Do You Need It?
I've been working with several friends and colleagues, helping them to bring their ideas for companies off the drawing board and onto the launch pad. I'm essentially the CTO, getting software to operate the business put together, spinning up servers to run it on, but also helping to run things in order to learn how to improve the software that runs it.
I've been doing this for six months or so now, and some of these rocket ships have blasted off while others are still just blueprints in the minds of their creators.
What's the difference? As far as I can tell, there is one root cause of start-up success (defined as bringing a product or service to market and selling it to customers at a profit):
Some people want it more than others.
No, some people need it and other people just want it. Want it in the way that they wanted to be an astronaut or a rock star. They wanted it, but getting it is too hard. Other things take precedence. So the dream dies on the vine.
Of course, you've heard that all before. If you're interested in a "fake it till you make it" approach to kick yourself in the pants and get some activity going, I have noticed some differences in tactical execution as well:
- The founding team must touch base every day. Twice. Once in the morning to set the agenda for the day, and once at the end of the day to review the day's progress. You can do this in person if you have a co-located team, or by phone, or by Skype, or IM. But make sure you are talking at least twice a day.
- You must run it manually as soon as possible. You can automate everything later. From the start, it's more important to get things operational and start learning what you need to learn. Plus, you'll learn simpler and better ways to automate things once you've personally run things manually (this includes data entry, managing by spreadsheets, and even sending emails).
- You must know your magic numbers. These are the key performance indicators of your business that tell you if you're going in the right direction. These are not web metrics such as number of visitors, but things that directly answer the question "is this a business that is growing or dying?" I think four or five "top sheet" metrics that can be compiled, reviewed, and responded to on a weekly basis, plus some secondary metrics you can look at in order to help get you back on track.
If you do these three things daily, you'll at least have a fighting chance. I think you'll have a better chance than you did when you "wanted it" but didn't "need it."
