03. What Most Founders Always Get Wrong - And What to Do Instead

Let me tell you something most founders get completely wrong. They start with the logo. With the plan. With the polished pitch deck, the tagline, the website. They spend weeks, sometimes months, perfecting everything — except the one thing that actually proves they have a business: a customer.

I’ve seen this too many times. Smart people. Talented people. People with drive, vision, and great ideas. And still, no sales. They’re working twelve-hour days but haven’t had a single conversation with the people they say they’re building for. And you know what that means? You don’t have a startup. You have a hobby with a logo.

Here’s the truth. If no one’s buying, nothing else matters. Not your brand book. Not your funnel. Not your color palette. Not even your product. Because all of that? It’s theory. And theory doesn’t keep your business alive.

So let’s flip it. Start with one question: can I sell this before it exists? If the answer is no, you might be building the wrong thing.

Let me show you. You want to start a bakery? You don’t need bread. You need buyers. So you go out and sell gift cards. Offer ten percent off when the doors open. Get paid now. Bake later.

You want to launch a coaching platform? Same story. Sell spots in advance. Ask coaches to pre-pay. Find people who say, “Yes, I want this — even if it’s not ready yet.” Because if no one wants to pay for the promise of what you’re building, why would they pay for the finished product?

And listen, I’m not anti-branding. I love good design. I’ve made more logos than I can count. But branding without buyers? That’s just a beautiful failure.

Let me remind you of something. Steve Jobs got his first computer order before he built the computer. Fifty units. No funding. Just a prototype and a buyer. They used the order to buy parts, built the machines, delivered. And Apple was born. Because real startups don’t start with polish. They start with proof.

And proof doesn’t come from Canva or ChatGPT. It comes from people saying yes. From money on the table. From a product someone misses when it’s gone.

You want to know the difference between a startup and a scale-up? A startup is guessing. A scale-up has figured out what people want — and how to sell it. That’s it. Revenue is the milestone. Everything else is noise.

So what should you do first? Talk to your inner circle. Sell a simple version. Charge money. Get feedback. Adjust. Repeat. That’s the loop. Not making everything perfect first. Not building and hoping. But building while selling. Selling while building. That’s how you move.

Let me leave you with this. If no one in your inner circle wants to buy from you or recommend you, why would strangers? Not to hurt you. To protect you. Because if people aren’t biting, you don’t need better marketing. You need a better offer.

So yes, polish your pitch. Refine your product. Build your brand. But not before you’ve sold something. Because money — that’s the best feedback you’ll ever get. And profit? That’s not luck. It’s listening. Adapting. Selling. Showing up. Even when it’s not finished. Especially when it’s not finished.

Because this isn’t school. This is real life. And in real life, selling beats planning. Every time. And once you’ve sold something, even once, you’ve earned the right to plan. But not before.

Because here’s what most founders do backwards. They build first. They plan forever. Then they launch… into silence.

Let me show you what it looks like in real life. Last year, a friend of mine — former CFO, big international career, Europe, China, the US — comes to me with an idea. A Sudoku app. I laughed. Not out loud. I’m not a monster. But inside, I thought: midlife crisis. Classic.

But here’s the thing. You take friends seriously. So I checked the market. And guess what? He was right. Booming category. Huge growth. Plenty of room for quality.

So we made a deal. He builds the app. I build the strategy. Sounds great, right? Except… he never had time. Because he wanted the product to be perfect. One hundred percent. Pixel-perfect Sudoku bliss. But no time for marketing. No time for growth. No time for customers.

And that right there? That’s the startup trap. “Once the product is done, then we’ll launch.” But without a customer acquisition plan, you’re not launching — you’re releasing into a void.

Because here’s what people forget. Getting downloads doesn’t start on launch day. It starts weeks or months before.

Same thing happened with another friend of mine who’s becoming a nutrition coach. She’s finishing her study. Loves healthy living. Has the passion, the skills, the drive. But no positioning. No messaging. No clarity. And no plan to find customers. Why? “First I need my diploma.”

Listen. A diploma is great. But if no one knows you exist when you graduate, you’ll still be invisible. And broke.

Let me say this as clearly as I can. A perfect product without a plan is like whispering a masterpiece into an empty room.

So what is a customer acquisition plan? It’s not a fancy document. It’s not a funnel in Canva. It’s not five hashtags and a prayer. It’s this: who are you helping? What do they need? Where do they hang out? What are you going to say to them? And how are you going to show up again and again until they trust you?

That’s it. Clarity. Consistency. Commitment.

And here’s the punchline no one likes. Even once you’ve built that plan, it still takes time. SEO takes months. Social media takes weeks of posting before anyone cares. Influencers require negotiation, scheduling, approvals. Email requires a list. Ads require data. Everything takes longer than you want. So start sooner than you think.

Your plan doesn’t have to be perfect. But it has to exist. It has to say: here’s who I’m targeting. Here’s how I’ll reach them. Here’s what I’ll measure. And here’s what I’ll do next when it doesn’t work the first time.

Because it won’t. And that’s okay. Your acquisition plan is what lets you adjust, learn, evolve — without panicking. It’s your oxygen line to the outside world while you’re building inside.

So let’s wrap this part up. Don’t wait for the product to be finished. Don’t wait for your study to be over. Don’t wait for the market to magically find you. Start building your customer machine while you build your product. Because when launch day comes, you don’t want silence. You want momentum.

You’ve got an idea. You’ve got the drive. You’re building something real. Now make sure people know it exists.

Because the difference between “I had a great idea once” and “I built something that changed lives” is execution. Not someday. Not when it’s perfect. Now.

And if you’re done guessing — if you want real strategy, real feedback, real traction — we’ve built this place for that.

BecomeDamnGood.com

Tips. Tools. Startup support. And if you're ready for the next level, check out the incubator.

No fluff. No hype. Just what works. Because being good isn’t enough. You came to become damn good.