Reminders for the new year

New Year's resolutions. I don't make them and haven't done so for ages. Resolutions seem like stuff you feel you have to do, not want to do, and typically you perceive them as something hard. When I look at the year ahead, I prefer to think of all the things I'd like to remember to be or do pretty much on a daily basis, channeling the inner entrepreneur who usually comes in loud and clear but can occasionally enter a no-coverage zone. Hence the reminders.

The other thing is that if you have twenty-five items to be tracked they are just a to-do list and not in the realm of attitudinal or behavioral nudges. Short, memorable and already a part of your 'way', some entrepreneurial reminders for the new year:

• Keep the faith. You may need to do a course adjustment or two, but hold on to your passion and shake off any creeping doubts - you are an entrepreneur, and this is what you should be doing.
• Stay focused. There might be stresses about funding and what investors may think, and whether you're missing something by not showing up as the next big thing on the blog lists, but those are not core to your mission. You know that the only thing that you should focus on is building a business that will delight your customers/users and staying afloat. Everything else will fall into place with that.
• Pay attention to people. They are not just investors, engineers, marketers, or users. They are individuals and need attention.
• Feel the joy. You're an entrepreneur because you love being one - don't forget to revel in it.

Hmmm, these look like they could work for most folks, not just entrepreneurs. All good. Universal truths work better.

Salud!

Holi-daze

Yes, it happens to startups too, whether they have three or thirty employees. Unless your business has a special focus on the month of December a la Amazon for example, you too will be infected.

Top signs you're under the influence of the season:

- 'Out of office' is your #1 sender
- All the investors you're trying to meet are in the mountains or the islands
- Gingerbread lattes are the beverage of choice in your coffee house meetings
- You're seeing red or green, or, yikes, both, everywhere
- Your conference calls meander into a discussion on which alcoholic beverage is the gift of choice
- Your parents are visiting
- You are visiting your parents
- You're up late working because you've been partying earlier
- You're up even later because your work stinks as you've been partying earlier
- You just give up and sleep in as you know no one else will wake up early to care anyway

Startups are not immune to the effects of the season, so if you can slack off a teeny bit, give in to the spirit. It's good for the morale and all that of course, but most importantly, it is fun.

Cheers!

The downside

There's been a lot of blogtalk about a couple of startups that have recently pulled the plug on their failing ventures, some after many millions of dollars of spending and years of effort. There are two that I found interesting because they contemplated the possibility of failure and how it could become reality - the downside of startups.

The first was about the recent closure of Edgeio and what appears to the similar fate facing Podtech. Both companies had high profile guys - the kind that were sought after to opine about tech trends at big-ticket conferences - at the helm, both raised decent VC funds, but that didn't guarantee success. According to the blogger (here's the post) it all boils down to too much hype and too little focus on the business.

The second one is by a founder of the company that shutdown, Zingdom. His post details how the company went through 5 years and three rounds of funding, built a product with a supportive customer base and still couldn't stay in business. It is extremely interesting to see how things can appear to be moving forward on the surface while unraveling below. A most cautionary tale. The lessons learned span everything from development methodology to keeping up with the Valley happenings, but one of particular note is that 'having too much money' can be dangerous.

Focus on the customer/user. It's a very simple and powerful mantra whether you're opening a Cali-French bistro or creating a website for folks hot-footing it to global-warming travel sites. But however well-intentioned you are, and even if you think that's exactly what you're doing, it is easy to get your sights blurry. For instance, our team made a technology decision in the interests of getting the product out to the user quickly. User-focused right? Maybe, but not comprehensively so, as they missed the requirement that users would want adds and changes and the tools used should easily support that - which unfortunately the bleeding-edge choice wouldn't be able to without much bandaiding. Lucky for us we saw this before we got too far, and it has made us hyper-aware about double-checking our decision-making at all levels. And it makes us more sympathetic and less know-it-all-y. The companies mentioned above didn't seek to fail and they had sharp people leading them. And yet they strayed off the path, stumbled and couldn't get up. And as conjectured in the blogs, it could be that all the money they got muffled the 'stay on target' message in their ear. Money - too much can deliver too little.