Cool things I learned in 2020 (as a first-time founder)

In March 2020, I started Meetric.app with two cofounders in the land down under.

We raised a pre-seed round to get us started and have been in undercover mode since, building Meetric 1.0.

2020 was a year of lockdown but also a solid year of learning for me:

1. Founder harmony comes and goes

Building a business with other founders is like a pyramid of circles. You start from the centre of the circle: you learn how to work with each other, recognise each other’s strengths & weaknesses, tackle together the challenges thrown at you.

You get better at it until you reach the circle’s perimeter: founder harmony, perfect osmosis, you’re now a super-effective team.

But as you reach the perimeter of the first circle, you’re now at the centre of a larger, bigger circle: the business has evolved, more complex challenges have emerged and you find yourself working towards reaching the perimeter of that new circle.

And then it starts again — bigger circle, bigger challenges, etc.

2. Systems increase speed of execution.

It’s no surprise that drug cartels can maintain their empires despite their illegal nature: their staff follow strict rules and processes and don’t YOLO the next drug shipment!

In a startup, speed is of the essence. To maximise speed, you need systems: a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done.

Any repeatable work we’ve done this year has been easier with systems in place: how we plan the week, how we report on last month, how we make decisions, how we ship products, how we come up with new ideas, etc.

They may seem restrictive but they’re not: systems allow us to move forward without having to think or debate on the ‘how’ every time.

And they’re not set in stones: they’re evolving to reflect what we need at the time and changed when not fit for purposes.

3. Focusing on the ‘why’, not the ‘how’

I often live in the weeds, the details, and if it’s something I’m passionate about, I want it to be perfect.

As a founder & CEO, that’s a bad habit I had to break from.

I had to stop worrying about the ‘how’. I also realised four things:

• There are many ways to do something right.
• There are likely better ways than my way.
• Forcing ‘your way’ on other’s areas create unnecessary conflicts.
• The 80/20 rule applies — it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Instead, I needed to focus on the bigger picture more often: the ‘why’ and communicate it as clearly as possible to the team.

4. Founder fit = skill + personality

I’ll likely revise this formula in a year, but right now, I see ‘founder fit’ being the combination of individual skills and personality traits.

We’ve got a great split of skills in our team:

• Steven has a technical background and looks after tech.
• Jono has a product background and looks after product.
• I have a sales & marketing background and look after growth.

We trust each other’s decisions in our respective areas because we’re each the most expert at it within the team.

Personality is the second part. If all three of us were stubborn extraverts, we’d be in troubles. The team works well because our personalities are quite different. Each of us brings a unique point of view and communicates it differently, elevating the discussion. This diversity of traits has worked well for us so far and has boosted creativity.

5. First hires = skill + attitude

We’ve hired David, a Junior Software Engineer, in November 2020 and it’s been awesome having him. He was the result of 80 phone interviews, 20 face to face interviews & 2 two-weeks-trials.

David scored the highest on our technical test (skill) and you could felt he was very excited by the opportunity (attitude).

We were also excited by another candidate who showed the same attitude but was ‘light’ on the skill part. The two-week-trial for this candidate confirmed its skill level was not good enough for the role.

PS: By ‘skill’, I don’t mean ‘experience’ eg. done it before and can do it again, but someone who has the capacity to learn fast, usually thanks to a strong base of knowledge in the relevant area.

6. Meeting breaks are really a thing

We’re building a technology company to make meetings more effective, so 2020 was the year for me to completely reassess how I run my own meetings.

Every week, our product meeting lasts 1-3 hours and it can be exhausting: losing focus, patience and even interest.

Not anymore: if the meeting lasts longer than 1 hour, we take a break of a few minutes, every 45 minutes or so.

The average person’s attention span is only 18 minutes, so even 45 minutes you’re pushing it…

Until then, say hi on Twitter!