Discipline
The difference between success and death in startups
- Making progress: What metrics are you using in order to see if the company is succeeding? How are you orienting your entire team around them? How frequently — and consistently — are you communicating updates?
- Managing time: Does your calendar actually reflect the priorities from above every single week? Is there an activity you aren’t spending enough time on? Do you have the discipline to disconnect and step away?
- Fundraising: How are you managing your investors? Are you sending frequent updates on your progress, tightening your pitch and proactively building relationships?
- Team building: What are you doing to consistently create a great work environment? How are you making sure that every hire meets your standards?
If you and your team can answer all the above questions accurately, then you have discipline. If not, you don’t. It’s that black or white.
I have mentored and advised more than 50 startup leading to investments. I can confidently say that only 1% of founders are disciplined enough. Founders who lack the skills to manage time given all the calendar tools and insights, manage investor expectations using frequent and consistent reports, manage team through candid feedback are doomed to fail.
I was speaking to a senior executive at a telecom company who drew parallels between daily reports in this company to how the nervous system in the human body works. Without these nerves communicating in real time, part of the body can be in real pain. The same can be said about companies and teams. Most of the founders (and investors) I’ve seen, rely only on ad-hoc updates and reports and give inconsistent view of their startup to the their teams and investors. I have provided numerous report formats to them with no avail. They are simply “too busy” to send reports!
I encourage you to read this excellent article from First Round Capital about how having discipline changed the fate of this YC startup. But don’t just read it, apply the advice that it is giving you. Simple to read but difficult to implement!
I love how this part sets the scene for the article:
“For Collin, that discipline lies in the three carefully constructed emails she has sent with an almost frightening regularity since Front’s earliest days: a weekly update to the entire company, a note to her direct reports and a monthly update to her investors. Read on for a closer look at how she crafts them and why they’ve been critical to Front’s results.”
This is the twenty fourth in a series of posts about our investment criteria and ecosystem resources. It was also posted on LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from teams with crazy (but commercial) startups. If you’re looking for funding don’t forget to get your IV Score to prepare for your next VC meeting. If you’re funded and are looking for coaching, start here.
