Lessons learned from a technical founder
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Hi there, Recently I interviewed my friend and former colleague Wilhelm. He left his engineering job at a unicorn startup to found a company. Solo and self funded. After a year he ran out of money and decided to close the company. In this interview he shares what he learned through the process. The company Wilhelm started was called Meos. The aim was to give people back control of their personal data. Instead of Facebook and Linkedin owning your data Meos would be your personal cloud database, controlling how your data is shared. What was your day to day like as the founder of Meos? I spent about 80% of my time coding. In hindsight, this was one of my biggest mistakes. The remaining 20% was spent on non-engineering tasks, such as meeting with potential investors, talking to design and marketing agencies, and trying my hand at content marketing. I wrote blog posts and maintained an Instagram page, but looking back, I was shooting in the dark in many directions. My focus on coding left me spread too thin, neglecting essential business-building tasks like market traction and growth, which are critical in the early stages of a startup. What is the hardest part of doing a startup? For me, the hardest part was prioritization and the lack of hustle. I had a compelling idea, and people showed interest, but I had no clear roadmap to turn the vision into reality. I thought that by simply working away at the product, success would follow. I didn’t recognize my resource limitations, and eventually, I ran out of money and couldn’t secure investment. I spent too much time on automation, design systems, and technical improvements—things that mattered as an engineer, but not for a startup seeking market traction.
I’ve also learned how crucial it is to just get out there and hustle. One mistake I made was being too selective about who I pitched to and how I pitched, worrying too much about making the perfect pitch deck. You really have to be shameless, talk to as many people as possible, and learn from each interaction. For example the founders of Dune (where I work now) were walking around conferences pitching Dune without hesitation using hand drawn charts on A4 pieces of paper. That level of focus and energy is something I lacked.
Why did you stop working on Meos? I had to stop working on Meos because I ran out of money. After six months, my personal investment dried up. To keep the business alive, I took a part-time contracting job, working two days a week as a contractor and three days on Meos. While that kept the business afloat for another six months, I realize now that the moment I took the contracting role, the startup was essentially dead. It’s nearly impossible to build a successful startup without 100% focus. The initial momentum is vital. Has being a founder made you a better engineer today? Absolutely. One of the biggest insights I’ve gained is that most engineering work happens within the context of a business. That business needs revenue, which either comes from investment or sales. As an engineer, you need to understand what the business needs to attract revenue, and you should build products that align with that. In today’s market, with higher interest rates, investors are looking for revenue rather than just traction or user growth. That insight has changed the way I approach product development. I now consider not just the impact of a feature, but its return on investment. Features that take months to build must generate significant revenue to justify the cost, while smaller features with quicker returns might be more worthwhile. I’ve also realized how easy it is to build something no one wants. The importance of tight collaboration with product and constant user feedback is something I learned the hard way.
Now, I ensure that we engage with users early and often. For instance, we are currently building pivot tables at Dune, we held calls with multiple customers to get their feedback before development began. This user-centered approach has stuck with me. Finally, I have a much greater appreciation for the roles outside of engineering. Marketing, copywriting, and design are all much harder than I initially thought. Creating a homepage, for example, isn’t just about design—it’s about distilling the business into a few compelling sentences and choosing visuals that resonate with people. These areas are complex, and I now understand the value they bring to a company.
What advice would you give to engineers considering doing their own startup? The biggest piece of advice I’d give is to focus relentlessly on building a proof of concept and getting traction as quickly as possible. Use any hacks or shortcuts necessary to create a usable product and then hustle non-stop to get traction. This means reaching out to your network, talking to customers, attending conferences—whatever it takes to get feedback and users. Once you have traction, raising investment will be much easier. Traction looks different depending on the business model. For a SaaS product, having 2-5 paying customers could be enough to secure seed or pre-seed investment. For a B2C product, showing 100-1,000 weekly active users or 10-20 paying customers, especially with demonstrated growth, can be compelling for investors.
Whatever your situation, make traction your only focus, and ignore the temptation to get caught up in technical improvements that don’t directly contribute to growth. If I were to do it again, I’d remind myself that the freedom of working without a boss can feel like an extended holiday, but the goal is traction, not indulging in the engineering work you didn’t get to do in your old job. Stay focused on the business goals and keep hustling.
I love this interview, there are so many lessons here. Two that standout for me:
Thank you so much to Wilhelm for this interview. I hope you found this useful whether you're looking to level up within a company or considering starting your own. Thanks, Tom |
Learning The Biz
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