11 learnings from our startup adventure

Happy Monday everyone! I’ve been reflecting on 2016 and wanted to share quick learnings on what it’s been like to build our little company.

We are 9 months into Design Inc. and just pushed out our 3rd version of Design Inc. (check it out here), and the new version introduces a tweak to our business model — a model we arrived at from months of experimenting.

Startups are the ultimate science experiments — constantly building and testing to prove or disprove your hypothesis.

We had to take a step back with the most recent version of Design Inc. We initially built a bunch of features into Design Inc like messaging, portfolios, payments and project tracking — but have learned don’t really get to the heart of the real problem designers and companies are having.

So what’s the real problem? We have observed two. For the creative talent, they want to “find good design projects to pay my bills and further my career”. For companies, agencies and individuals they want to “find a creative to help me solve my problem right now within my budget and timeline” — answering these two questions is the focus of the new Design Inc.

Thus far, here are some learnings (maybe they help you too):

1. To really find market fit, ask people to pay for something — this is how you know if you have made a product or service people really want.
2. Qualitative research can be misleading when you don’t have market fit — for example we asked both designers and non-designers what they wanted in surveys and then built what they said they wanted — we built the faster horse and not the car — turns out they didnt buy the faster horse.
3. Set a daily goal tied to a revenue and get the whole team on board — for us our goal is now simple: get as many good projects listed on Design Inc. as possible.
4. Say no to every meeting, event and feature that doesnt support your goal — I love to socialize and i love speaking — so it’s been hard for me to cut back on all of that stuff.
5. Figure out the 1 or 2 things that you have to get done for the day and do those no matter what.
6. Measure your weight and exercise and drink plenty of water everyday — I have not kept up with my fitness and have seen it negatively impact my performance — working more hours — I do work every single day- but I find time to take off for a few days to spend with family.
7. Quantity time over quality time when it comes to family and relationships — just make time everyday — don’t lie to yourself and say once a week date night is enough — be there for the daily moments if you can.
8. Be transparent — but always be optimistic and hopeful — Im very open with our team on our burn rate and our challenges. Bad news is bad news and no one likes feeling like they are failing or not making progress. Being transparent has to be balanced with clear plans on how we are going to move forward — people can deal with bad news if they can also see a light at the end of the tunnel. Surround yourself with folks who are generally optimistic and look for the good and look for something to learn in every situation — the positivity makes a massive difference in morale.
9. Express thanks and gratitude — when great code, great customer service, great design, and great content get created then stand up and clap and shout and celebrate those efforts — say thank you in a genuine way — don’t hold back praise, ever.
10. Help anyone anytime they ask no matter how busy you are. I know this is a little counter to saying “no” to things, but figure out how to be helpful to your co-workers. I’m not the best at this, but trying.
11. Turn notifications to Do Not Disturb for 3–4 hours a day when you need to write, code or design so you can get stuff done — email and txts can almost always wait.

Parting thoughts. The reason startups are so hard is because you are dealing everyday with uncertainty. The ambiguity you hold in your mind everyday can wear you out OR it can invigorate you. Early explorers like those on Kon Tiki or early Everest expeditions had no idea how long or how hard their mission was. They had no idea if they had enough food, water and time, but somehow they stuck with it and eventually succeeded (ok, sometimes they died too).

Happy startuping my fellow explorers :)