52 Hilariously Best Startup Memes for Entrepreneurs

Top Startup Memes

Being an entrepreneur certainly comes with lots of thrills, but it also has its ups and downs. Most of the time, things don’t go according to plan, but you have to roll with the punches. It’s only by moving forward that you can make progress. Progress in startups is anything but linear—it’s up and down until you figure it out. Now, let’s take a look at the lighter side of things as we count down the most hilarious memes for entrepreneurs.

Startup Memes Table of Content

1. Started a Business vs. Getting a Job
2. New Idea vs Old Finished Project
3. Pitch Deck Promises Vs. Reality
4. Full Stack Developer vs. Full StackOverFlow
5. Actually Building a Business Vs. VC Fundraising
6. Getting into Y Combinator
7. Y Combinator Second Time
8. Client Budget vs Expectations
9. Minimum Viable Product
10. Wedding MVP vs. Cupcakes
11. Simplify the MVP
12. Spending money on ads
13. Customer Service from the Bed
14. Advancing Your Career During Pandemic
15. Linkedin Sales Pitches
16. Linkedin Synergies
17. Reading too much but not executing
18. Startups During Pandemic
19. Building without an audience
20. Chasing venture capital vs. finding paying customers
21. Lean Startup Book” vs. Launching a Startup
22. Launch Day at a Startup vs. First Year
23. Startup Media is 99% on Fundraising
24. First year at a Startup
25. Product-Market-fit hits different
26. SaaS Pricing Struggles 
27. Launch Date
28. Sales Notification
29. Plenty of Startup Advice at an Accelerator
30. Co-Founder Disappears
31. Co-Founder Sticks
32. Life of a Founder
33. Adding More Features
34. No Code MVP
35. Showing off the MRR to your Partner
36. Scaling the Servers with any Paying Customers
37. Social Media Vanity Metrics
38. Validate the idea
39. Founder Mode
40. Entrepreneur’s vacation
41. No one wants to talk to customers 
42. Crappy Advice
43. Startup launches are usually not stellar
44. Tech Conference vs. Actually Making a Sale
45. That Developer that never deliver anything
46. Bootstrapping and bills 
47. Bootstrapping vs VC-backed
48. When you are about to give up
49. Jack of all trades
50. Where are the ups?
51. Canada’s Tech ecosystem
52. Canada’s Ecosystem

1. Started a Business vs. Getting a Job 

Startup Memes Starting a Business

Chances are you have been there. You update that Linkedin your new job titles and congrats come in but you start your own business nobody even comments! Even that one comment is a total spam.

2. New Idea vs Old Finished Project 

Startup Memes New Ideas vs Old Projects

That’s right you know what we’re talking about! You have plenty of unfinished projects but the new idea is just looking great and you can’t keep your eyes from it. Everyone struggles with this. This is the story of our lives.

3. Pitch Deck Promises Vs. Reality

Startup Memes Pitch Deck Promises

Remember that time Elon Musk did the new demo of the car window and things went horribly wrong? Well…this one really describes the states of having a pitch deck vs reality.

4. Full Stack vs. Full StackOverFlow 

Startup Memes Hiring a Developer

The first hire is usually like this. It will either come as a full-stack developer and launching it out the galaxy or will disappear all together. We hope you will hit the first one but won’t be surprised if things go horribly wrong with the hire. We have been there and see in it all.

5. Actually Building a Business Vs. VC Fundraising 

Top Startup Memes

This one is so accurate. Many startups can get distracted by fundraising. They spend more hours on fundraising as supposed to finding customer. Let’s focus on finding those paying customers.

6. Getting into Y Combinator 

Startup Memes Y Combinator

This is really what it feels like to score an interview with Y combinator. Battle after battle you try and try again! You will do whatever it takes and then comes all sorts of rejections or potentially accepted. Just roll in with the punches.

7. Applying to Y Combinator Second Time 

Startup Memes Y Combinator

If at first you don’t succeed, might as well shoot your shot to apply one more time!

8. Client Budget vs Expectations 

Startup Memes Freelance

This one is so relatable! Often times clients want the best but budget is not there at all. There’s a big gap there between expectations and reality.

9. Minimum Viable Product 

Startup Memes MVP

This one is hilarious! It’s all about the Minimal Viable Product but there’s no MVP in the beginning and you have to show some mock up or something to show!

10. Wedding MVP vs. Cupcakes 

Startup Memes Cupcake vs wedding cake

Always aim to build the cupcake first before wedding cakes for your MVP!

11. Simplify That  MVP: Minimum Viable Product

Startup Memes Product Development MVP

The worst thing is spending years building features that no one asked for! Simplify your MVP as much as possible.

12. Spending money on ads

Startup Memes Spending Money on Ads

She wants cashflow, but he wants to spend money on ads to get free trials with no paying customers.

13. Customer Service from the Bed 

Startup Memes Customer Service

This is one is more common now these days! As entrepreneurs you are constantly checking your email and chances are this is how customer service looks like.

14. Advancing Your Career During Pandemic

Startup Meme Career Path

We live in a world of distractions and this one couldn’t be any more true!

15. Linkedin Sales Pitches Coming in

Startup Memes Linkedin

As entrepreneurs you also get bombarded with sales pitches on Linkedin and this one couldn’t be any more true. The problem with these sales pitches are that they are right off the bat after connecting with you.

16. Exploring Synergies on Linkedin 

Startup Memes Linkedin Synergies

This one is literally every single time! Founders are incredibly good at detecting that sales pitch from miles away.

17. Reading too much but not executing 

Startup Memes Not Executing

We can talk strategy all day about the startup but if you’re not executing it’s over.

