I'd written an earlier post about how the startup CEO's primary role is that of communicator. It's already been established that in a startup you wear many costumes, er, hats, so I think I should add another one - that of cheerleader (maybe 'motivational speaker' would go better with communicator, except it's all Tony Robbins).
I realize that to a large extent the CEO is responsible for the momentum, enthusiasm, energy, vibe - maybe spirit would be a workable term here - of the startup. First, you do it by hiring high-energy, give-it-110% kind of people. But you can't check off that box and consider the job done. It takes a while for people to get gung-ho about something new so you have to work at fanning the flames pretty consistently.
I thought about this at a small nonprofit fundraiser that I helped in last weekend. Passionately dedicated volunteers had done tons of work to get ready and put out the food, the wine, the auction items, and the over-priced trinkets, they'd turned on the music and videos...all the usual stuff. And everyone who showed up, by invitation, presumably came to spend as they've done in the past. But, it needed an MC, a rabble-rouser, someone that got them excited about being there, someone who brought some spirit to the proceedings. And no surprise, it was the founder of the nonprofit who took over the mike and got people energized about doing exactly what they came to do, i,e., spend money to support the cause.
This experience inspired me to share some good news with my team immediately instead of waiting for the next day. Spirit doesn't just materialize because all the components are there, you have to create and develop it. I can let myself get swamped with meetings, paperwork and all the other things that have schedules and due dates, and do need a periodic reminder that one of my chief responsibilities has nothing to do with any of this stuff. I enjoy the amped up enthusiasm in a startup, and have to make sure that the team has enough material to be stoked or it'll end up being more routine than rah-rah. We can't talk about just product roadmaps and revenue plans all the time, I need to encourage them with other tidbits too - potential candidates, chats with investors, demo feedback, market trends and even how other startups are faring. In the early stages when you don't have much to show by way of monetary success, all sorts of things can have an impact in building the energy. The good news is that in time you can retire your pom-pom as your team would have taken over the cheerleading and you just have to pipe in with an occasional 'woo-woo'.
Channeling the inner entrepreneur who views life as a startup. Musings about people, their spirit, the startup ethos and the entrepreneurial attitude, with an emphasis on education and social ventures. The 'how-to'? Not so much. But definitely the why, the what and the whatever.
Why entrepreneurs start companies
Yes, the subject is one that will continually fascinate and drive discussion (and some of us to distraction). I've visited this subject myself in an early post. To recap, I think an entrepreneur could be motivated by money, or the dislike of working for someone else, or the lack of a viable job, or, the one that interests me, by an idea that refuses to be shunted aside.
So why am I writing about this again? I was reaching out to a tech expert about referrals, and checked out his blog, which had a response about someone else's post on why people do startups. The original post leans towards the thought that it's the prospect of incredible wealth the drives people into startups. The response, in brief, calls this moonshine.
Granted, both are discussing the issue in terms of economic inequality or the lack thereof. And what makes someone join a startup may be substantially different from what makes someone start it. All I know is, from an entrepeneur's viewpoint, it can't just be about money. Every entrepreneur I know would definitely want the I-too-have-my-own-Boeing payoff, but all of them are driven by other goals. I remember one of them telling me when I started my first company 'if you're doing this just for the money, you won't be able to handle the pressure - you'd walk away and get a corporate job the first time you can't make payroll or your customers don't bite'. I can tell from personal experience this was absolutely spot on. And on my second one, I'm meeting many fellow entrepreneurs who're launching startups not only for the value of the product/service, but for the chance to build a different kind of company, one that resonates with their values. Maybe they'll never be the next Google, but they could very well keep a bunch of people happy and solvent too. It may sound idealistic, but whether they're only about the money are not, startups are all about dreams.
So why am I writing about this again? I was reaching out to a tech expert about referrals, and checked out his blog, which had a response about someone else's post on why people do startups. The original post leans towards the thought that it's the prospect of incredible wealth the drives people into startups. The response, in brief, calls this moonshine.
Granted, both are discussing the issue in terms of economic inequality or the lack thereof. And what makes someone join a startup may be substantially different from what makes someone start it. All I know is, from an entrepeneur's viewpoint, it can't just be about money. Every entrepreneur I know would definitely want the I-too-have-my-own-Boeing payoff, but all of them are driven by other goals. I remember one of them telling me when I started my first company 'if you're doing this just for the money, you won't be able to handle the pressure - you'd walk away and get a corporate job the first time you can't make payroll or your customers don't bite'. I can tell from personal experience this was absolutely spot on. And on my second one, I'm meeting many fellow entrepreneurs who're launching startups not only for the value of the product/service, but for the chance to build a different kind of company, one that resonates with their values. Maybe they'll never be the next Google, but they could very well keep a bunch of people happy and solvent too. It may sound idealistic, but whether they're only about the money are not, startups are all about dreams.
The Early Stage Startup Environment
Last week I had the unusual experience of trying to describe what an early stage startup environment is like - to three different people. Why unusual? Maybe because most of the people I run into in Silicon Valley have experience with, or knowledge of, startups - everyone seems to have a friend or acquaintance who's given them the low-down on the startup world. So, I had to actually stop and think before I replied the first time, and the second time I realized I'd missed something and the third time I realized I was rambling - so I decided to take a stab at writing down my thoughts.
- You don't know anything.
- If it's your first time, this applies to everything from incorporation to insurance to interns. Unless your entire team has worked together before in pretty much the same way, you don't know how the team dynamics will shake out and how that will affect your offerings. And unless you're doing the exact same thing that you've done before (er, why would you?), there are a lot of unknowns on product, market, roadmap etc. But, this doesn't, and shouldn't, stop you. You build your business plan, trying to apply some probability to the unknowns; you bring new people on board mitigating the risk with in-depth communications (or, personality tests per the new trend ); you make innumerable changes to your product design based on continuous analysis and prototypes - in short, you adjust and adapt constantly while moving forward rapidly. And you will someday reach a space where your plans are solid for a week, a month, and then wow, a whole quarter and you can confidently put your mission up on the wall without having to bring it down for tweaking.
- You don't have anything.
- This may not apply to those who're able to land funding (or put in money themselves) right from the get go, but most startups don't have money in the beginning. Which means you don't have enough people, so your architect does competitive analysis, while the CEO's plugging away at QuickBooks and your CTO's ordering coffee as there's no admin. If you do have some money, you don't have full product requirements developed, or your target customer profiled in detail, or the architecture all figured out. In the early stages, your dreams are outpacing your means by many miles.
- You are obsessed.
- The team believes they're all rock stars and what they're working on is going to change the world, and you all get a little weird because you can think of nothing else in a sustained fashion. So when a friend talks about traveling to Peru your mind's wandering off wondering if that could be a future market, and when you're invited for a weekend getaway you don't jump for joy because you'd have to reschedule your Saturday con call. The early stage is fueled by passion, which is a good thing, given #1 an #2 above (it does get more tempered with time).
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