the A-Z of startups

(for friends of founders)

Viv
Viv
Jul 10, 2017 · 6 min read

Turns out not everyone speaks #startup…

Angels — those blessed creatures who believe in us and our business. They are usually high net worth individuals who feel an affinity for our mission. The have some money that they are willing to risk, for a potentially significant return, and bragging rights about being involved in making an impact on the world.

Burn — This is the amount of cash we “burn” through each month. It’s the salaries, servers, marketing, kit and zillions of other little things that all add up to tens (and hundreds) of thousands each month to keep our business on track. As long as we have the money we can think of it as the price of doing business, if we run out of money (see runway) then it’s game over.

Culture — Often mistaken for the free food, beanbags, slides and pool tables tech companies offer as a standard perk, culture actually refers to the values and actions of a company. The right culture creates a genuine talent hothouse and should be based on a company-wide focus on offering a creative and collaborative workplace, encouraging creativity and experimentation and allowing team members to create.

Deal — anything that brings in clients, users, investors — basically anything that is done and adds benefit and hopefully cash. When deals happen so do smiles.

Exit — when it’s all done and dusted and proves to have been worthwhile! When we get a fat cheque from someone who wants to buy us (because they value what we’ve built - or for whatever reason want to own it themselves) or when we float on the stock exchange.

Founder — someone crazy enough to believe they can beat the stupendous odds against them. Supreme confidence (which may look like arrogance!) mixed with determination and focus with a sprinkling of insanity. The best quote I have seen to describe the founders’ life is “someone who jumps off a cliff and builds the parachute on the way down”.

Growth — when you have more clients, more users, a higher valuation. Basically when things are heading in the right direction and you start to feel momentum. Growth is also often the metric used to sell a particular story when there is no revenue story to tell. Growth is often seen as the holy grail but like a fast car you gotta steer right (and also have some sort of “next step” strategy) or the very thing that makes it gorgeous will also kill you!

Hectic — you may, as many do, believe that we fetishise busyness and laud our hectic lives. The truth is that founders are busy. Very busy. All the time. If we appear hectic and a little manic it’s probably because we are. We are trying to build something out of nothing, the odds are stacked against us (as everyone reminds us), failure is near certain and we will bleed sweat and tears every day until we either soar or crash. Busy is the price we pay and (most of the time) we pay it willingly.

Investors — those wonderful people who put money (and if we are lucky knowledge and experience and insight) into our business allowing us to focus on the business of business. Investors provide the fuel that startups need to scale.

J-Curve: Also known as the hockey stick is the shape all investors (and founders) look for and is named (creatively) for its shape. First you are trying to figure stuff out (so go into decline) then you “nail it” meaning you hit inflection (though remember many many don’t ever turn this corner) and then you “scale it” meaning you zoom upwards.

Killing it: see also “slaying it” and “owning it” — nonsense startup language which is supposed to project confidence that there is momentum and that global domination is just around the corner. Usually it means the opposite. Startups that are actually growing don’t buy into their own bull$hit and don’t believe that they actually are killing it at all. They are looking up at the next mountain!

Loneliness — the life of a founder is solitary. Sure we are surrounded by all sorts of people, in our professional and personal lives, but we make our climb to the top, mostly, alone. There’s a dark side to startups; depression, stress, sleeplessness… which when go unchecked can lead to worse. Friends don’t let friends suffer alone!

Meetings — too few means team misalignment, too many means wasting time. Finding the balance is the eternal challenge and probably why you can’t reach us through any chat channel between 6am and 8pm on any given day!

Non-stop Conferences — and especially travelling for them is not fun, though you may think they are. Doing London to San Francisco every few months sounds like a blast — sun, fun, shopping. The reality is much more likely to look like phone-calls in the uber — work on plane — deal with American immigration — sleep in the uber — work at hotel — follow up emails on the train — network and learn at conference — collapse in uber — work on plane — sweat on the tube — return to office to do follow up work. Sexy!

Opening a raise — This is when you are looking to fund the business through investment. It’s when you kick off, what might be, a 6–8 month process of courting those lovely investors to invest their money in your business in return for owning a chunk of it. Sometimes referred to as seed (first “real” money) and then A, B, C…… for each consecutive round.

Passion — that thing you must have to have any hope of succeeding. At 3am when we’re exhausted, caffeine fueled and ready to give up this is the only ingredient that keeps us going. A firm and unshaken belief that what we are doing is what we were born to do - that the world will be better if we succeed and that no matter what we will not quit!

Quit — that thing we are all trying to avoid. There is a reason founders are fans of cheesy quotes — from how many times JK Rowlings was rejected, to Steve Jobs being kicked out of Apple and making a triumphant return — we are always looking for that little extra inspiration to get us through the tough days (and 3am mornings). Don’t mock our insta accounts — it’s the fuel that keeps us going.

Runway — how much money you have “left”. If the aim is to fly then the runway is the amount of space and time we have to do it in. Founders are done when they run out of heart or they run out of money. If you hit the end of your runway before your business takes off you’re dead. End of.

Stress — let’s not even go there. The best way to sum up the stress levels is to quote Ben Horowitz, entrepreneur and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz; “As a startup CEO I slept like a baby. I woke up every 2 hours and cried

Team — those fabulous people we surround ourselves with. The family who become the village with whom we build our startup universe. Those crazy enough to believe in our mission, support our passion and relentlessly pursue success (only true if you demonstrate true leadership, respect and empowerment of course!) If you are lucky enough to work with incredibly talented people then your chance of success just jumped up a few notches.

Unicorn — private companies valued at over $1 billion valuation. They are revered and despised in equal measure with many believing that unicorn chasers reward “disruption” over creation and sustainable growth. The jury is out.

Valuation - what the world/investors/the market/the media think you are worth. Not always necessarily connected to reality or common sense

Work/life balance - Complete crap until it’s true. Founders need to watch for burn-out, nurture their inner child, take care of themselves, exercise more and sleep more. We walk a constant tightrope and sometimes chillaxing for two hours is as much time as we can spare (even when what we really need is a two week holiday on a Tel Aviv beach!)

X — often seen as 5x, 10x or more .. is startup speak for a multiplier. “We’ve done 3x growth week on week” literally means we’ve tripled our growth (reality though is probably a wee bit different!)

Youth — The fabled necessary ingredients for success actually not true if you look at the data collected by America’s Kauffman Foundation, the average and median age of US-born tech founders is 39, with twice as many over 50 than under 25. If you have a burning desire to build something then do!

Zzz — The actual necessary ingredients for success sleep, and taking care of your mind body and soul. Sleep is the fuel which drives the extraordinary vehicle that is your brain — without a healthy mind and healthy body nothing else will matter.

Viv

Written by

Viv

Founder/CEO @blackbullion | helping the world get #moneysmarter | author | speaker | flat whites | Reflecting on #financialeducation #womenintech #edtech

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