Startups are surprisingly difficult. Who knew?
Many start but most end in burnout and failure.
Which ones make it?
Welcome new readers! If you’re reading this but haven’t subscribed you can subscribe here:
Dizzying
Luck. Of course that plays a part. Success and failure can hinge on a knife point.
But you make your own luck. Some people are just better at getting lucky.
The luckiest are usually relentless. The more they push the luckier they get. But it’s more than that. It’s the ones who ask the right questions.
Answers are cheap. We have a dizzying wealth of knowledge at our finger tips. Google How to a build a startup and you get 3.69bn results. Good luck with that…
No, the best founders know what they’re looking for. Even in hatching an idea they see the world differently. They’re asking different questions.
Launching is one thing but it certainly doesn’t get easier. The interesting thing about startup building is at each stage you have to learn a completely different set of skills. Usually from scratch.
Flagging
Take me for example. (not, for a second, classing myself as one of the good ones. But I’ll do as a case study)
I came into Unplugged with the following skills:
Limited / some knowledge of growth, product, and hiring
Affable
Can drive (just)
Can identify all the world flags
The first three have come in handy but I haven’t used the fourth once. I also racked up £900 in driving fines in our first year (don’t ask). So not sure I can count that one either.
And here are just a few of the things I’ve had to learn (many WIP):
Cabin design & manufacturing, solar and electrics, land management, planning laws, fundraising, accounting, B2C marketing, written communication, structuring debt deals, how to use a metal saw, and how to actually drive.
It’s been a busy couple of years.
I’m not the exception. The list is different for each startup but never shorter.
Underemployed
But it all comes back to asking the right questions. To do that a leaf must be taken from Amos Tversky’s book:
“the secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”
You waste years by not being able to waste hours. Beautiful.
I saw my old boss from Nobly POS recently. Fresh off the back of their acquisition by Revolut.
The Nobly story ended well but we could have gone much bigger. We spoke about why we didn’t and George suggested we failed to spot the big opportunity- payments. If we’d asked different questions we might have found it.
Startups transform in moments. A flash of insight. I’ve seen fellow founders go from lost to off to the races with a single thought.
I agree with Amos. We need a little underemployment. Especially in the hectic schedule of a founder. The learning is vital. You must understand the playing field. But it’s the moments of underemployment that the starts align.
It doesn’t have to be much: A walk in the park, an evening with your thoughts, a date with a pen and paper even.
It’s easy to stay overemployed. There’s always something to do.
But put the phone down, step outside, take a breath, and let the magic happen.
(Thank you Matt Stafford for sharing the Amos Tversky quote and for sharing the similar idea here.)
My Week in Books📚
To Pixar and Beyond by Laurence Levy
A memoir from “Steve Jobs’ man” at Pixar in their lead up to the IPO. Jobs is famous for the iPhone but less known is his part in bringing Woody and Buzz lightyear to the world. A wonderful story.
Mythos by Stephen Fry
A whistle stop tour of Greek myths. Someone told he writes like he talks. He really does. A pleasure to read.
Thanks Rupert Leigh for the recommendation and K for the gift.
I’ll be updating the books I’ve read this year here. Any recommendations? Let me know! See 2021’s books here.
A Final Thought 💡
“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than the exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”
- John Tukey