From Spies to Startups:
Three Things ‘The Americans’ Teaches Us About Running a Startup
What can you learn about entrepreneurship from Soviet spies? Plenty. Dobro požalovat!
Take the plunge.
When she was still a teenager, Nadezhda changed her name, married a stranger and booked a one-way ticket from Soviet Russia to the United States. Was she ready? No — she’d undergone years of training, but she could only learn how to infiltrate America by actually doing it. She changed her name to Elizabeth Jennings and vowed to spend her life collecting intelligence for the KGB. She jumped in.
Running a startup is the same. Sure, you won’t be spying on American infidels for the good of Mother Russia (unless “Mother Russia” is the name of your app), but you’ll be in a shark tank full of difficult decisions, brand new people, and situations designed to make you fail. Yes, you should be prepared — know your market and polish your business plan — but no matter how many Forbes articles you read, you can only really learn by jumping in headfirst and actually launching your startup. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. That doesn’t exist.
Wear many different hats.
Or wigs, in Elizabeth’s case. She and her husband Phillip rotate through a cornucopia of hairpieces, from stick-on goatees to pinned-on mullets [see the best and worst here] because for each spy mission requires a different persona. For example, one long con requires Phillip to coax a secretary into marrying him. And to obtain secret information, Elizabeth poses as everything from a sex worker to a recovering alcoholic to an FBI agent.
Please don’t impersonate an FBI agent. That’s a criminal offense, and “I’m a startup entrepreneur” is not a solid legal defense. However, while you’re just beginning, you and each member of your team will have to play many different roles. One day, you’ll make cold calls to potential customers. Another day, you’ll balance the books. And over the weekend, you’ll fix the drywall in your office space, in order to literally hold your company together. Be flexible! It’s all for the good of the KGB — er, I mean, for your startup.
Remember who you are.
Phillip and Elizabeth live the perfect American life. They have American friends and work at an American travel agency. They eat American food and speak with Midwestern American accents. But if you call Elizabeth an American, she will slit your throat faster than you can say, “Gorbachev.” She is a Russian, and everything she does is for the Soviet Union.
Remember why you’re launching a startup: You believe in your idea. Over the years, you will acquire money and workers, you will lose money and workers, you will change your product to suit the markets, and you will change your product to suit journalists.
But through it all, keep your core values close to your heart, and make sure every member of your team believes in those values. If you don’t — if you prioritize profit over quality, for example — your product, your employees, and your wellbeing will suffer.
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Phillip and Elizabeth probably won’t defect from the Soviet Union and run a startup, but they know a thing or two about how it works: Jump in. Wear many different hats. And remember who you are.
And if you decide the startup culture isn’t for you, then, well, Putin could always use a few extra agents.
