I first tried being very detailed, but it ended up being a massive mess and unstructured. So here it is in a simplified hopefully more easily readable format.
取り敢えずとても詳しく説明しようとしたんだけど、読みにくく成ったので、これは短いバーションだ。
The main lessons I learned from starting and failing my 1st company:
1) Businesses don't start with ideas, but with problems.
When I first started out, I thought the first thing to do was to find an idea. However, businesses are entities that make money. To do so they create something that other entities (consumers, businesses, governments) are willing to pay for. In most cases this means the business solves a problem that was previously either unsolved, insufficiently solved or has found a way to solve a problem cheaper. An idea is cool and all, but other entities in this capitalistic world don't pay for ideas. They pay for products and services that solve their problems or fulfill their needs/desires. If you can't answer what problem your company solves or what need/desire it fulfills, you're likely in big trouble.
一つ目の会社を設立して失敗させたおかげで下記の事を身に付けた。
１）企業は案ででは無く、問題で始まる。
始めた所に案を探さなければ行けないと思っていた。しかし企業は消費者と他の企業と政府が買う物を創る物である。効果的な企業は大体以前解決していない問題や不満解決している問題を解決する。それとも或る問題をより安く解決する。案は確か面白いけど、消費者も他の企業も政府も案に金を出さないだろう。自分の問題を解決したり自分の欲求を満たす物に金を出す。自分の会社はどの問題を解決するかとどの欲求を満たすかっていう質問を答えられなかったら、きっと大困難だ。
2) I lacked a proper business plan when I started out.
I started working on this idea, got excited about it and a few months later I realized I had to think of ways to monetize it, market it and that I had to look deeper into competitors, risks etc. At this point I was already excited, working my ass off to make it a success and I didn't objectively look at any of these factors anymore. I wanted to make the business a success and to do so I had to think of a way to monetize it. I had to think of a marketing plan. I had to think about competitors and what we would do differently. I had to think about the risks and how we would do our best to negate them. Ideally you should create a business plan before committing to the project, objectively judge whether it is viable and ask feedback from many knowledgeable people on whether they also think it is viable. Then if the overall consensus is that it is a viable business, you go for it.
２）始めた所に事業計画が足りなかった。
俺の場合は販売方法やリスクやライバル会社を満足に考えず、案を実施して興奮した。その数ヶ月後にこういう事をちゃんと調べたんだけど、もう客観的に成功率を考えることは出来なく成って来た。成功したかった。成功するには販売方法が要った。成功するにはライバル会社を超える方法が要った。成功するにはリスクについて考えて、克服する方法が要った。その心理で研究して、事業計画を作った。しかしプロジェクトを始める前に事業計画を作って、客観的に成功率を審査したり賢明の他人の意見を聞いたりする後に、始めるべきなのか始めるべきではないのかを決めれば最高だ。
3) Only outsource simple short-term projects.
At first I thought that a mobile language exchange application would be a simple project and thus outsourcing wasn't that crazy of an idea. However, later on my vision became more long-term AND after speaking to outsourcing companies and receiving much higher quotes than I expected, I didn't realize that this was not a project that should've been outsourced to a 3rd party. To entice clients to work with them all outsourcers give impossible quotes. I was told it'd be done in a little over 3 months, but after 9 months it was still not done. Apart from that I actually got a lot more than I would've at an average outsourcing company, because I outsourced to a friend who's a great guy. However, that wasn't enough to make up for my mistake of outsourcing a project that shouldn't have been outsourced in the first place. Transitioning from outsourcing to in-house development is very hard and without a constant, deep involvement in the development process by a person sharing in the vision complicated projects have a high rate of failure when outsourced. As such, only outsource simple projects that will not be further developed in-house after completion.
３）易しいプロジェクトしかアウトソースしない方が良い。
アウトソース会社は選ばれる為に無理な見積もり価格と期間でクライエントを唆す。３ヶ月とちょっとが掛かると言われたのに、９ヶ月が経った時にまだ済んでいなかった。この上、技術の開発をアウトソーソ会社から社内へ移すのは非常に難しくて、複雑なプロジェクトであればである程アウトソースの失敗率が上がる。つまり、易しいプロジェクトしかアウトソースしない方が良い。
4) I hired instead of finding co-founders.
Even if you hire top notch employees the relationship you have with them and the level of their commitment and involvement in the project is going to be completely different from a co-founder. Starting a successful business takes insane amounts of work and you can't ask employees to work much more than 40 hours a week. However, the right team of co-founders will work together almost around the clock to make the business a success. I started out working 60-80 hour workweeks at the very beginning, but have to admit that due to some pretty bad personal issues in the 3rd quarter this year and somewhat due to a lack of work for me to do I wasn't putting in that many hours a week towards the end, so I wasn't a good example of a hard-working founder anymore either. There's a lot more things that having co-founders adds, but I made the mistake not to look for co-founders. You can't change the world on your own. You need people to change the world with.
