7 Harsh Truths I Learned the Hard Way as a Founder 🚫📉👀 (watch this before launching your business)

Just Grow With It with Natalie Barbu

Natalie Barbu

Education, Business, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.8 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We spent two years and a million dollars building the wrong product. The first 500 people to use my link in the description or scan the QR code will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare! Get started today! https://skl.sh/nataliebarbu09251 In this episode of "Just Grow With It," I break down the essential steps every founder should take before starting a business—so you can avoid our mistakes and set yourself up for success. Whether you’re a creator, entrepreneur, or aspiring founder, you’ll learn how to validate your idea, find your niche customer, structure your team, and launch with confidence. 🔔 Subscribe for more founder stories, business tips, and real talk about building startups: https://www.youtube.com/@NatalieBarbu 📧 Sign up for my weekly newsletter: https://thegrowthlist.substack.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro: Our $1M Mistake & What We Learned 00:35 – Welcome to Just Grow With It 00:51 – The Rella Story: Launching & Learning 01:17 – Subscribe & Newsletter Shoutout 01:49 – Step 1: Write Out Your Idea 02:40 – Why Writing Clarifies Your Vision 04:00 – The Power of Clear Messaging 04:22 – Sponsor: Skillshare 06:01 – Step 2: Tell Everyone About Your Idea 07:04 – Who to Listen to (and Who Not To) 08:08 – Building Community & Getting Feedback 09:25 – Defining Co-Founder Roles & Equity 10:41 – Why Roles & Equity Matter Early 12:21 – Step 3: Find Your Niche Customer 13:16 – The Dangers of Building for Everyone 14:36 – Is Your Market Big Enough? 15:16 – Step 4: Funding Your Business 15:55 – Choosing the Right Funding Path 16:55 – Step 5: Charge Early & Validate 17:54 – Why Monetization Can’t Wait 18:58 – Step 6: Launch Quickly & Simply 20:24 – MVPs & Starting Small 21:08 – Your Startup Checklist 21:32 – What Happens After Launch? 21:52 – Outro & Next Steps If you found this episode helpful, please like, comment your questions, and subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday! #StartupTips #Entrepreneurship #JustGrowWithIt #BusinessAdvice #Founders #StartupMistakes #HowToStartABusiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We spent two years and a million dollars building the wrong product.
0:04.1	Here's everything we should have done before we started our business.
0:06.9	But if you don't have customers that pay you, you don't have a business.
0:11.0	The risk of someone taking your idea is so much smaller than the risk of not sharing it and missing out on that important feedback.
0:18.0	Trust me, the second someone starts paying you, you will know everything wrong with your company. But you have to do this before starting your business. It may or may not be coming from experience. Welcome to Let's Grow With It. I've always been a little impulsive. I get an idea and just go with it. But that's the thing about life and business. You're always growing, learning, and figuring it out as you go.
0:38.4	Welcome to Just Grow With It, the podcast where I share lessons I've learned as a founder and creator,
0:43.7	the mistakes, the pivots, and the wins, and how staying consistent can change everything.
0:48.3	So if you're ready to grow with me, let's get into it.
0:50.7	I started my business Rella back in 2022, and for those of you who have been around
0:55.6	during that time, you know that I was so excited for this app I was building for creators. We launched
1:01.9	with a big bang. We got ranked on the app store. We had hundreds of people talking about us online.
1:07.4	But besides what you see on social media, we probably made every single business mistake
1:12.4	in the book. And that is the reason why I wanted to start this show. If you guys have been
1:17.6	enjoying Let's Grow with it, make sure that you subscribe on YouTube or Spotify, wherever you watch
1:21.9	or listen to podcasts. And I also started a newsletter, which goes out every single Wednesday with
1:26.9	these episodes.
1:27.7	That's just a resource for all of the ambitious people out there.
1:30.8	Whether you're a business owner, you're a creator, you want to be a founder.
1:34.4	The newsletter is for you.
1:35.7	It's hopefully not going to become like an annoyance or spam in your inbox and it's actually going to provide value.
1:41.3	So definitely sign up in the description.
1:43.8	The first thing that you need to do
	...

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