The secret lives of technology enabled entrepreneurs
Tools, optimisation, and lots and lots of coffee. We take a peek into the secret lives of startup entrepreneurs and ask the question — can they show us a new way to work?
This is the first article reporting on a series of findings from a recent project on startups undertaken by the Future of Work research theme within the Chair in Digital Economy at QUT.
We’re putting startups under the microscope due to the emerging trends of job creation and future skills evident in this sector. One of the questions we set out to answer is how technology enables startup entrepreneurs to operate and grow their businesses. Our research interviews revealed some interesting insights about how startup entrepreneurs utilise tech to plan, manage and optimise their days, and the skills that are required to work this way. (But first, coffee.)
The only certainty is uncertainty.
Whether it’s building product, attending meetings, conducting customer and market research, marketing, sales or pitching, a startup entrepreneur’s day includes balancing multiple jobs and hats. For many early stage founders, they also work at other jobs to supplement income and fund their business. Through our research interviews, we found that uncertainty in each day is the only guarantee.
“As a founder of a startup, there is no real structure to a day. It’s very much left up to your own imagination on what you want to work on, which can certainly be a challenge. A key skill is determining what’s actually important to work on rather than what’s just doing stuff.” Startup Founder
But founders also see this uncertainty as exciting, and identify the ability to think strategically and prioritise as key skills.
Skill for the Future of Work #1: Categorisation
As employment becomes increasingly distributed and roles fragmented, workers need to be able to categorise and prioritise the big tasks and goals that will actually make a difference in organisational operations.
Startup founders don’t just make tech, they live on it
The founders we interviewed told us that doing a startup is chaotic, but it’s technology that helps bring some form and structure to the chaos. From communication to project planning and management, personal time management, networking, as well as outsourcing tasks and capability, startup entrepreneurs are tooled to the eyeballs.
Slack, Asana, Upwork, Google suite, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Trello, Hubspot, Dapulse, Zoom, Skype, MailChimp, and Xero — this shopping list of software tools just scratches the surface of the plethora of products technology enabled entrepreneurs rely on to operate and grow their businesses.
Startup entrepreneurs are using software as much as possible to create order and implement principles of the lean operation. While startups themselves run lean, they are also stimulating massive job creation within these other software companies — a spin-off effect often overlooked.
Skill for the Future of Work #2: Blended Intelligence
As more software tools become available to support and streamline organisational operations and communication, workers need to be able select the right tools for the job, integrate them effectively and be able to work alongside this technology.
Optimisation and flexibility
With these enabling technologies comes the opportunity to work flexibly and optimise business processes. The founders we interviewed are able to work from wherever. Whether that’s an office, a cowork space or from home, the tools they use to communicate and operate the business rely only on a laptop and an internet connection.
Startup entrepreneurs see this as an competitive advantage:
“Our flexibility to apply newer technologies, faster technologies and adapting technologies, is where we see our strength.” Startup Founder
Skill for the Future of Work #3: Workflow management
As technology enables work to be completed away from the traditional office environment, workers need to be able to adapt and manage flexible work conditions efficiently.
What does this mean for the future of work?
At the end of the day, each entrepreneur and business is different, but we found they all embrace the diverse and dynamic flow of work and types of tasks that comes with growing and operating a startup. We also found that technology software and hardware are the backbone of startup life. The tools they use enable flexible operations that can be carried out whenever and wherever.
The practises illustrated by startups highlight the benefits and opportunities that technology enabled operations present for other organisations in the digital economy, including flexible work, lean processes, and the effective integration of software tools into daily business operations. Employees will also need to develop new skills to support this mode of operating, including categorisation, blended intelligence and workflow management.
If you want help working out what’s next for your organisation, please contact me at the Chair in Digital Economy.
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Jess Blomfield| Research Fellow, Future of Work | j.blomfield@qut.edu.au
