- As a founder, after you are up and running, be prepared to spend lots of time on tricky, time consuming and seemingly "non-core" jobs. Eg legal, fundraising,

- As a founder, after you are up and running, be prepared to spend lots of time on tricky, time consuming and seemingly "non-core" jobs. Eg legal, fundraising, HR, accountancy, tax, compliance. Because these are actually important things for you to understand when running a business. And regardless of whether your a "startup" or not, your still a business - just like all the rest. Ignoring this side of things will lead to a world of pain. - Related to the above, you will learn more useful information about running a business from a person who runs traditional business, not other startup founders or blog posts. It's well worth chatting to some. Sure there are differences (eg fundraising, spending) but the basic operations remain the same. - This is often said, but I think people gloss over it. If you are doing it for the money, then you are not very good at financial management. Do it only if you enjoy serious challenge, want to build something huge and need some big guns (VCs) to help you achieve it. - If you are setting up a B2B business you should ideally have a few years salary saved. These things take time. - Overestimate costs and underestimate profits when budgeting, where possible. It's great to have more money than you planned - it can be catastrophic to have less.