Venturing to do the Hard Stuff
Human Ventures is a venture studio in New York City. We back and build companies in the consumer technology space, and we fundamentally believe that people are the real accelerators of great products.
After a little over a year helping build and shape early-stage companies, I’ve come to believe there are four key elements to a people-first philosophy:
Optimize for Them (People)
At Human Ventures, we spend a disproportionate amount of time getting to know the founder(s). Who is this person? What are their motivations? What are their unique gifts and skill sets? How can we calibrate the early environment so that they can really fly? To us, that means aligning our own efforts to ensure they’re spending 98% of their time on what they’re uniquely qualified to do to build a great business.
And on the other hand, what are their gaps? What do they need to learn? That’s where we begin the team-building process. When we examine early team dynamics, we’re not just looking for technical requirements and/or pedigree. That stuff’s certainly important, but we’re much more interested in how people can have a multiplier effect on the sum. There are people that are 10X smarter, more experienced, more technical. But if the very next person we meet with does not share the same values and ambitions, if they won’t fit with the rest of the team, we just won’t hire them. Simple as that.
Over-Communicate
You can lose weeks, even months of productivity because of ineffective communication. Your family and close friends may have an unfair advantage here because of deep historical knowledge. They know what you’re really saying when you say X or don’t say Y. We don’t have that luxury with early teams, so we work really hard at being great routers of information.
We encourage founders to over-communicate. Along with setting a vision and mission, it’s critical that the day-to-day operating environment is driven by clear expectations and accountabilities. Make sure people know precisely what’s expected of them. Make sure they know where you intend to focus as founder, and what you care most about. Put those stakes in the ground, so that it’s clear where people have the autonomy to make their own decisions. To make something their own. But also where the boundaries of that freedom exist.
Most importantly, make damn sure people don’t just hear you, but that they understand you. We have this mantra for our meetings format, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. And then tell them what you’ve told them.” Along with that, leave plenty of space for questions and feedback. And listen! But don’t just listen for what you’re hoping to prove or validate, listen for what you didn’t expect or prepare for. Or for what’s not being said. Be genuinely interested in uncovering all of that nuance, and don’t leave the room until you can assess how well information was routed.
We strive to really overdo this stuff in the early days. We encourage teams to find ways to be innovative and persistent in how they communicate. Also, to be redundant. That may seem inefficient or awkward at first. But it’s akin to taking some extra ground balls during spring training, or staying after practice to shoot more free throws. The extra reps today will 10X the velocity of everything you do as a team in the future.
And for more relevant (and funny) insights into how to be a great router, check out “How Google Works” by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg.
Doers Wanted
If you want to “break into” start-ups, or work with early-stage companies by leveraging your past work or position leading strategy, then this environment is just not the place for you. I mean, what does all that corporate jargon even mean, anyway?
Sure, we think it’s very important that our founders can articulate where their companies are headed, where they’re going to play, and how they’re going to win the market. But then it’s mostly about the daily grind of execution, accountability, and iteration.
Turns out, changing consumer behavior is really difficult. The consumer has a plethora of choices, and their problems, likes, and dislikes are dynamic. By the time you write a strategy thesis with SWAT and work it into a PowerPoint, your market will have moved. Your customer will have become your competition.
So we don’t spend a bunch of time talking about what we should do. We go do it! Pick up the baton. Try it. And tell us what we can do to help you.
At Human Ventures, we look to build with people who are willing to go to all sorts of lengths to do what’s best for the team. For the product. For the business. How far can you stretch outside of your comfort zone? If you’re a chief with 20 years of experience in XYZ, are you willing to spend a little time keeping the first set of books and writing vendor checks? Knowing that if you do that, other resources can be maximized to get your beta shipped faster? The answer to that tells us a lot about what kind of stuff a person is made of.
Being above the work just doesn’t work. Dig in. Figure it out. Do the work.
Enter Stoppage Time
Stop the train. Come up for air. Have a think. Pull back.
Choose whatever saying you want, as long as it helps you understand that this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Find some time each week to do that, and task someone in your life to hold you accountable to it. Checking in with your own health, relationships, other interests, etc. will make you intellectually fitter. It will make your team and product and ideas better. And it will truly increase your daily productivity, because you’ll be tuned into the right stuff. The most important stuff.
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures recently shared some relevant (and personal) wisdom on burnout and balance in this recent blogpost.
Founders, we need you. You’re useless to us if you’re burnt to a crisp. If you’re not bringing the energy. The direction. The daily inspiration we need to plow forward. To cross the chasm. To make the best decisions.
I think it’s fair to say that most great things that come to you in life come when you least expect them. So be diligent about striving each week to find some time in your own humanity zone.
You’ll be surprised at what might come to you.
Michael Letta is CFO / COO and a founding partner at Human Ventures
