Entrepreneurs, Be More like Nemo

Why It’s Good to be a Clownfish

Writing my previous blogposts, and discussing them with others, made me realize I needed to take a step back. What does communication actually means? What is so special about startups, how are they different from established organizations? And what are the communication challenges I’d like to solve using Biomimicry in my startup JASWIG? Answering these questions really help understand the problem, which is an essential first step for Biomimicry. This allows you to phrase your question in a format like “how does nature solve a problem in this certain context?” This question can then for example be asked on AskNature, a database of organisms organized by their function. What I want to achieve over the following weeks by reading many different strategies is seeing deep patterns that occur on many, if not all. Deep patterns highlight successful strategies that have been tested over time, multiple times, and in different environments.

The problem communication can be seen as:

1. Exchanging information
2. Collaborating on a task
3. Dealing with conflicts
4. Taking decisions

How does a startup determines the context:

1. A rapidly changing environment
2. Undefined organizational structure
3. Developing culture
4. Fast feedback loops
5. High need for communication between co-founders

“How does nature collaborates in a rapidly changing environment?”

I’ve asked the question “How does nature collaborates in a rapidly changing environment?” AskNature returned about 30 hits, some more relevant than others. Today I choose to Follow Nemo (how can you resist not going for this cute orange, white-striped clownfish). Next week I’ll summarize another one.

In reality a caring father is not the one that cares for their baby clownfish, instead it’s sea anemones that provide a protective habitat. However, from the more than 1,000 species of sea anemones found throughout the world’s oceans there are only ten of these species that provide a save environment for clownfish to live in. Sea anemones have tentacles that contain harpoon-like stinging capsules called nematocysts that are covered with sensory hairs. When touched the nematocyst triggers a cell explosion causing the harpoon-like structure to inject a dose of venom of the prey that touched it. This venom paralyzes the prey, allowing the sea anemone to slowly digest it.

Sounds cruel… How can this be the place that clownfish need for their survival? In biological terms its called “obligatory mutualism”, in human terms you could see it as a very close relationship between two where each one of them needs the other for survival (“True love?”).

Sea anemones are being eaten by butterfly fish; clownfish are being eaten by many other, larger fish. But not when they live together! This partnership could only work if the clownfish survives the venomous stings of the sea anemone. Although still partly unresolved; researchers have found a mucus (=slime) layer around the clownfish that somehow protects them against the sting of their host sea anemone (not just any anemone, but specifically their host). So one sea anemone houses one certain species of clownfish. Researchers have seen that baby clownfish start rubbing them against the tentacles, thus smearing themselves with mucus produced by the sea anemone. Alternatively, the clownfish produce their own mucus. Or the mucus is coming from both the sea anemone and the clownfish. Anyway, the secret is that they, together, found a way build up a resistance so that they can live together and thrive.

The next step after understanding the biology is to abstract this into a practical principle.

Let’s try this for a startup:

Find a co-founder that you know has a need (e.g. lack of essential skill) that you can help him with (and vice versa) and built an environment where you can co-exist. That co-founder doesn’t necessarily need to be your best friend (he can even be “poisonous”) as long as you find a collaborative way to deal with each other (build a very thick skin, or metaphorically a protective mucus). However, be aware that you leave room to let the other do what he is good at; you still need to be able to see the value of why you need each other.