A few months ago I was talking to an investor who had just signed up to put in a chunk of change into the first institutional round of a startup. I asked him what his goals for the company were, and he answered 'I just want to focus on building value'.
A few days ago I was chatting with an entrepreneur who's working towards his own startup. We were discussing what to look for when staffing, and talked about how 'the team should have the same values'.
The funny thing is how often in the process of 'building value' those in the company complain that it has changed its values. Just in the past few months I've run across people from three different companies kvetching that their environment has changed, they're no longer a tight-knit team, and the intense fun they used to have has dissipated from their startup. In all cases, the most significant recent event was first round of funding. And interestingly, a drop-off in customer focus was also a common thread.
While it is the team that maintains the startup's values and delivers the startup's value, it is the startup leadership that ensures that one enables the other. First timers are sometimes inexperienced managers who may have never faced the challenge of nurturing the character of the team while delivering on goals and objectives. In the early stages it's often not an issue as the team is very small and it is easy to align everyone to the same goals as well as values. But when the team burgeons suddenly (a result of a funding infusion - the same effect is not experienced from the more controlled growth of customer acquisition), the leaders have to be aware that the values need as much attention as the goals, and there are a whole bunch of new people that have to be cultivated and meshed into the team. And it is so easy to assume it'll somehow take care of itself just because you had a great team to start with - especially when you're swamped with whole new demands for meetings, press releases, and general schmoozing and hobnobbing which are all supposed to help you increase 'value'.
Why are values so important anyway? For one, it makes for a more cohesive team. It makes it more likely that they get along and stick together. (It's somewhat like marriage. If the couple has no shared values they're not even likely to get married - unless they were in Vegas in an altered state - leave alone stick together for any length of time.) Two, the team has less to argue about (yeah! more work getting done!). Three, it fosters predictability, which can be a good thing in a company. Four, it gives the startup soul. And of course, something to put up on a poster in the front room to impress the visitors and newbies.
As for startup value, there's no need to belabor the obvious. Without it, there's no point in the startup. But the trick is to remember that you can't sustain building value without fostering values, as you will quite possibly lose your way, lose your team and wake up one day and wonder why the fun's gone and you 'can't get no satisfaction'.
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