If you could give only 1 advice to yourself at the beginning of your startup, what would it be?

Believe in your gut feeling and do not let others influence over your mastery.

I have to tell you Sveta, this is a powerful question. I would tell myself, "it's not going to go to plan, ever, but the way you react and respond is what makes you cut out to be at a startup." Thanks for this thread, appreciate it.

Advice: Avoid the noise, focus. Why? During the very early days, when you are out in the wild with your product, you will notice you don't know many startup related buzzwords. You will feel like you are missing something and will start attending startup related programmes. You may lose focus on your own business. Unless this programmes, including incubators are bringing you some leads specific to your business, or actively introducing you to investors - don't be their products.

Talk to your users and listen to them! A lot of startups seem to ignore the fact that they should be solving a real problem, not some abstract one. If you have users talk to them and try to listen to what they are saying. Ask why they are using your product, and what about your product they dislike the most. Don't use these interview to validate your idea, use them to listen to what your users have to say, don't interrupt them

Stay calm, you cannot achieve everything in one day... take small steps at time

create your mafia. find complementary products, discuss with founders, start partnership day 1.

Advertise from day 1!

Coming from the social media/community field, don't wait to build the hype or until the product is official launched. Start teasing and building the community - those early adopters will be your army :)