In a perfect world, the core organizational processes of a startup move harmoniously. Reality is rarely so neat. As diverse initiatives fight for limited resources, every decision an entrepreneur makes is a trade off. Spend the afternoon de-bugging existing code or calling new clients? Seek out a technical co-founder or get your deck in front of more investors?
In particular, early stage ventures face dynamic, uncertain, and interrelated decisions. New obstacles and opportunities surface all the time from every direction. Entrepreneurs must be prepared to change course at the drop of a hat just to survive. To stay on top, their pace of evaluation and realignment must be equally rapid. And thus, many businesses fail when infrequent or myopic evaluation prevents founders from staying aware of what matters. Successful entrepreneurs focus, spending days or weeks on productization or commercialization or capitalization, but they always stay attuned to the other pillars, ready to change gears as soon as larger risks or bigger opportunities appear on the horizon. As one small time entrepreneur turned CEO of a billion dollar publically traded company puts it: "Entrepreneurship is a vaudeville act, like spinning plates on sticks. The real secret is to know which plate is slowing down so you can put all your effort into speeding it back up.”
Popular Dishes
-
It is no news that Social Network Sites (SNSs) have taken the Internet by storm and none more so than Facebook. What may be news though is...
-
Fundraising isn’t easy and we entrepreneurs keep ourselves motivated by mentally promising that everything will go back to normal afterward...
-
Many innovators overlook the importance of design as a source for innovation. Don’t get me wrong, the development of new technologies is a v...
-
Creativity works in mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Creative thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, bu...
-
Recently there has been a great focus on the role of design in evoking emotion and creating a strong connection to the consumer. But what is...
-
100-page-long marketing plans packed with detailed forecasts and spurious assumptions just don't make sense in the world of startups th...
-
How do you innovate? First, try to get in trouble. I mean serious, but not terminal, trouble. “When life gives you a lemon …” It is a well-...
-
How long till my website (page) ranks on top of Google? The common response to this question is obviously, “It depends,” because there ...
-
In startup land failure, in some share or form, is inevitable. Given its inevitability, what can we make - if anything - out of it? Brett ...

Thursday, November 26, 2009
blog comments powered by Disqus