We Take Care of Ourselves and Each Other

About a year ago, we sat across from each other in Innovation Park, mulling over the topic of the “values” of INVANTI. Dustin had just sat through a meeting discussing the “Mission, Vision, and Values” of the organization he was working for at the time, and he came back pondering the same topic for INVANTI. Mission and vision almost felt too easy — we’ve always had a very intuitive sense for what those are and they’ve remained fairly constant. We had never really talked about values, and to be honest, both of us were a bit skeptical that it was even useful to spend time on.

“I don’t want to have a list of words on the wall that mean nothing besides having a list of words on the wall,” Maria said.

Over the next half hour we decided to take the approach that made sense to us — let’s try to create something that is actually actionable. We wrote out things that we believe in and that we would want to use as criterion when debating an important decision for INVANTI. After some time, this is where we landed:

• Relationships are important to us.
• We aren’t afraid to do the hard things or the right things.
• We take care of ourselves and each other.
• We have honest conversations.
• We are conscious about access.

When we moved into our first office, we wrote them with a sharpie on a big piece of paper and posted it on the wall. We talked about them with our first cohort in their first week. We explained them to anyone passing through the office who asked. We felt good about them and comforted in the fact that we knew they had a purpose.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve put that list to the test.

Maria has been dealing with some pretty serious spine issues over the past few months and is to the point now where the medical issues are impeding on her ability to carry out her daily life, both professionally and personally. The good news is that she is now getting the medical care she needs (PSA: be prepared for future INVANTI Healthcare Delivery cohorts — this system is a MESS…), but the situation has brought about some tough questions for us as a young, but ambitious company.

We went back to that seemingly high-level, abstract list, and decided to use it. We started with an honest conversation about what Maria is currently capable of doing well, and what real limitations exist. The reality of her situation at the moment is that she cannot sit at all, she can stand for a very limited amount of time, and otherwise has to be laying down. This severely restricts her ability to work outside of her apartment and obviously as a result, impacts her activities day-to-day. If we were to start a cohort in July, there is no reason to believe that this would be any different, and it would have real implications on our ability, as a team of two, to be effective.

We then talked seriously about what is most important for us as a company at this point. We’ve had a great reaction to the first cohort, have three ventures that are still active and making progress, and have a lot of excitement from potential partners about what the future may look like. We continue to get a strong reaction from those that we recruit, many identifying with the urge to start something, but feeling sidelined by not having an idea yet. As all this swirls, we have big plans for INVANTI over the next 18 months and will be challenging ourselves to take another big step toward building an impactful venture that we really believe in.

As we spoke, it became clear that these two conversations were very much in conflict with each other. Pushing forward with the plan in place was starting to challenge our ability to prioritize the health and wellness of our team. Executing on Cohort 2 as planned, as well as building the infrastructure for the future plans of INVANTI, would be asking Maria to put taking care of her back secondary to making progress on INVANTI. In the process, it would also jeopardize Dustin’s ability to support Maria and take care of himself at the same time.

And we are not the only ones affected by these decisions. Our cohorts are also part of our team. When we recruit a cohort, we make promises and we care a lot about fulfilling them. Our founders quit their jobs, move across the country (sometimes across the world), and take the risk to set out on their own journey to build a company that really matters to them and to our communities. So we asked, “Given where we are today and where we want to be in a year, what do we need to do in order to deliver on the promises we make to our cohorts and to our team, based on our values?” Our answer: move the start of Cohort 2 from July to September. This gives us an extra two months for Maria to heal and recover, gives us the time to ensure we have everything in place to deliver the highest-quality experience to our next batch of founders, and allows us to also build for INVANTI’s future.

We have all been in the room when, as a team or as a company, you go over the mission, vision, and values of your organization. It’s been a challenging experience to not only be the ones who create them, but to also be the ones tasked with using them for very real decisions in the company. We are proud to have created a list of values that has made the leap from an abstract exercise to a practical tool that we use when making tough decisions in these early days of building INVANTI. We are learning a lot about building something for the long-term, and are becoming more and more aware that these small decisions about culture matter along the way.

All of that being said, we feel really lucky. We are building something we care deeply about and we are working with people who care deeply about each other. We are more excited then ever about the potential of Cohort 2 (and INVANTI in general) and cannot wait to get started this fall!

INVANTI!

Maria & Dustin

P.S. Keep an eye out for some future storytelling from Maria on her experience with the healthcare system over the last five months…probably needless to say, but it is ripe material for an army of future INVANTrepreneurs…

Maria Gibbs and Dustin Mix are cofounders of INVANTI, a startup generator in the Midwest.

Don’t wait for an “A-HA!” moment to start building a company that matters: https://www.invanti.co/apply/