Have learned many lessons over the past few years and wanted to share some of the potentially less obvious ones. 

"Building a tech start up will take a hell of a lot longer than you ever anticipated" -- isn't it amazing?

You just never know how long it will take until you're in the thick of it.

SOOO long ! 

What's the best way to explain that to people who are starting out?

ha ha ha - You can't .. I must have read that a dozen times over the past few years... every single time internally I went .. "meh...? we'll see" - ha ha ha ... You kinda have to live it to appreciate it. And if you have done it more than once like you have then I guess you are already in the know ! :) 

Even if you've already done it once you think the second time will be faster. And you end up learning the same lesson again!

LOL :) 

Also, this still floors me:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/6/4067276/money-matters-why-women-founders-struggle-in-silicon-valley

Women founders only get 4% of the funding?! That seems outrageous.

I know right !??? 

I keep thinking about how that changes. The answer? Slowly.

Yes- definitely slowly Adam. I have had some shockers in terms of Angel pitches here in NZ. Basically a waste of time. Room full of 60 year old white males who never had any intention of funding a small blonde woman ! 

It's almost like you want to ask up front if they would actually consider investing!

the minute we were introduced at hte start (befroe pitches started) it was evident that they had zero interest in investing- let alone paying attention to the presentation!