Archives for 2011

As I begin looking at starting my next venture I’ve been reflecting on what should I be doing NOW before I start, to significantly increase my chances of success…and I believe there are four things.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur just like me read on…

[contentheading]Who Am I?[/contentheading]

First, decide you are an entrepreneur.

Our identity shapes how we think and the actions we take…if you want to be an entrepreneur the first step is to decide you are an entrepreneur.

[contentheading]Who’s My Team?[/contentheading]

Second, find someone who’s going to be crazy enough to come join you (maybe even a couple of people).

Interestingly, there’s a project called the Startup Genome that is attempting to unlock the secret to what makes startups successful, one of their findings based on a survey of 650 companies is:

[div3 class2=”quote-l” class3=”quote-r”]Solo founders take 3.6x longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2.[/div3]

If you can’t convince someone else to be as crazy as you, how are you going to convince someone to invest in you and your idea? For some inspiration on ways to start building your team read “Starting a Startup“.

[contentheading]Who Am I Connected To?[/contentheading]

Third, get connected.

The first time to meet a potential investor/advisor is NOT when you actually need their money/advice…not unless you’re being introduced by someone who already knows the both of you well.

Again from the Startup Genome project (regarding this point and the next):

[div3 class2=”quote-l” class3=”quote-r”]Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x better user growth.[/div3]

[contentheading]Who’s Been Successful?[/contentheading]

Fourth, study.

Become a student of startup success and failure stories. Research the latest in business and product development thinking specifically as it relates to innovation and startups.

Personally I really like the work Eric Ries has been doing with The Lean Startup movement and highly recommend his new book “The Lean Startup“, I was fortunate enough to get an early copy.

…and OK, I know I said there were only four, but there’s five really…

[contentheading]Take Action[/contentheading]

Fifth, take baby steps.

At some point you’ve got to commit, it may take you 6 or even 9 months to gestate your idea, identify your team, investors and advisors and bone up on how this startup thing works, but then you have to jump in. The question is now as you look to the future 6 or 9 months away what are the baby steps you must be taking today? What do you have to be doing NOW to create that compelling future.

More from the Startup Genome project:

[div3 class2=”quote-l” class3=”quote-r”]People who work half time raise about 24x less money than founders who go full time. They also have trouble building up the intensity required to drive the user growth needed to validate interest in their product.[/div3]

You will never stop working on these 4 (or 5) things, even once you’ve started your startup, but trust me the time to start working on them is before and not after you’ve quit the day job!

Just finished listening to the free audio of Tribal Leadership, I picked it up after listening to the live streaming of Zappos’ quarterly all-hands meeting where Dave Logan (the author) spoke. Excellent, excellent, excellent read…highly recommend it for leaders who want to “see it as it is”…in terms of how they show up as well as how their organization shows up…and then learn the steps to make it even better.

One of the core concepts in the book is that people within an organization, and therefore the organization itself, predominantly operate at one of 5 tribal stages, each characterizing the underlying nature of the organization’s culture.

You can determine which stage people are at by listening to what they say:

[list class=”bullet-minus”] [li]Stage 1 – “Life Sucks”[/li] [li]Stage 2 – “My Life Sucks”[/li] [li]Stage 3 – “I’m Great”[/li] [li]Stage 4 – “We’re Great”[/li] [li]Stage 5 – “Life’s Great”[/li] [/list]

Stage 2 is typified by Scott Adams’ “dilbert” cartoons, my life sucks and my manager is an idiot.

Stage 3 is the “go getter” culture typified by the majority of companies today and interestingly, that by its very nature, fosters a stage 2 counter-culture of “my life sucks” within an organization.

Stage 4  is where people transcend “I” to become “we”, we’re great together. This is the stage at which tribal leaders emerge and core values get enshrined. This is where organizations transition from being good to being great as compared to their competition, “we’re better than they are”.

Stage 5 is where an organization no longer measures itself against an external foe and instead is guided by its higher purpose.

Dave’s insight is that people need to transition through each stage. If you want to affect change in an organization you can’t suddenly jump people from “my life sucks” to “we’re great”, without first passing through and owning “I’m great”.

Another great insight is that what it takes to transition from “my life sucks” to “I’m great” is very different when going from “I’m great” to “we’re great”. The same level of thinking that got you to stage 3 is an anathema to getting you to stage 4.

I encourage you to read this book, even if it only helps you understand why the culture of the organization you work at is the way it is…

Had the opportunity to listen to BJ Fogg talk about his work at Stanford on Behavior Design at a recent Startup2Startup event. Really interesting research if you are in the business of engaging users…I’ve included one of his presentations below to whet your appetite.

His focus is on how computing products…from websites to mobile phone software…can be designed to change people’s beliefs and behaviors. For those of us looking to engage users, his work provides a great framework to understand the type of behaviors we want to influence and how to go about it.

Core to his model is the idea that we take action when three things align, there is a trigger at a point where we have the ability and motivation to take action. If we can make taking an action easy to do then a trigger is going to activate a higher percentage of people…and this is where he advises you focus before trying to optimize motivation (where most of us tend to focus).

To this end, he has 3 steps for forming a new habit:

[list class=”bullet-minus”] [li]Make it Tiny – find something easy to do that is fast[/li] [li]Find a Spot – put it after an existing behavior[/li] [li]Train the Cycle – focus on doing the tiny behavior[/li] [/list]