5 Pearls of Startup Wisdom, by @KatiBicknell and Women 2.0

Founder Feedback gives you insights from the startup trenches.

In a story posted by our partner, Women 2.0, Kati Bicknell, Co-Founder of Kindara, describes her journey as a first time founder, her experience with the Founder Institute, and five pearls of wisdom she learned along the way. Kati, and fellow Co-Founder William Sacks, are Graduates of the New York Founder Institute, which has a Final Application Deadline on Saturday, February 4th (Click here to apply). 

Read Kati's full post on Women 2.0 here.

Also, be sure to check out the upcoming Women 2.0 PITCH Conference on February 14th (10% discount with the code FOUNDER).

Below is an excerpt of the article:

"I’m the co-founder of Kindara. Our mission is to provide women with a full solution (hardware, software, support and education) that makes the Symptothermal Method of fertility management easier than ever before.

We graduated from the New York Spring 2011 Founder Institute at the top of our class, and recently closed a Friends and Family round of funding...

I studied art at notoriously liberal Bennington college, where I was encouraged to think outside the confines of a typical college curricula. Collaboration ruled the day, and by the end of four years I had worked on projects with students of many disciplines.

This experience of wearing multiple hats laid the groundwork for me as an entrepreneur. Now, on any given day I may be researching, copywriting, art directing, evaluating feature sets, pitching investors, reconciling the books, or any number of troubleshooting and problem solving activities...

The idea for Kindara came out of my own search for non-hormonal, side-effect free contraception. A friend lent me “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler, a book about the Symptothermal Method of fertility charting. I learned that when used as contraception, the Symptothermal Method can be up to 99.6% effective, that’s as effective as the pill. I decided to start charting my cycle, and was disappointed with the lack of sleek, easy to use fertility charting software.

I brought this problem to my co-founder Will, an entrepreneur and mechanical engineer I met at Burning Man in 2009. After talking it over, we realized that there is a huge opportunity to create technology that gives women better results with their fertility, whether they want to avoid or achieve pregnancy...

In March 2011, we were accepted into the Founder Institute incubator in New York, graduating in June at the top of our class. This experience proved to be very valuable, and we made great connections to mentors, advisors and investors.

It’s been an incredible journey filled with ups and downs. When my co-founder Will told me about the Lean Startup movement, essentially: “the reason nine out of 10 startups fail is because they build a product nobody wants” I realized that we had built the charting software I wanted to use, assuming that it was what everyone would want to use, and that this does not a sustainable, profitable business make.

It was humbling to go back to the drawing board, but luckily our customer development process validated our theory that women want an effective, side-effect free way to manage their fertility.

If I could impart any wisdom to someone considering doing their own startup it would be this:

1. Maintaining balance in your life is important. Left unchecked, the business WILL consume your entire life. Make a point to see your friends, relax, and think about things other than the business or you may go insane (making you ineffective in aforementioned business)
2. Be committed but flexible. Have your end goal in mind, but be open to new ways of getting there.
3. Make sure you have excellent and clear communication. This is in regard to your co-founder(s).
4. Get and stay organized. Our team uses the Getting Things Done approach, and Workflowy to keep everything running smoothly.
5. Ask for help. Reach out to people who have expertise in the area you’re interested in.

As for us, after graduating from the Founder Institute we closed a Friends and Family Round in November and used December and January for Customer Discovery. Our next milestone is to raise our seed round so we can implement our plan and make a difference for millions of women."

Kindara, an online Fertility Awareness application you can use to chart your cycle and increase your chances of becoming pregnant without medical procedures or side effects, is a Graduate of the New York Founder Institute. Follow Kati Bicknell on Twitter at @KatiBicknell, and Kindara at @Kindara_Inc.