Business Lessons from the Land of Hard Knocks
Kevin Mireles’ post-mortem on his failed startup contains a number of nuggets that echo my experience with Involver 1.0. I’ve summed them up below, synthesized and rehashed in conversation with @theyoungkid.
* Be kind, but ruthless:
Whether it’s people, strategy or products, there’s no room for rose-colored glasses in a start up if you want to succeed.
* Do not overlook the human dimension.
If there are concerns about the team, address them quickly and honestly. If they can’t be overcome, be willing to walk away. It will not work.
* Define a path forward:
Agree on specific deliverables and how they’ll be tracked.
* Focus on making consistent progress towards deliverables:
Since most projects either cost twice as much or take three times longer than predicted, the fact that you don’t complete everything in the desired time frame isn’t as important as making sure you are making consistent progress toward your goals.
* Iterate quickly:
Achieving perfection is almost impossible since users will always surprise you with unanticipated feedback. It’s more important to complete the initial phase quickly and get feedback faster – so you can deliver a successful product sooner.
* Fail forward fast:
Where you end up is typically way different from where you start and the only way you get there is to find out what doesn’t work.
* The issues that bother you at the beginning will be what kill you later. Trust your gut.
* If it looks like a goose, walks like a goose, it’s a goose.
You can try to define your product however you want, but if your customers think of it as X, it is X and will be very difficult to get them to see it as Y.
* Take advantage of existing infrastructure:
We all stand on the shoulders of giants, so when we are successful, it’s not because we did it all by ourselves but that we were able to take advantage of the infrastructure others created.
