Tag: Startup

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Ten thoughts on what matters at a startup: Respect

Why does respect matter at a startup?

At Primal Fusion, we talk about having respect for each other, our customers and users, our competitors, shareholder investments, and the opportunity we have to build something meaningful. Beyond the obvious truth that respect is something that we all deserve, these people and things are important to us at Primal Fusion and it just makes good business sense to be respectful of them.

For example, I periodically respond to user issues in both email and on our public presence on GetSatisfaction.com. Knowledgeable responses are a requirement, but respect is the key to successful interactions here. I’ll let others judge whether I’m delivering, but it’s certainly a goal that I aim for.

In the end, respectful interactions with people are just easier and more productive.

You do need to know where you stand, though, and realize that on occasion you’ll encounter a situation where you just can’t get alignment on an issue. You need to be able to respectfully agree to disagree.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Ten thoughts on what matters at a startup: Communication

Why does communication matter at a startup?

Resources are often constrained at a startup, meaning that there isn’t a lot of room for waste. Effective communication means that everyone understands what they are doing and why, and they don’t waste time doing the wrong thing. First, though, you need a shared clarity of vision to ensure that everyone knows what the right things are at your startup.

At Primal Fusion we take communication seriously, and have several ways in which we make it a part of our culture. For example, we hold a short company-wide meeting every Monday to share news about various activities and achievements.

More formally, we use Scrum to drive our software development. That means maintaining a backlog of work to be done on a product as well as holding daily “standup” meetings in which each team member answers three questions: “What did you do since the last standup?”, “Is there anything blocking you?”, and “What are you going to do today?”.

Clear communication all around means that issues are visible sooner, meaning you can more quickly and effectively course-correct. That goes a long way towards making the company a success.

Of course, communication is important anywhere, not just at a startup and not just in your work life. But you already knew that!

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Ten thoughts on what matters at a startup: Culture

Why does culture matter at a startup?

A culture will emerge, whether explicitly created or not. You’ll be happier, and the startup more successful, if the culture is positive and rewards productivity. A bad culture will drag productivity down and drive good people away.

There are a lot of things that can contribute to a company’s culture. Irreverence can be a great reminder not to take yourselves too seriously. At one company where I worked, the washroom walls were covered with the degrees earned by founders and employees at the various universities we had attended.

At Primal Fusion we do a few things that contribute to a positive culture, some of them driven by the fact that we like to learn. We have lunch and learn sessions on a variety topics. When someone goes to a conference or other event, they’ll often do a “teach back” session to share the learning. While it’s hardly revolutionary, we use an internal blog for which everyone has an account and is encouraged to post on any topic of interest.

Of course it’s probably best to avoid encouraging cultural activities that, no matter how much fun they are, detract from productivity.

Finally, the flip side of a positive culture is one that’s just not fun to contemplate. I recently encountered a wonderful aphorism in a tweet by John Maeda: “Pessimism loves company. Optimism makes companies.” Better to focus on building a positive culture and making your company successful.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Ten thoughts on what matters at a startup: Fit

Why does fit matter at a startup?

You’ll likely spend more time with your team than with your family. Each member of the team needs to fit, and a startup needs to hire carefully. At Primal Fusion, we talk about fit in terms of a “three be” approach.

Be Talented: You need to have the skills and expertise to do your job. If you can’t help deliver then you’re not going to add value. This is really table stakes, isn’t it?

Believe: You need to believe in the company and where it’s going. If the startup makes accounting software and you think it should make games, there will be friction. Resources are too tight to recalibrate your expectations on an ongoing basis.

Belong: You need to be able to get along with others and contribute to the culture. Make yourself useful, support your team, and get to work.

If you’re missing any of the “three be’s” you’ll have trouble fitting in and adding the most value to the venture.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Ten thoughts on what matters at a startup: Balance

Why does balance matter at a startup?

There can’t be a large number of people who looked back on their life from their death bed and said “I wish I had spent more time at the office”. It’s important to maintain some balance between work and the rest of your life. Even if you’re lucky enough to love your work, which is almost certainly the case if you’re working at a startup, being able to get away from it and do other things will help reduce stress. Moreover, you’ll also get a little distance from pressing problems, which can help you see them in a different way and even discover solutions.

It’s also important to maintain some balance between the perspectives of the various stakeholders that matter to your startup. To achieve a balance, you need to understand your customers, your users, your team mates, and your investors. Critically, you need to understand yourself and why you’re doing this. Without balance, your customers can pull you in a direction that isn’t strategically important to your company, or your users can push for features that add more clutter than value, or you can push for features that your team mates know are extremely costly to implement. Balancing the various perspectives will help keep you on track.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Sherwood Forest Incorporated

In my second post for this blog, I wrote about The Dam Busters and how that movie provides a fine metaphor for a startup company. I recently re-watched another favourite movie, 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn in the title role. The parallels with a startup company jumped out at me, and here’s the resulting movie-as-metaphor post.

The Adventures of Robin Hood features a visionary founder (Robin of Loxley) with an innovative and disruptive idea (stealing from the rich to give to the poor) to solve a pressing problem (the oppression of the people by Prince John and his cohorts). There are co-founders (Little John, Friar Tuck, and a few others) who support Robin through the hard work (freeing various peasants, retrieving ill-gotten gains) of proving that his idea will work.

