🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

Validate your idea. Don't write a single line of code until you validate your idea. 80% of startups can actually build no-code prototypes to test out what they are building before they actually go and dive into code. So, really don't write any code, and when it comes to validating your idea go and conduct multiple user interviews and try and sell your product before you have a product to sell and that's true validation right there.

Think about the thing that you want or maybe like the person that's doing the thing that you want to do and go to where that is physically and be active there. When people are looking for recommendations, partnerships, or the JVs, they are gonna go to the people around them first and you want to be that person that's on their mind.

Take risks but take risks in a small way if you are trying to start out and build the business. Fail small but think big. So think about where you want to go grant vision but find little chunks that you can build at a time so that you don't just bet the whole farm on one decision.

Write as much as you can on the paper, and create processes on the paper. Don't give up definitely. Business is all about trial and error. You're supposed to try and adapt. You're supposed to find a niche in any market where you can bloom your business.

Fail Quickly, because when you get into a business you got all these ideas about what's going to work, and sometimes you want to try to do all of them all at once and the problem is you'll never get there. Pick one and go with it, whichever your gut says is the best. Always trust your gut and if it doesn't work you're gonna know really really fast and don't get frustrated. So, fail fast and don't get frustrated, and just keep pushing forward.

Whatever you say, say it with confidence. The good news is that you don’t have to feel confident in order to portray confidence. You might not be feeling confident but you got to project the confidence.

Getting involved in this digital age can be difficult to network and it's strongly suggested to do it in person. Ashley worked with speaking story coaches through a VC program and one piece of advice the coaches gave her you may find helpful is improv (taking improv classes) because it helps you learn to think on your feet and to be able to talk through any conversations.

Learn the language of revenue. People don't truly understand the heart of revenue operations in the business and in their business particularly. If you're a business owner the biggest liability is financial liability and so understanding how money works are critical no matter what you are selling, what you are doing, and how you are doing it.

Just trust your gut. Especially a woman, have this innate intuition that they should look into it and listen to it throughout their journeys. It can be scary or it can be like anxiety or might look like you are overthinking it but sometimes honing in and listening to that gut feeling can make a huge difference.

Find yourself a mentor if you can. Somebody to guide you, Somebody that ca n have that perspective aside from yourself. As a business owner, you've got so much going on and so many things to be concerned with. It's good to have somebody who can stand back and kinda sort through all the noise like hey this is a good idea or maybe not such a good idea. Get yourself a mentor or somebody that you can talk to about the decisions you make so you don't go off in the wrong direction, get some advice from somebody who's been down that road before, and avoid some of the pitfalls.