Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success

Loic Le Meur, for those who don’t already know him, is an accomplished French serial entrepreneur, most famous for the work he did with weblog hosting company uBlog which was later merged with Six Apart; he organizes the annual Le Web conference in France, and has now moved to Silicon Valley where he founded Seesmic.

A recent article in the Financial Times profiles him and publishes his set of ten rules for startup success, that come from his hands on experience and are very straight to the point and useful. The rules are reprinted below:

1. Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
6. Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
7. Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
8. Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
9. Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
10. Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

# Source: Financial Times