Here’s the way to build your network that’s genuine, professional, effective, and most importantly, fun. Follow these tips, and I promise you will very quickly begin to pack your network with smart, interesting people who are genuinely interested in helping you succeed.

For most startup founders, their key motivation is not the money or the fame of success in business. Rather, they are driven by a core desire to change something fundamental in the world. This, the need to make a difference, is what really separates the successful from those who fake it.

It’s hard to beat the feeling of relief upon landing that first big customer, whether you’re in charge of a new product in an established enterprise, or a lonely startup founder sitting in a WeWork somewhere.

We all have been making apps and putting them on the App Store for almost 10 years now. But if you look at the data, only a small number of apps are actually being used. Furthermore, these apps have pretty much all been made by the big technology players, like Google and Facebook. And yet, year after year, startups continue to build mobile apps that would be lucky to get a few thousand downloads.

The name of the game in any startup venture is to find product-market fit as quickly as possible; and if you don’t hit it first time, to find an idea that works before you run out of money. Agile software development and Lean Startup methods both help you do it (ideally, used together). But while there is a lot written about the principles of Lean and Agile, there are precious few step-by-step guides on how to actually execute.