& https:|/techerunch.com/2021/01/26]the-5-biggest... The 5 biggest mistakes | made as a first-time startup founder | TechCrunch Clip source: The 5 biggest mistakes | made as a first ime startup founder | TechCrunch The 5 biggest mistakes | made as a first-time startup founder Rami Essaid@ramiessaid / 9:33 PM GMT+January 26, 2021 Image Credits: Randy Faris / Getty Images June 4, 2019 should have been one of the happiest days of my life. At 11:30 a.m., a press release hit the wire announcing that the cybersecurity company | had spent more than eight years building was being acquired by a larger cybersecurity player.What's not to love about a successful exit? I'd be set financially, the investors who had given us $70 million would make money, and the technology we created would get new legs in an organization reach and resources. broader Still, | had regrets. For one thing, | initially hadn't wanted to sell. (More on that later.) For another, | was nagged by the feeling that our company had fallen short of its true potential, and that the reason was me — specifically, several rookie mistakes | made as a first-time entrepreneur. I don’t stew about those errors any longer. In fact, | believe my miscues at my first startup will help define my career from here on out. That's why, as I grow my next company, I'm th want to do but those I'd never do again, ing about not only the things | Here are five of them. Trying to do too much myself In management theory terms, | was a “pacesetter.” I'd be the first to jump into any project or task, I'd execute it as quickly as possible and | expected everyone else to keep up. | thought that was how a startup leader acted — super helpful and scrappy. But it came at a big price: disempowerment of the team. I was hoarding not only control — nobody felt like they personally owned anything — but also the institutional knowledge that needs to be spread around as a company grows. | became a human GPS: People could follow my directions, but they struggled to find the way themselves. Independent thinking suffered. After a few years, | had a frustrating sense that | had all the answers and no one else did. Well, no wonder. I'm now leaving the pacesetting to NASCAR and marathons. Thinking people can read my mind | believed all | had to do was say something once and everyone would get it. | became irritated when that didn’t happen. “We talked about this three months ago,” I'd bark. Intimidated team members would say to themselves, “Yeah, but we really only got 50% of it.”