How far should you go to prove your startup idea?
At our "founders' health" session we discussed how far you should go to prove your startup idea!
We talked about the common reasons startup founders give up on pursuing their startup idea, like:
i) There is not enough traction with customers / investors / employees etc
ii) There are financial constraints or sudden market changes that drastically affect the risk / reward equation
iii) The level of stress and uncertainty results in health problems (mental, social, physical) to the point that makes the ongoing effort unsustainable
One thing that I noted down based on an example that was given and want to think more about is: “why is it that we examine and learn so deeply about ourselves and what drives us only when there are near death experiences (for ourselves, people around us, or our startups)?”.
I argued that the underlying driver of the decision to give up can be attributed to the “energy” level of the founder. Given that running a startup is all about handling risk and problem solving, most potential reasons for failure can be dealt with if you have the “stamina” to do so. But if you are not in the right state of mind and body to deal with the level of stress, then you feel burnt out, or you start focusing on all the things that aren’t working, or you simply make enough bad decisions that there is no way to unfucken the situation.
I talked about how, after some near death situations, focusing on my fitness, diet, and sleep has drastically changed my resilience to adverse incidents, and how a strict focus on boundaries around work and recovery has helped me appear more confident and competent in dealing with customers, and in turn has helped me be a better startup founder.
We talked about the importance of clarity around purpose. Sometimes we might want to do a startup because it’s the cool thing to do. Or because the mean prof at uni implied that “you’ll never do anything worth mentioning”. Or maybe we’re so stubborn and arrogant about something that we think it could only possibly happen by our hands. Knowing deeply what is driving us, whether internally or externally, is an important parameter. Knowing what it is, and why it is driving us is even better. Knowing what it is, why it is driving us, and what are all the ways our purpose can be achieved is the ultimate knowledge. Because maybe, just maybe, doing a startup is not the best way to move towards the purpose one has, or at least not towards the whole purpose one has.
The most important mechanics that happen in a startup is trying something, learning from it, and pivoting. Sometimes the pivot is small and focused on a minor iteration, and sometimes it is as big as merging your company into another, getting acquired, or getting hired in a bigger firm and working as a founder in residence, etc. The point is that if you’re clear about your purpose and have the energy to observe and make good decisions, you treat everything like a state to be evolved and a problem to be solved, and continue moving towards your purpose while recognizing that your startup is a means to an end.
“Once there is a better way, you’ll do better. Until then do the best you can. And in the meantime, make sure you have the capacity to recognize the better way when it turns up.”
All in all, starting a company, running it, and how far you might go is a direct function of the stamina and energy you have to put into making it work, AND what purpose (direction) is fuelling that effort. Knowing the drivers and inhibitors of the energy and purpose seem to be a good place to start understanding this complex equation better.
