NEW ENGLAND CAPITAL VENTURES

And the above played out during his second mission within two weeks of deployment. Talk about being thrown in the fire!

Execution = You: Start-ups truly test people for survival, patience, decision making and creative problem solving. For few, these traits come naturally but for most others, it’s a challenge. Your experience counts but experience alone does not define an entrepreneur, your philosophy and your culture does. Now these are not tactical traits but become more important than domain skills. This is especially true when companies go through rapid progression in growth and activity in a short period of time. If the average culture adoption per event for an employee is 6 months, think 5 events per month or 2.5 years per employee per month to adjust to fundamental changes in the company structure and business model. Now if I had 20 employees, each with their own culture adoption curve, I’d never get anything done in time to stay in business.

You <> Barriers: Think about school. Wasn’t it intimidating going to kindergarten, first grade … you don’t know many people, you’re not quite sure where to sit, you don’t know who the class bully is, you don’t know what to wear, you’re not sure what the teacher is going to say, what the homework is going to look like, etc. But you still made it and you made friends and you learnt a lot and many still cherish those memories. The same way, when I think back to my first start-up, we really did not know what we were doing until the first order came in, we were never quite sure what we were selling until we made our first sale and we were never sure how we would work together and in what teams until we somehow figured a way to play well in the sandbox. In the end, we built a team and the team made things happen, not me alone. We went from a collection of people to a team because each one of us played all the roles, some tactically, some strategically some philosophically. If we failed, it was because each one of us filed to play all the roles collectively. With a hand-full of people, the company is YOU. The barriers are you! So change it and stop complaining.

You = Culture: 99% of the working people have never worked in a start-up before. All these 99% of the folks were taught to think silo’d, structured and be in their own world. You may disagree, but under the hood, it is true J These same people come to a completely new environment without any barriers, culture, structure, processes, tools, etc. And each one of these folks apply context to build what they think has worked for them in the past. That’s the good news but that’s also the bad news. The good news is that is has worked for you in the past, the bad news is that is has only worked for you in the past. Now imagine all 10 people thinking this way. Again – nothing would ever get done. Unless – you stop being who you are, break all the rules and unscrew that door on your office and throw it away. I would almost say – don’t be in an office. Work in a large open environment. Think and talk about everything as a group – the good, the bad and the ugly. There is no room and time for being territorial and private about anything. If you the few of you can’t work together, how can ou build a 100 people team?

Culture <> You: You really don’t want this. The culture defined by a few can easily overtake the majority. Most facts in life are merely someone repeating the same issue a gazillion times for a long time before it is considered the truth. The next time someone tells you a fact – dig a little deeper and if it is anything beyond blatantly apparent – try and kill it by execution context. Most often it will have a positive effect. And those that repeatedly communicate the same issue, I think it’s time to have a chat with them. It’s business – nothing personal!

You <> Complaints: You joined a start-up to innovate and build new things and fix what’s broken today. Like your mother said when you had trouble playing with your toys or you found your homework too hard or you did not like your greens – suck it up, try again and work on it till you get to a point where you like what you do. There are after all, only a few of you so why can’t you make it work. There is really no time for “he said – she said” in a start-up. Just execute aggressively and you will see your rewards! Complaints are a negative culture, negativity creates animosity, animosity leads to fault lines for teams and fault lines ultimately leads to fractures. Fractures lead to “Going Out of Business” because we were too busy complaining.

You = CxO: If you were the CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, CMO, etc etc all in one . . . what would you do? How would you sell, market, build a product, build the technology, negotiate, manage your money, people, etc. Unless you role-play, you will never understand the challenges. I think all start-up employees should at least spend 1 day a month in a different role than they are.

You = Change: The reason start-ups survive and are successful is because they change and adapt well to that change. The art is in identifying the need for change. Changes is always needed but you are the one who executes on changes. If you sit around like a loaf of bread, you will eventually die out.

You = Creativity: Most people come to entrepreneurs with problems. Few come with solutions. But everyone is opinionated. It’s a classic tug-of-war between who is more valuable and productive – the person responsible for coming up with issues or the person who thinks knows it all. The answer lies in the approach and the situation in which things are presented. You can turn any negative experience into positive if you just change your lens and look at the “problem” as a “work-flow re-org”. If the person coming to you with issues everyday only hears the positive, there will be a day when he/she will realize that and be positive themselves. Not always true but true in most cases. Its even more fun when you successfully do something which was told could not be done. I have never found a traditional proven route to get there. It’s has always been via the road less travelled.

I am sure there are others that I haven’t captured here. Break down the titles, break down the barriers and break down the walls. See if you can all live together, communicate and facilitate an environment where things get done and fast. And for that, you have to be a chief at everything – or at least the key people need to be chiefs at everything.

By the way, the friend I was talking about earlier in this blog – he has successfully founded 3 companies, run 2 venture funds and is now retired and is an active philanthropist. He always told me “Janak, if I did not do what I had to do – I’d be dead”. Maybe it’s that sense of moral, ethical and execution criticality that made him what he is today.