be obvious. Some will contradict popular startup advice. All of them are true.
Validate Before You Build (No, Really)
Everyone says “validate your idea” but most founders still spend months building before talking to a single customer. I get it. Building is fun. Talking to potential customers who might reject your idea is scary.
But here’s the thing: in 2025, you can validate an idea in a week. Create a landing page. Run some ads. Get on sales calls. Join relevant communities and ask questions. You don’t need to write a line of code to know if people care about your solution.
With AdEspresso, we validated the concept by manually running Facebook ads for a few clients before we even started building the platform. It was painful, but it proved people would pay for the solution.
Speed Matters More Than Perfection
The startup graveyard is full of “perfect” products that launched too late. Your first version will be embarrassing. Ship it anyway.
I’ve seen too many founders spend 18 months building their “MVP” (which is never really minimal). Meanwhile, a competitor launches in 3 months with a worse product, gets users, learns from them, and iterates. Guess who wins?
Speed isn’t about being reckless. It’s about learning faster than your competition. Every day you’re not in front of real users is a day you’re not learning.
Distribution > Product (Usually)
Controversial take: having the best product rarely wins. Having the best distribution does.
You can have an amazing product, but if nobody knows about it, you’re dead. Conversely, you can have a mediocre product with great distribution and build a massive business (looking at you, most B2B SaaS companies from 2015-2020).
Start thinking about distribution from day zero. How will people find you? What channels will you use? Who are your early adopters and where do they hang out? If you can’t answer these questions, you don’t have a business plan.
Cash is King (Especially in 2025)
The era of “growth at all costs” is over. Investors want to see a path to profitability. This is actually great news for founders who know how to build sustainable businesses.
Focus on getting to revenue quickly. Don’t wait to be “ready” before charging. Don’t offer forever free plans thinking you’ll monetize later. Revenue is the ultimate validation that you’re solving a real problem.
When I started Breadcrumbs, we charged from day one. Were we ready? Probably not. Did it force us to deliver value quickly? Absolutely. Did it prove the concept faster than any free beta could? You bet.
Pick Boring Technology
Unless your competitive advantage IS the technology, use boring, proven tools. React, not the new framework everyone’s talking about. Postgres, not the new database that might not exist in two years.
Your startup will fail for a thousand reasons, but “we used the wrong tech stack” will never be one of them. Save your innovation for your product and your go-to-market, not your infrastructure.
The best tech stack is the one that lets you move fastest with the team you have. That’s usually the boring one.
Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly
Early hires make or break startups. Each person sets the culture, the quality bar, and the pace. Hire too fast and you’ll spend more time managing than building.
Stay small as long as possible. Two motivated people can out-execute a team of ten mediocre ones. When you do hire, make sure they’re not just skilled but also aligned with your vision and culture.
And if someone isn’t working out? Don’t wait. It’s not going to magically get better. Quick decisions here are kind to everyone involved.
Find Your Unfair Advantage
Every successful startup has some kind of unfair advantage. Maybe it’s a unique insight into a market. Maybe it’s an existing audience. Maybe it’s domain expertise that takes years to build.
If you’re competing purely on execution in a crowded market, you’re playing on hard mode. Better to find the one thing that’s really hard for others to replicate and lean into it.
For us with AdEspresso, our unfair advantage was deep Facebook Ads expertise at a time when the platform was exploding but confusing. We weren’t better developers than everyone else, but we understood the problem better than anyone.
Build in Public
One of the best decisions you can make in 2025 is to build in public. Share your journey, your metrics, your failures. It’s scary, but the benefits are enormous.
You’ll get feedback faster. You’ll build an audience before you need one. You’ll attract the right investors and team members. And when you launch, you’ll have people who are invested in your success.
This blog is part of my build-in-public strategy. Does it feel vulnerable sometimes? Yes. Has it opened more doors than I can count? Also yes.
You Have to Survive the Trough of Sorrow
There’s a period in every startup where the initial excitement has worn off, growth has plateaued, and you’re just grinding. This is where most startups die.
The founders who make it are the ones who can push through this phase. Not because they’re more talented or better funded, but because they’re more persistent. They keep shipping when it feels like nothing is working.
If you’re in the trough right now: that’s normal. Everyone goes through it. The only way out is through. Keep talking to customers. Keep shipping. Keep learning.
Final Thoughts
Building a startup in 2025 requires resilience, speed, and a willingness to do things that don’t scale. There’s no formula, no guaranteed path to success.
But if you can find a real problem, validate it quickly, build something people want, and distribute it effectively—while managing your cash and hiring the right people—you’ve got a shot.
Is it going to be hard? Absolutely. Is it worth it? If you’re reading this, you already know the answer.
Now stop reading and go build something.