The Best Startup Advice I Got From People Who Don’t Work in Startups
Some of the most useful things I’ve learned came from people who’ve never raised a round or written a pitch deck.
When you live in the startup world, advice is everywhere.
Twitter threads. Podcasts. Panels. Everyone has a framework. Everyone has a take.
But sometimes the best advice comes from the places you least expect. Not from founders. Not from VCs. But from people who’ve never used the word "scale" in a sentence.
This is a tribute to those moments. The offhand comments that somehow stuck, and turned out to be exactly what I needed.
1. “If you’re not early, be useful.”
Said by: my uncle, an architect
We were talking about how he got steady clients even when other people were faster or cheaper.
He just shrugged and said, “I don’t always show up first. But I always make sure I’m useful.”
That hit me.
Startups obsess over being first. First to market. First to launch. First to raise.
But being useful, really useful, is what keeps customers coming back.
Every time I think we’re too late to something, I remember that.
You don’t have to be first. You just have to matter.
2. “Make it make sense to a tired person.”
Said by: a barista at 7:10 AM
I was describing an idea to someone in line at the café. They looked over and said, “Sorry, I’m not awake enough for metaphors. Just tell me what it does.”
Fair.
It’s now how I test every pitch.
If it doesn’t make sense to someone who hasn’t had coffee yet, it’s probably too complicated.
3. “Nobody wants to hear your whole life story.”
Said by: a taxi driver, halfway through my ramble
I was explaining what I do. You know the moment… when you’re five minutes into a messy explanation of your startup and even you forget what the point is.
The driver cut in, not unkindly, just tired. “Nobody wants your whole life story. What do you actually do?”
It stung a little. But he was right.
Since then, I’ve tried to keep things simple.
No long origin story. Just the problem and how we help.
That’s usually enough.
4. “Don't fix what people aren't asking to be fixed.”
Said by: my mum
I was home for a weekend and ranting about something we wanted to redesign. She paused and said, “Are people even complaining about that?”
They weren’t.
It was just one of those founder moments where you feel like you need to keep changing things to stay busy.
Now, every time we think about tweaking something, I ask, “Who actually wants this changed?”
If the answer is no one, we leave it alone.
5. “Keep your promises. Especially the small ones.”
Said by: the shopkeeper at a local grocery store
He ran a tiny shop, and people loved him. Not because it was cheap or fancy, but because if he said he’d stock something or call when it arrived, he did.
That kind of follow-through builds trust.
I think about that every time we overpromise in product updates or timelines.
Shipping the feature is great. But keeping your word is better.
Lessons that stuck
Not one of these people works in tech.
None of them care about our ARR or churn rate.
But each gave me a piece of advice I’ve used more than any spreadsheet or KPI dashboard.
Because at the end of the day, a startup is just a business.
And business is still about people, right? How you treat them, how clearly you communicate, and how you deliver what you said you would.
I loved reading this. It was a pitch, brief and brilliant!