What advice do you give to startups who are early and are looking to get to profitability as quick as possible (~12 months)? What should they be doing and focusing on?
I think one of the more important things is finding channels that organically help you to scale without having to spend a whole lot of money on acquisition. Hyper focusing on getting referral/organic growth is a great way to get to profitability.
Finally, really think hard about hiring. We grow our team very slowly and it helped us keep our burn relatively low.