When I left Google to start Scoop, my friends and co-workers asked:
“What are you going to do? What industry is your startup in?”
I was nervous to answer. I got timid. Despite the confidence I had in our business, I found myself embarrassed and a bit unsure about how to answer that very basic question. Why was I so uncomfortable answering?
Because when I told them what my brother and I were doing — “making it easier for commuters to carpool to work” — it wasn’t sexy. At all. And it didn’t take more than a few responses of “Oh…interesting!” to make that abundantly clear.
I quickly realized I was lacking sex appeal (professionally speaking). Startups are supposed to be exciting! They’re risky and “disruptive.”
Disruption is sexy.
Everyone wants to see David topple Goliath. Disruption portrays founders like they’re warriors — gladiators that wake up every morning, throw on armor (a.k.a. a hoodie with a logo) and set out to take down some evil corporate foe.
But the reality is that our society faces enormous problems that aren’t always sexy. We often resort to labeling them as boring — but they’re really just so massive that they’ve been too damn hard to solve. They have no existing solutions. There’s no industry to disrupt.
These problems require extensive collaboration. They’re an all-hands-on-deck effort. And that’s actually what often makes them so boring. Which movie would you rather see: the one about an epic military hero, or the one about diplomats brokering a peace treaty?
Fast forward 15 months, and more than 12,000 carpools and 14 team members later, and I’m no longer embarrassed about carpooling. I’ve learned that in startups, boring is okay. Some of the great innovators in the Valley are all about boring. Boring is sexy.
The Avengers vs. Superman: Collaboration > Disruption
Disruptive startups are like Superman. They’re typically lone wolves, using their superhuman powers (a.k.a new technology) to zero in on a problem they can solve independently. They change how we think about hotels and taxis. They place food and chores at our fingertips.
But Superman alone can’t fix the world’s collaborative problems.
They have too many moving pieces for one hero. These problems need more horsepower — they need the “Avengers.” Now, things can get exponentially more complicated as a result. Iron Man has an ego. The Hulk’s volatility is dangerous. And Captain America is annoyingly perfect. So it’s not a surprise that in many cases — like with carpooling — the boring problem goes unsolved.
That’s starting to change, as startups resist schlep blindness and roll up their sleeves to tackle the boring problems. In these cases, the startup’s mandate is not to revolutionize an industry. Rather, it’s to coordinate the many, many moving pieces that must be perfectly aligned to solve their problem.
It’s not easy. When we first brought the Scoop idea to VCs before we raised our Seed round, many thought it would be too difficult to get everyone to play along. They said the enterprise sales cycle would take too long. The government would be too unpredictable. They had a fair concern. Collaboration like this requires equal parts business strategy and technological innovation — a marriage that’s hard to come by for many startups. But some startups are already doing it amazingly well.
Stripe is doing it with credit card companies, payment processors, enterprises and customers. Practice Fusion is doing it with doctors, insurance companies and patients. Slack is doing it with managers, teams, and employees. And Scoop is doing it with commuters, companies, and governments.
So how can collaboration make your boring startup sexy? In Part 2 of this article (this Friday), I’ll answer that. Plus, I’ll share more on the boring problem Scoop is trying to solve and how partnering with a team of community superheroes is leading to success. Plus, I’ll share a few of my learnings on collaboration that you can bring back to your own company, regardless of your industry.
I’ll see you on Friday for Part 2!
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Jon Sadow is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Scoop, the fully-automated carpooling solution for your daily commute. Prior to founding Scoop, Jon spent 5 years at Google in both Product Management and Business Development. Jon is a graduate of the George Washington University in Washington DC, and now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Michelle, and their dog — and Scoop mascot — Kugel.
