I worked my ass off, but I made a few critical mistakes in the beginning. And a lot of them were pretty much your last line – I never really sat down to think things clearly through.

Beyond the reasonings of why VCs want it – it is good for business. It makes you sit down, think what the current status is, what you want to do next week, what your weaknesses are, and etc.

It took me a few years to realize how important strategy is – you can’t be sure of anything, but having a clear vision of *where* you want to be is great.

One thing I did do when I started was part-time consulting – it made sure money kept flowing in the beginning.