Be careful and brave

You've probably read previous issues of my paper. Many have written to me to look forward to it. And since January, I haven't published anything. Why? I will try to answer this issue and hope that it will help other funders, both men and women, and even young schoolchildren who are starting their first business or project.

Trust, but have an exit plan.

For me, trust has always been a signifier. I either trust 100 percent and don't sweat it, or I don't trust at all and don't do business. But sometimes you need to trust but verify. Otherwise, you will be easily fooled. It's happened to me about 5 times at least. Or maybe more, first in a joint project with friends, then in a community project, then in my own business more than once. Yes, each different level of relationship and involvement. But now this kind of failure on my part doesn't surprise me. Partners can not bring the client, and not pay for services, an employee can invent problems to not work. The situation itself can happen 1 by 1 for 1 month and here you are the person who can't fulfil obligations. Unexpected?

At first, I thought starting a company was out of the realm of the impossible. What? I have my own business, I used to idolise people like that. They took responsibility. Turns out the hardest thing to do is to make that company make money.

Keep your boundaries and keep yourself out of anxiety

Okay, you're the owner, but you're half owner, not all owner. Or maybe there's three of you. And you're trying to share the responsibility. At some point, the person with the highest sense of responsibility, maybe you, will start doing the work for everyone. I still don't know how to deal with that.

Trust the team, but choose the team wisely

Everyone's annoying, I'll do it better myself. On the one hand, only you can really do it the way you want it done. But will you manage to do better than everyone else in the way users and customers want? I'm not sure. You have to trust the team. And don't be afraid to fire people. If you see that a person is not interested, he doesn't answer messages from other team members during working hours and ignores tasks. Most likely such a person degrades discipline and needs to be fired. The worst-case scenario is when that person is you.

Sometimes you are very lucky and hardworking and creative people join the team. This can be called a reward from heaven because, without good HR or your talent and experience in team selection, it is very difficult to find talent.

Not dead means you have a chance.

The worst is when you have no money to exist and instead of doing business, you are trying to survive. Then everyone suffers you, the team, the investors, and the product. You could say that if you don't have a reserve of money it's better not to start. And if you, like me, start with a minus in your account, it's a special kind of perversion that leads to discovering your inner limits, testing your inner self, and learning the depths and limits of your cofounder or cofounders. If your startup survived this kind of BDSM with yourself and your team, consider you an invincible bum squad. Because learning to survive is still halfway there. You need to learn how to make money

Community matters.

People you are talking to and getting knowledge bring you to the average you can be.

I very much appreciate to in5 Dubai . It has become a starting point, home, and reference point for building my first professional network in the UAE. The management of in5 somehow selects really good startups and passionate people

There were two more paragraphs about venture capitalists and incubators, but I found them too hard and will not post. Hopefully, my opinion will be changed