18. Startups During Pandemic

Startups Memes Pandemic

We know this already. Startups are brutal to build but building it in pandemic is something else.

19. Building without an audience

Startup Memes Building without an audience

We know this common symptoms among startups. You keep on building but without actually marketing anything!

20. Chasing venture capital vs. finding paying customers

Startup Memes VC Fundraising VS paying Customers

This one is so relatable as many startups try to raise funds without any traction or paying customers.

21. Learning from “Lean Startup Book” vs. Launching a Startup

Startup Memes Lean Startup

Actually launching a startup is radically different as you have throw everything out the window.

22. Launch Day at a Startup vs. First Year

Startup Meme Launch Day

It’s truly brutal out there for building a startup and we know it. No need to sugar coat it!

23. Startup Media is 99% on Fundraising

Startup Memes Media

Have you tried opening a news site on startups? It’s mostly fundraising, layoffs, and some random BS policy. There’s hardly any coverage for bootstrappers, which is why it’s exciting to see site like FoundersPress bringing a new fresh perspective to the news site.

24. First year at a Startup

Startup Memes First Year vs Second Year

First year at a startup is radically different than the second year. In the first year it’s all about perfection before reality hits!

25. Product-Market-fit hits different 

Startup Meme Product market fit

Every startup should aim to reach the stage where it achieves product-market fit. It’s a thing of beauty!

26. SaaS Pricing Struggles 

Startup Memes SaaS Pricing

Honestly, the pressure is too much when you try to raise your prices! Chances are your prices are too low.

27. Launch Date 

Startup Memes Launch Date

This is by far one of our favourites as the launch almost always gets delayed.

28. Sales Notification

Startup Memes Paying Customer

Nothing hits a startup founder, like those stripe sales notification! Cheers to more sales at your startup.

29. Plenty of Startup Advice at Accelerator

Startup Memes Accelerators

As they say “if you are not in the arena, I am not interested in or open to your feedback”. Let’s put more entrepreneurs and operators into startup accelerators and incubators.

30. Co-Founder Disappears 

Startup Memes Co-Founder

Don’t be surprised if your co-founder disappears off the face of the planet.

31. If the Co-Founder Sticks Around 

Startup Memes Co-founder Sticks Around

If your co-founder sticks around—which, on its own, is a miracle—by the end of the year, it will look like this!

32. Life of a Founder 

Startup Meme Life of a Founder

Which one did you dodge today? Hope it’s not all the above!

33. Adding More Features 

Startup Memes Adding Features

We love to add features, but does it actually move the needle?

34. No Code MVP works 

Startup Memes No Code MVP

Some startups can spend months building an MVP with the latest JavaScript framework, but you went out with no code and it paid off.

35. Showing off the MRR to your Partner 

Startup Memes Partner

When your significant other asks you, “How much money did you make today?”.  It really takes a supportive partner to launch a startup!

36. Scaling the Servers with any Paying Customers 

Startup Meme Scaling Servers

Let’s first validate that idea before scaling up the servers! Chances are you don’t need that much space.

37. Social Media Vanity Metrics 

Startup Mems Upvotes

Social media approval is great, but at the end of the day it boils down to sales.

38. Validate the idea

Startup Memes Paying Customer

The best form of validation is from paying customers. Feedback from friends and family doesn’t count.

39. Founder Mode 

Startup Memes Founder Mode

Paul Graham recently released a new essay called Founder Mode, and it went viral.

40. Entrepreneur’s Vacation

Startup Memes Entrepreneur Vacation

There’s no such thing as vacation at least in the beginning, but if you want to make it look like one on Instagram this may be the way to go!

41. No one wants to talk to customers 

Startup Memes Talking to Customers

The only thing that can you keep you in business is paying customers, everything else is just noise. Keep talking to your customers!

42. Too much Crappy Startup Advice Out there! 

Startup Memes Advisor

When you get advice be sure to filter it out and take from those who have been there as a full-time founder or an early employee at a startup!

43. Startup launches are usually not stellar

Startup Memes Launch Expectation

We all think the launch is going to be epic, but most of the time it won’t. You have to launch multiple times to attract users! Keep launching that thing.

44. Tech Conference vs. Actually Making a Sale

Startup Memes Tech Conference

Attending tech conferences for the whole day is easy, but landing actual paying customers is something else.

45. That Developer that never deliver anything 

Startup Memes Developer

Remember that developer who said they could build the MVP in four weeks and never delivered anything? Then they disappeared off the face of the planet.

46. Bootstrapping a startup

Startup Memes Bootstrapping Bills

The struggle of bootstrapping a startup is real. In the beginning is mostly expenses.

47. Bootstrapping vs VC-backed 

Whether you raise or not, both are challenging and depends on the nature of the business.

48. When you are about to give up. 

Startup Memes End

Remember that scene from Lord of the Rings? The journey doesn’t end here.

49. When you realize you have be the jack of all trades.

Startup Memes Jack of all trades

Never question a founder’s career choice but this one had us at “Linkedin influencer!”

50. Startup life is full of ups and downs. 

Startup Memes Ups

Where are the ups though? It’s most downs in the beginning.

51. Canadian Tech Ecosystem

Startup Meme Canada Tech Ecosystem

Oooo Canada! We’ve got this one covered.

52. The Startup Ecosystem 

Startup Memes Innovation Hub

We really need to rethink the so called innovation hubs in Canada.

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800 527 Eric Rafat

Eric Rafat

Eric Rafat is a passionate founder with expertise in startups, building high-performing teams, and growth marketing. He is a top ranked tennis player and always up for a conversation about startups and tech. Eric also writes on TheFoundersPress.com

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