Do Things that Don’t Scale

When you’re still searching, try do things manually

Paul Graham wrote a famous article titled “Do Things That Don’t Scale”.

The main idea of the article is extremely important for entrepreneurs, but some may misunderstand it.

If You’re Starting a Business…

For example, if you’re starting an O2O business that sends house cleaning personnel to customers’ houses, what do you think you should do first?

A. Hire a cleaning guy.
B. Hire an engineer to build a website.
C. Hire someone to handle online marketing.
D. All of the above.

Paul might say: “None of it.”

The things you might need to do are:

1. Create a Google form.
2. Go to Craigslist (of your region), post the link of the Google form, and introduce your cleaning service (how it works, pricing… etc.)
3. If someone shows interest, you either hire someone or do the job yourself, and then interview the customer to gather feedback (Is it too expensive? How often do they need the service? Why do they need it?).
4. After few rounds, you might (definitely, I’ll say) find out something “wrong”, meaning it didn’t go as planned.

Then, you fix something and launch a new version of the business.

If you can’t acquire sustainable customers for a while, you might need to think about “pivoting”.

There’re few more cases mentioned in this video, worth watching:

The Most Important Thing: Getting Closer to Real Problems

Startups are all about “searching”. Searching for the right market, searching for the most painful needs, searching for the good providers, searching for the right model….

When you actually interact with the customers who have needs, you’ll get more information and inspiration by facing them directly than by just sitting in the office and controlling peoples to provide services. So, you’re more likely getting closer to the destination that you’re searching for.

“Can I hire someone to search for me?” you might ask.

Sure, but they will never care as much as you do. So it probably won’t work. There’re too many founders searching for the PMF and failing midway. Why would you think you can achieve it through others’ hands?

Why Shouldn’t I Hire Too Early?

After “launching” the business by minimum manpower, you might feel thankful that you didn’t hire excessive employees. Because things would probably not go the way you thought. So, all the planning and costs would be in vain.

And you might need to fire someone after that.

As mentioned earlier: “Startup is all about searching”. When searching, it’s smart to keep your team light and agile. There’re multiple advantages:

1. You won’t be too bloated to change direction.
2. Your burn rate will be lower, buy you more time for searching (A lot of startups died before they reach product-market fit (PMF))
3. You’d be less stressed, and it’s more likely to make better decisions. (You’ll be surprised how significantly the state of mind affects decision-making)

What if Customers Don’t Satisfy with My Service?

….you might ask.

Then, DON’T CHARGE THEM. You’re not a professional cleaning company anyway, the mission of this stage is digging for insights. It’s not a real business yet, you’re just searching for the PMF now (product-market fit).

The money you “lost” is way lower than the money you would cost if you hired someone recklessly. Trust me.

If you have a bad review after all, so what? You can start a new brand with the experience you’ve gained. Who’ll know?

Start lean, you have nothing to lose.