Is it crazy to start a start-up, or is it crazy not to?
Explained with a little help from Frankenstein
So, this is my first ever blog post.
(Ok, so that’s not technically true. I wrote a blog whilst interning for a start-up consultancy, but we won’t count that because it got taken down after about 30 seconds once the managing partners saw how candid I was about their clients. Naivety and honest is a dangerous mix, apparently. Now there’s noone double checking my work, so we’ll see how this goes. Pre-apologies to anyone I rub the wrong way)
Why I am even writing a blog? It’s mainly because I have lots of things on my mind, and if I don’t write them down, they’ll definitely fall out of my brain as I shove more stuff in. A sort of Pareto efficient state for the mind. These blogs are my personal collection of life observations — and if they help offer guidance (unlikely), supply insight (even less so), or offer solace to others with paralysed Pareto-state-like minds akin to mine (most probable), then all the better.
As I write, I am a 26-year old ex-management consultant who has just started a company. Helloooo cliché.
When I announced my intentions to start a company, many of my friends were proud, some a little envious, and a few indifferent. Some regaled me immediately with their own start-up ambitions, whilst others eyed me with curiosity and asked: “Nish, isn't it a bit risky? Aren't you afraid it might not work out?”
This got me thinking. It seemed like there were two main types of people: those who have dreams of starting on their own (but often never get around to it), and others who have no intention of leaving a safe role with clear, structured career progressions. Logically, the latter is easily the best option — start-ups are >90% likely to fail, you’ll lose your money, friends, relationships (and in my case, hair)…so why take the risk in the first place? Why does it appeal to some, and not others?
For me, I think my decision stems from a love of science. It has always been a passion. “Science” for me is roughly translated as “shit I don’t really understand”. Simply put, I have a thirst to know how (and test how) stuff works. In fact, whilst recently reading Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein (somewhat coincidently with Halloween), I found a quote which excellently sums this up (and inspired this blog):
None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science. In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder
(Mind you, Victor Frankenstein’s passion for scientific discovery is what led him to create his famous monster…I’ll get onto those parallels another time)
Eric Ries defined a start-up as “a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty”. If you consider “new product or service” as “new knowledge or understanding”, then this definition can be equally applied to scientific pursuits — human institutions attempting to uncover new understanding under highly uncertain conditions. And this is why his lean approach has been the go-to instruction manual for the current tech revolution: bringing a scientific method to what was previously a rather chaotic process.
You can therefore see the appeal — the start-up process directly ignites a scientific spark. Whenever my team push out a new experiment, be it a new feature, product, or some A/B test, I feel the same emotions as I did whilst I was at university, doing lab experiments for my final thesis: excitement fuelled by curiosity. Excitement because you are attempting stuff that noone has done before; and curiosity because you don’t have any idea what the result will be. This process continues for the lifetime of the company — constantly hypothesising, testing, refining, testing, learning.
So the decision to take the plunge comes down to a balance: the appeal of this daily excitement, versus the risks you take by putting yourself in an inherently risky environment of uncertainty (which is the primary reason for that excitement in the first place).
Still not convinced? Well, I'm not quite done — there’s one more factor to consider. Actually, this is a pretty important factor.
I have talked about the process of starting a company, but we haven’t yet considered the actual output of that process. There is no point going through this scientific process without having a genuine belief in what you are trying to achieve. Doing experiments for the sake of experiments is worthless, and will not excite anyone. It’s like doing lab experiments to make sure the machine is properly calibrated. Important, sure; to some, it might even be why they got out of bed. But for most, you’re not going to be hugely excited when those readings come out and you’re within the 0.0001% accuracy you require. Yee-haw.
The belief in the thing you are trying to create is what fuels the excitement and drive needed to pull through the hard times. The times when you wake up exhausted, re-considering your choices, and wondering why you’re putting yourself through such life turbulence. Your belief in what you are doing will ultimately show your resilience to the people that matter: your team, your customers, your supporters, and those who invest in your ability to make it happen.
So, back to the exam questions. Why take the risk? What’s the appeal? For me, the answer is clear: I believe, together with my team, that we will change the world in a hugely socially positive way; and every day, I love learning how to best go about achieving that ambition.
Each day, I awake energised to tackle anything which is going to get in the way.
Each night, I go to sleep knowing I am one step closer.
What’s not to like?
