The importance of instilling speed and urgency throughout a team
“It’s not about growing fast or getting started, it’s about being number one. That’s the only thing that matters in tech.”
This is a piece of advice I’ve received over and over again from other founders and investors. In technology, the number one player enjoys 80 percent market share, while everyone else splits the rest.
Inevitably as a company continues its torrid growth, myriad factors begin to slow down in the organization. Decisions take longer to make, more people need to be looped in, we always need time for “more analysis and study,” and a lot of things just wallow in the pit of “things to get done.”
A startup cannot fall trap to the paralyzing effects of slowing down.
Startups are inherently different and run on a sense of urgency. We are given a limited amount of time to truly execute and build a fast-growing company. Every day we spend not executing is a day wasted. Speed in the long-run is a company’s differentiating ability.
Speed matters in the time it takes to close customers and achieve market-wide scale; the time it takes to iterate and push out features; the time it takes to respond to customer requests; and the time it takes to bring on and train new team members.
The faster a team acts in making decisions, shipping products, and getting them in the hands of customers, the faster they are able to accomplish their mission — the faster they get to being number one.
Each step that lack speed and urgency allows more time for competitors — both big and small — to encroach in a space as a company slows its growth.
I see four ways an organization can immediately fix lack of urgency:
1) Think about leverage and be cognizant of people’s time
When scheduling meetings, ask yourself “does this person really need to be here?” Calling a meeting of multiple people is very time-expensive and can potentially waste a lot of people’s time — time that could be spent moving the needle on the business. Ask yourself if it is the best use of your and their time or if there’s some asynchronous way to convey information and act accordingly.
2) Think about your differentiation factor
The core thing that differentiates FiscalNote as an organization is that we are a technology company from the ground up. We think and breathe technology as our first step to solving problems and we should always think about ways in which we can leverage technology to be better and do things faster regardless of which team an employee is assigned. Your differentiation factor defines you and sets you apart — embrace it.
3) Be relentless and have a bias for action
Sometimes in critical periods, we need to buckle down and get things done to accomplish our goals. Yes, this means that sometimes you will have to work late into the night. Yes, this means that sometimes you will be clocking hours during the weekend to ship a feature or close that final deal. At a startup, all team members should be prepared that each would be taking on the responsibility of ten people in a normal, large company.
4) Avoid paralysis by analysis
There’s nothing worse than talking about the same issue over and over again with no end in sight. It wastes a ton of time and drags our feet. Designate a clear decision maker and move quickly. Even if people disagree, commit to the decision and move forward. Moving quickly and making a decision is much better than not making a decision at all. Even if you’re wrong at least you can course-correct quickly.
Nothing kills startups faster than being slow at executing and decision-making. Luckily, this hasn’t been a huge problem at FiscalNote, but I often encourage the team to think about how we can improve the speed of decision-making and execution. As FiscalNote continues to grow and add more people, the entire staff knows that speed is how we will out-compete and build a fast-growing, long-lasting company.
