The first time I founded a company, I was overly concerned about what others thought, including my team and investors. The second time, I focused on building something that people genuinely wanted.

The second time as a founder, I focused on building something that works and sought to disprove things with my first set of customers.

As a second-time founder, I found that previous experiences made certain aspects of building Discord easier, but finding product-market fit remained challenging.

By the time I co-founded my next venture, I was a more self-aware leader, owning both my weaknesses and strengths, which improved my companies and my happiness.

I learned that without customer feedback, I had no idea what to build, which was a critical lesson I missed in my previous startup.

Building any product helps you gain expertise in that area, positioning you to identify new ideas and opportunities.

After exiting my first company, I spent time working at startups and venture builders to gain experience and learn from faster-growing companies.

I learned a lot from my first startup, especially about what not to do, like playing startup without having product-market fit.

In all three cases, the founders had firsthand experience with the problems they aimed to solve, which made the opportunities to create something significantly better clear in hindsight.