Leaning On: From Action to Traction in 4 Weeks
Starting a startup is tough. No surprises here, right? Well, when I decided to go for it on May 7th, I thought I knew that, but a month later — I realize I still don’t know the half of it. I also didn’t know that in just 4 short (and sleepless) weeks, Lean On would touch the lives of so many women worldwide. I couldn’t even imagine how they would touch mine. So after gaining traction in 32 countries, finding a Co-Founder and pitching — here are some of the lessons I learned.
Listen
It’s all about listening. Any therapist — or marketer — would tell you that. And I was about to do a lot of listening.
Listening inwardly — to my own experience.
Listening around — seeking the experiences of my friends and colleagues with dealing with problems at work.
Listening actively — rolling out a 30 question survey designed to really get in and explore what kinds of problems women encounter at work, how they affect their work and well-being, and where they go for advice.
Listening for feedback — from friends, from survey-takers, from fellow founders and from people in the tech industry, from my mentor Nadav. Every piece of feedback has proven itself valuable so far, even if it wasn’t fun to hear (yep, even men saying they don’t think women face any special problems at work…)
image credit: queencult
Reach Out
As someone who comes from blogging and social media, I’m supposed to be the queen of reaching out. There’s nothing I love more than connecting people.
But it turns out there’s a huge difference between asking people to click on the link to a blog post that I know they’ll enjoy and between asking them to share something like a 30 question survey on women at work…
Well, what do you know, I was flabbergasted by the amount of social shares (and even more email shares) my survey got. In only 4 days, more than 350 women internationally took the survey and really went into it, replying with deep and genuine answers. (By now, we have almost 500 respondents from 32 different countries.)
A few days later, I found my co-founder Mili through another Facebook post that got 21 shares. Where would we be without reaching out?
Put Your Heart On The Line
If reaching out comes pretty naturally to me, asking for help is a whole another story. And I wasn’t even aware. (Turns out a startup is just a tech-masked therapy process.)
It started when I could just not figure out something with the landing page and had to be challenged by my mentor in order to ask for help.
“What, I ask for favors all the time!” I said, and I got this snippet of wisdom back from Nadav: Help is when you’re drowning, a favor is when you’re on the sofa and need something from the kitchen. Profound, eh?
Since then, I had many opportunities to ask for help in the most vulnerable way, like when we needed more survey respondents under 25. I went to a nearby college during lunch and just stopped female students and asked for their help. I was so terrified of doing that. And guess what? It turned to be one of the funnest experiences so far, and I got such valuable feedback from them.
Not everything ends up like this. With all the traction and engagement, we were still rejected from an event which could have been an amazing opportunity for Lean On. The reason: we’re still a work in progress — I guess you win some, you lose some.
image credit: the fresh exchange
Count Your Blessings
It’s a rollercoaster, no doubt.
And like any wild ride, it’s so easy to forget the incredibly amazing achievements and surprises as soon as you hit an obstacle or get to the part where you get rejected or just have a bout of impostor syndrome.
That’s why it’s so crucial to count your blessings — including both acheivements that you got through hard work, and just great moments and people that happen to you.
Here are a few of mine: My mentor Nadav, the amazing response to our survey, finding my amazingly talented UX co-founder through social media, my familly and friends’ support, and also… Get this: A shout out on Meerkat from Hillel Fuld, who’s seen a startup or two.
Another blessing I definitely recommend you “steal” is community — there are such amazing Facebook and Slack groups out there, and Skyping with a few fellow founders from overseas made me feel much more confident and supported (I hope that was mutual).
Go Go Go
We’re operating on a fairly tight schedule since I’m going to be in New York soon and would love to set some meetings. But even without that, pushing myself beyond anything I thought possible proved to be the best medicine for anxiety, for impostor syndrome, for rejections and even for the falls that come after the highs of this crazy roller coaster.
On Sunday, after a long day at a conference, plus meetings and “day job” work, I came home, kissed my son and filmed a video pitch for foundersfox.io. I did not have any idea what I’m doing, believe me. I gritted my teeth and pressed publish, and went to sleep expecting either nothing at all or comments on the poor-quality video (not to mention pitch). Well, the next morning I woke up to a bunch of tweets saying how important Lean On is, and how great it is to see a female founder.
Lean On
So this will hopefully be easier when our app becomes a reality, but seriously — lean on. don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, to ask for help, to get advice.
Do you relate? Have you been in the same situations? And how have you felt?
ps. Our survey is still going on! If you’re a working woman — please take it or share the link: http://surveyanyplace.com/s/leanon/
Thank you for reading!
