Startups
I had the fortunate opportunity to meet with several serial and very successful entrepreneurs yesterday. Each was very different, but each had nuggets of truth that led me to the list below for what any of us need to do in a startup environment:
(1) Define – at the very beginning, decide what kind of company you’re going to be and then build up from that foundation
(2) Focus – sounds simple, but all of us know that it’s easy to stray and then lose the anchor of what we originally wanted to be; this included focus on plan, focus on cash, and focus on capability to deliver
(3) Prioritize – also sounds simple, but we routinely make the mistake of targeting too many things at one time and thus successfully accomplishing none of them
(4) Leverage – with each success, leverage who you now know and what you’ve now learned to know more and deliver better
(5) Learn – start with an in depth understanding of your market and an assumptive assessment of your potential market share, but revise constantly; don’t stick with your assumptions that you went in with if you’re getting clear feedback from the market that something very different is going to happen
(6)Â Listen – build a team of advisors that challenge you and candidly poke holes; don’t surround yourself with a bunch of validators; the validators do not stretch you
(7) Dream – the early days are tough, but it’s critical to constantly remember the dream and use that to motivate yourself and the team during the toughest of times
(8) Deliver – the quickest way to success and the slippery slope to failure if done haphazardly; when you commit, deliver beyond expectations
(9) Share – be open and candid with the team; be very generous with rewards as success comes
(10) Celebrate – small victories are awesome…celebrate them
Short and simple list.
Awesome.