Going from $0 to $300K MRR, self-funded [Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse]
Patience ["Overnight success usually takes a long time" — Steve Jobs]
Persistence. Everything will ALWAYS take more time than expected. You need a strong drive. You don't need a big vision (at least at the beginning)
Do everything you can to not need funding. VCs don't care about good businesses (They want to be sold a dream, most of us are not
Be truly international from day 1 (VERY important if you're from a non-English native speaking country). Use English as your main working language (your code, your content, your website, your app, your marketing, your emails, everything). Hire locally (remotely). Put your butt in a plane and go where your "influencers" are (usually in the US) . Build your tech infrastructure to be multi-language from day 1 (app / website)
Invest in marketing initiatives that compound over time, until you reach 500k MRR, at least. One shots are nice (Product Hunt?) but the boost has a short life span
Be obsessed about what's your priority (as a founder) and your team's priority. Working on the "right" things at the "right" time will make or break your business.
When you don't know where to spend your time or invest: invest in vour customers.
Your product will suck (guaranteed), promote it anvwav! Especially in the early days. If vou wait to have a "good" product to promote it. it will be too late
Find "that one thing that works for you, then double down. Don't spread yourself too thin on too many channels. What worked for us: user reviews
The 4 tools that have changed our life (This may be a bit overstated, but hey :-)
Chartmogul (www.chartmogul.com)
Support Hero (www.supporthero.io)
Receptive (www.receptive.io) pendo.io
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrBjQMusDzs