4 Rules To Prepare For a LONG Journey
Rinse and Wash.io will do my laundry. Lux and Zirx will park my car. Saucey and Minibar will bring me alcohol. Sprig, Favor, Doughbies, Doordash, Instacart and countless others will bring me food. Uber and Lyft will take me anywhere I need. Amazon delivers next day. Google is working towards same day delivery. We now live in a world where we can have anything we want at a moments notice by tapping on our phones. We are spoiled by our on-demand ecosystem in Silicon Valley and this change in mentality is amazing for the average consumer but it is detrimental to a startup founder.
A typical startup exit, be that acquisition or IPO, is around 7–10 years. That is an ETERNITY for millennials, considering 7–10 years is a huge chunk of their life (10 years is over 1/3rd of my life). How does a startup founder prepare for this journey when everything in our environment is instantaneous and we thrive off instant gratification? How can founders stay focused on achieving ONE goal for a decade?
Make a Pact with Yourself or Others
Accountability and competition can help with focus. I recently heard Tilt CEO, James Beshara, speak about a pact he made when he was at YC with another CEO. The pact: committing 2 years completely focused on their respective companies. If either gave up before the 2 year mark, the loser had to rent a fancy yacht and buy Dom Pérignon for the other companies whole team. A little incentive and competition. Three years later both companies are still in business and growing. A friendly bet could be trivial but enough to keep you pushing through hard times. Who wants to buy their friends Dom Pérignon after giving up on their company? NO ONE.
Don’t Let the Little Things Get to You
Startup founders need patience. How many people do you know that get annoyed and angry when they need to wait for something. 5 minutes for an Uber is too long. Waiting to be seated for 10 minutes you might as well find another restaurant. Or the ever infuriating mysterious amount of time it will take to update your DNS. Louis CK says it best at the beginning of one of his rants below.
Startup founders will have their patience tested every day. Everything about a startup will take more time than you imagine. Getting users, fundraising, hiring, generating revenue, EVERYTHING. We have a rule at Boost VC — whatever we are told as a timeline, we double it. You should too. Things take time and you need to be patient.
Manage your Highs and Lows
Over the years I have learned a good amount of a VC’s job is spent being a therapist. I have seen founders at their best — after fundraising, locking down an incredible hire, generating massive revenue, etc. I have heard people scream with happiness, give giant bear hugs, and be at a loss for words. Recently a founder asked me why I didn’t get super giddy and excited when he was offered a $500k investment. I said, “1. You don’t have it in the bank and 2. There is a long way to go after getting money.”
On the other side of the coin I am having conversations with founders who are getting dragged through the SHIT; firing people, founder breakups, running out of money, legal issues. I have seen tears and yells of defeat. Remind yourself that startups are a rollercoaster of emotions, shit happens and you will move on. Do not live and die by every day. If you do you will die 3 times a week. Even if you were a cat you would only survive 3 weeks ;)
Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
If you only ever read TechCrunch, you would think people start companies, raise tons of money, and sell their companies all within the timeline of 1 year. This is just not true. Lyft is a perfect example of the misconceptions of a rocket ship company. Most people think Lyft all of a sudden took off and hasn’t looked back. What most people don’t know or remember is the Lyft founders had been working on Zimride for the previous 7 years and this was their first ‘product’ that worked extremely well. There is no such thing as an overnight success, but there is such a thing as working extremely hard everyday for 7 years and having something finally work. Don’t look at the people next to you and assume you know their story.
As the world gets faster and more instantaneous, it’s speeding up the pace at which startups grow. Resources like AWS, GitHub, Docker, etc. are making it faster and faster. This doesn’t mean you will succeed faster than before but it does mean you have more decisions to make on where to spend your time. At the end of the day, get ready for the long game. If it doesn’t take off in year 1 you will be ok. Keep chugging along and don’t give up!
