In the early stages of a startup, you can literally be bad at everything, and it might work in your favor

Being a bad salesman can be good

It forces you to build something that sells itself rather than relying on persuasion to sell a lukewarm product that should have never existed in the first place

Being bad at raising money can be good

It forces you to bootstrap as far as you can, be more resourceful, and you’ll dilute yourself less in the long run

Being bad at programming can be good

You’re forced to be super lean and validate with no-code MVPs before committing to building out an actual product (this massively lowers risk that you will build something nobody wants)

Being bad at marketing can be good

You are forced to focus on the ‘boring’ but essential growth hacks like building a growth loop in-product or solving retention and keeping users forever

Being bad at networking can be good

You will waste less time yapping and let your work speak for itself.

Being bad at design can be good

You are forced to listen to users and prioritize functionality and experience over aesthetics and whatever is currently in vogue

I could literally write out hundreds of these ‘being bad at ‘x’ is good’ statements, but I’ll stop there

I’ll state the obvious: if I could choose between being bad at a skill or good at a skill, I’d always choose good

But the danger of being ‘good’ is that you can occasionally use those skills to get away with weaknesses in your product, your business, or yourself

Basically, if you are bad at something, no one will ever throw you a bone

This means you will never get more than exactly what you deserve

Being ‘good’ at pitching and getting an investment when your product is shit or being ‘good’ at closing a client by overpromising features will waste years of your life in the long run when the product eventually dies

Yes, there are instances of products ‘faking it’ and then eventually figuring out PMF, but this seems pretty risky

Instead of ‘faking it’ and hoping to hit PMF, it’s probably better to skip the first step and just hit PMF

This is easier said than done, but in the age of AI, PMF isn’t as illusory as it once was imo

So don’t be discouraged if you’re lacking in skills; your life will probably be harder, but it will force you to focus on the things that will actually lead to a valuable business