Having successfully launched his startup company (his band of merry men), Robin goes to market (larger scale interference with the Prince’s nefarious looting of the countryside) and builds a loyal following (more merry men and supporters) who buy into his vision (now expanded to include freeing King Richard from a foreign prison).

Robin’s success as a leader (his followers have clarity on his vision and work hard to deliver on it) makes the merry men a great success (they even steal from Guy of Gisbourne and the Sherriff of Nottingham). Their competitors strike back (capturing Robin during an archery contest) but Robin’s team perseveres (rescuing Robin in dramatic fashion) and build on their lead in the market.

Robin and his men continue to work hard and when an unexpected opportunity arises (King Richard returns to England and finds Robin) he capitalizes on it (executes a plan that restores Richard to the throne in place of Prince John) to decisively win the marketplace.

Robin steps aside as CEO and turns over his company to an experienced executive (King Richard) while negotiating a great payoff for his team (pardons all around for the merry men). As founder, he is amply rewarded (various new titles from Richard) and retires (to marry Lady Marian).

The movie is loads of fun, if you like this sort of thing (which I do).

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Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup: Failure

Why does failure matter at a startup?

You will fail. What’s important to understand is what failure costs and what you learn from it.

You may fail at a small scale by inadvertantly forwarding a stupid email to a customer or by missing an important meeting that you didn’t put in your calendar. There’s not a lot of cost here, though if you do these things repeatedly it will certainly add up. Aim to not repeat them too often.

You may fail at a larger scale by not delivering a project on time or by spending too much on a major purchase without having researched it. There’s more cost here, but it’s still not fatal. It does get more important to avoid future repetitions.

You may fail at a fatal scale by blowing through your cash without regard to revenue. Learning from this failure won’t help in the short term, but the experience may benefit you at your next startup.

How do you learn from your failures? Start by embracing failure. For example, do a project post-mortem on failed projects and ask hard questions about what went wrong and why. Keep in mind that it’s not about blame, but about supporting each other and learning as a team. Of course, you need to be sure that you understand what success looks like too.

Another way to embrace failure is to “Fail fast, fail cheap, fail often.” That is, use inexpensive prototypes to quickly try out your product ideas and discover not just the ones that fail, but also the ones that show promise. Keep the prototypes small and focused, and do as many as needed to clarify questions about your products.

None of this is to say that failure is better than success. Success is definitely better. If you’re going to fail, though, learn from it and control the cost.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Thought Networking presentation at StartupCampWaterloo

I attended my first StartupCampWaterloo last night. It was great – well-organized (without feeling regimented), engaging, lots of energy. I managed to arrive late, having come directly from work and a late meeting, which meant that I didn’t get to pitch my Primal Fusion presentation, but I did get to demo our Thought Networking product anyway. There were some good questions from the crowd and I had some interesting conversations afterward. Overall it felt like a positive response.

The other presentations were quite enjoyable to watch, and there were some interesting products on display. Waterloo is really a great place to work, with so much going on and so many people beavering away on their own thing.

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Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup: Team

Why does team matter at a startup?

As smart and skilled as you might be, even if you can do most of it you likely can’t do it all. Moreover, your teammates are also smart and skilled. Rely upon and trust your teammates to do the things that you can’t do. Sustain your teammates by doing the things that you can do to make the team a success. You’ll push each other to do great work, and support each other to get through the tough times.

You’ll learn from your team if you let yourself. You’ll learn how to do your own work better, and you’ll learn why what they do matters to your work. You’ll learn things that may not matter right away, but will matter down the road.

Beyond all that, being part of a great team is energizing and just plain fun.

Finally, your startup may well use Scrum, as we do at Primal Fusion. In that case team member is one of only three roles (the others being product owner and scrum master) in your software development process. Scrum is highly productive way to create software products.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.

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Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup: Confidence

Why does confidence matter at a startup?

As an individual you may be leaping from a comfortable position into the uncertainty of startup life. You’ll be trying new things and may not be sure what the right answer is. You’ll be exploring the limits of what you’ve learned and reaching into uncharted territory. Are you confident that your skills and experiences bring the kind of value that a startup needs and that you will make a meaningful impact? You need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and how to best leverage them.

Further, you may be going to (or starting) a company that is based on a great idea that hasn’t yet been fully realized. Can the company deliver on that idea? Can it make progress even in the face of uncertainty? Can it solve the problems that will undoubtably arise? Can the company team build not just a great product, but a great company? Confidence isn’t about being able to answer “yes” to all these questions. A startup, particularly in early stage, is a bet. For many of the questions the answer that you’re looking for early on may not be “Yes”, but rather “If anyone can do it, we can.” Confidence inspires and gets you past the uncertainty. It enables you to push ahead, make progress, and maybe even succeed.

And by the way, confidence isn’t arrogance. Temper your confidence with enough humility to be open-minded and willing to learn. And confidence isn’t unrealistic. Confidence won’t let you become seven feet tall if you’re five feet tall and well into adulthood.

This is one in a short series of posts called Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. The thoughts started life as a presentation I made at VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. While they’re far from definitive, and aren’t a top ten, they’ve mattered to me in my software startup experience.