The Story So Far ...

The Story So Far ...

I thought I'd write a more reflective piece. I thought I'd put down some of my current thoughts on the whole start-up thing. I know some of my opinions on start-ups make me a heretic in some peoples eyes but I've never been big on what other people think. Here are my reflections on some of the more common points raised by entrepreneurs and investors:

Team

Whilst investors will often say its all about the team, entrepreneurs running start-up's often that comment to be everything. The recruitment game is difficult and mistakes are expensive. If they can avoid the cardinal sins of employing friends or family, they often fail the next test and hire people because of the way they look.  You just need people that can do the job. 15 years of experience in a hire looks nice, but it could be some time since they actually worked at the coal face. The focus has to be productivity, nothing else.

I meet lots of start-up's around the world, often superstars that get overlooked or don't quite make it because they're "quirky" or otherwise don't fit preconceived idea of what a person in a given role should look and feel like. None of that ever matters. When recruiting coders, find brilliant people that write code that solves the problem simply, effectively and can be maintained without causing a brain haemorrhage. Find sales people that have high emotional IQ and care about truly understanding customer problems and selling them a solution. Decide what success looks like for a job role, and ignore the irrelevant details. (Note: Culture fit is not an irrelevant detail. Things that are irrelevant are age, nationality, gender, etc. things that have no bearing on the outcome).

Problems

All the best business solve a problem. Challenge number 1 is to understand the problem that exists within your target market and customers. I don't care much for the established wisdom - the guy that comes along and tries to 'educate' me on why things are they way they are. He probably has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and has an emotional attachment to the current state of things. I need to figure both the problem and solution for myself - its the route through to developing a product or service.

Approach

I'm not an Apple fan and didn't really care for Steve Jobs's business rhetoric but I am a fan of the idea of thinking differently - "think different" for those Apple fans. You can't beat bigger, well funded competitors if you try and play the game their way. You need to change the paradigm to suit your own circumstances. I get fed up with sentences that start with "Apple do it like this .." or "What Microsoft did was ...". That train of thought is pointless.

Experience

Experience is hugely over-rated. The most successful start-up teams consisted of people that lacked much experience at the time they joined. But, what they lacked in experience, they more than made up for in sheer talent and hunger. In the early days, hire athletes. People with raw talent and a propensity to get things done. Don't be resistant to recruiting people that are early in their careers. You're looking for arbitrage opportunities. You're looking for the future stars - because you likely can't afford or convince the current stars.

Product

Just release a product. You actually need to write code and release a product. You need to be able to respond to customer issues. You need to iterate fast so you can learn quickly. You don't need a head of anything or a lead of something, you need a doer of stuff that needs to get done. I'm really not interested in job titles, I'm just interested in outcomes. Start-ups need to plug gaping holes in the companies skills matrix. Are you signing up customers so fast that you can't respond to all the support emails? Don't hire a head of support, hire someone that helps you tackle the support issue. Someone that's maniacally committed to customer happiness. They can become your head of support some time further down the line.

Decisions

The only thing worse than a bad decision is no decision. Entrepreneurs can often see making decisions as a potential point of no return - if they make the wrong choice then it could be all over. Well life just isn't like that - nothing is a 100% sure bet. But whatever you do, don't sit on the fence. Commit to something. Don't hedge your bets. Give it all you have. Make it your life's first occupation. If you can't get excited about it then you need to find something else. I've made lots of stupid mistakes in my professional career - I still make them on a daily basis, I just know a bit more now about dealing with mistakes.

Patience

In a world where someone can become an instant success (X-Factor etc.) its easy to think that a start-up should be running like a freight train at the end of the first week. Be patient. Often, your best people will take a little time to really shine. Don't judge too early. Determine the context. If someone's not cranking yet, is it because getting up to speed at your company is hard? Everyone's too busy to show them the ropes? Their lack of early performance could be the context, so be patient.  But don't tolerate this too much, don't be too patient. If someone isn't at least moderately productive in the first month or two, it's unlikely they're going to be super-productive in the following year. The really great people tend to deliver some value almost immediately.

Penny wise - pound foolish!

It is good to be money conscious in a new company, it instils the discipline that will help long-term. Don't be penny-wise and a pound foolish though, something's just cost money but the benefits are huge. There are little things that don't cost that much, that makes people happier. It's not about the money (they can all afford a coke), it's about the inconvenience and the principle. Not having them leave their desks for an hour by providing them with a £1 of something makes total sense.

Change

Change for most people is hard. Really Hard. But that doesn't mean its not for the best and that it can be avoided. Start-ups need to see this for what it is - a fact of life. They should know that most people will not see what they see or agree with change in the first instance. Its more important to be right than obvious. The change can come over time and people are convinced by evidence not rhetoric.

The glorious past

There is a tendency with start-ups to look back in time to make a decision, especially with recruitment. They always know a guy who was a genius in his own time or the best guy at college - but that might not be who he is now. They would be better to hire based on existing performance levels only - it avoids hiring the best guy in college which was where he peaked and is now average and middle of the road.

Change the game or fuck off home

Start-ups face a tremendous number of challenges but the most difficult one is themselves. They need to see that there is always room at the top and regardless of what else is in the market there is a way for them to win. The competitors may have written the rule book - but they will have written it to favour themselves. So don't play them at a game where they start with an advantage - change the game. Fear of failure for most of them stops them from acting on this - its just another fear to overcome. Ultimately if you're not changing the game then your a "me too" company and you won't be exiting anything with millions of dollars any time soon.