４）共同創設者を見つけなく、従業員を雇った。
逸材の従業員を雇うとしても従業員との関係とか従業員の努力とモチベーション等が共同創設者のと全く異なる。企業するには努力が一杯要るけど、従業員に４０時間以上働かすことは一般に出来ない。他方に良い共同創設者同士はモチベーションが全く違うのによる、頼まなくても一生懸命で企業を成功させようとする。一人で世界を変える事は出来ない。他人も要る。
5) Seek constant critical feedback from knowledgeable outsiders.
Although I had 2 employees towards the end, the only person running the business and the only person ever truly critiquing the business was myself. But as mentioned under #2, after starting this project I lived in a bit of a bubble because I was trying too hard to make it succeed and as a result I was never able to objectively look at the business anymore. Co-founders would've maybe given a bit of a different perspective, but co-founders too live somewhat in the same bubble. As such it is necessary to seek constant critique from outsiders. And not just that, but push them to give you their most honest opinion, because many (I too am often guilty of this) hold back what they really think. Maybe they don't want to be negative or they don't want to hurt your feelings. Whatever it is, it is important to constantly get the honest opinion of knowledgeable outsiders. Investors, mentors, other entrepreneurs etc. Although I did some of this, it was too little and infrequently. The best way to learn is from others. Especially people who know more about some things than you do and people who can give you different perspectives.
５）脛に賢い第三者の意見を求めないと。
俺しかこの企業を批難していたのは居なかった上、バッブルの中で生きていた為に客観的に批判していなかった。共同創設者が居たとしたら、もうちょっと違う意見を貰ったかも知れないけど、共同創設者も完全に客観的では無いから、賢い第三者の意見を求めなければ行けない。そしてそれだけでなく、意見をさせるまで強引する必要が在る。消極的でありたくないとか傷を付けたくないから、殆どの人は本心を教えるのを控えるから。とにかく投資家やメンターや他の企業家等の第三者の意見が重要だ。最も早く賢く成る方法はもっと賢い方に教わることだ。
There's a number of other mistakes I made in regards to this project specifically such as:
- Developing for 2 platforms from the beginning.
- When it turned out the code from the outsourcing was extremely bad and was recommended to start production from scratch I didn't seriously consider the other 2 options:
1) Working with the outsourced code.
2) Stopping the project and firing my employees after only 2 weeks.
Due to personal issues going on, constantly hearing how bad the code was and living in a bubble I didn't properly consider these 2 alternatives and agreed to redevelop from scratch.
且つ又このプロジェクトに関しても色々誤った。
- 最初から両プラトフォームを開発して来たこと。
- アウトソースから貰ったコードがとても悪いのを露顕し、従業員に改めて開発すべきだと勧められたら、他の二つの選択肢を未満に考慮した。
１）改めなく、アウトソースのコードが悪いのに、使うこと。
２）プロジェクトを止め、雇い始めて以来２週間が経ってなかったのに、従業員を解雇すること。
第三四半期中色んな個人的な問題があったし、ずーっと「コードがスゴク悪い」と言われてるところだったし、あまり考えず進められていたこと「改めて開発する」にした。
Another thing I want to touch on is what people often say about execution being more important than the idea. Besides the point that businesses generally don't spring forth from ideas, it is actually impossible to execute a flawed business plan successfully regardless of how good the execution is. Working extra hard and being extra smart about marketing/sales etc. is not going to save a business plan that is flawed at it's core.
別な件だけど、案より執行の方が大事だとよく聞くだろう。案で始めては行けない上、執行がどれだけ良くても、企業計画が悪かったら、企業が実らない。もっと努力したり、もっと上手く販売したりするとしても、成功出来ない事業計画を成功させることは出来ない。
There's some stuff I think I did very well too, such as the design/wire-framing. It's not that I can't do an even better job now if I did it again. It wasn't perfect, but overall I think I did a very good job at the (original) app's design.
There's definitely other stuff I did bad and did well and maybe I'll add more to this post in the future, as a reference for myself (and perhaps others), but this is enough for now.
始めてだったのに、よくやったことも幾つか在る。完璧ではなかったけど、アプリのデザインはかなり良かった。
Right now I just want to clean up this mess and move on with my life. It's really fortunate I have a fun weekend ahead of me because I really need one. Saturday is volunteering with university students and Sunday is an event with ~20-30 friends.
今はこれを終わらせたくて、他のことをやり始めたい。良いことに超良い土日を楽しみ出来る。土曜日は学生団体とボランティアして、日曜日は２０−３０人程の友達と楽しいイベントがある。
Last but not least, I want to apologize to my employees and any other people I let down, and at the same time thank everybody who has given me advice and helped me along the way. (Especially as of late with the investor deck!) I learned MANY MANY things during this project and promise to put them to good use in the future. I'd be surprised if this was the last time I started a business.
最後に従業員へ謝りたい。誠に申し訳御座いません。そして手伝って頂いた人にはスゴく有難いです。失敗したのに、勉強が非常に出来た。将来に役立てる。始めて企業したのに、きっと最後ではなかった。
追記：日本語を書くのが上手く成ってるぞ！
