by Sonia Lin
Becoming a castaway may be the price to pay to succeed, but it’s not a guarantee to success. Once individuals start giving up on how they look and feel about themselves, it only gets worse. Happy, healthy, and creative people leave, and those who stay end up with people equally miserable, and that’s one step closer to self-destruction.
Get Set, Go!
Connectivity
With our phones and computers becoming part of the human body now, it’s very hard not to tend to them whenever there’s a second to kill, not to mention when running a startup, since the inbox is constantly exploding or screaming for attention.
But let’s face it — the inbox is never going to be empty, and gadgets are only going to become more needy.
For individuals with the goal of being successful and capable of making up their own minds, a great way of bringing more balance to life is to work out the first thing in the morning. It’s a way to break that dependence on gadgets, and is a breeze for anyone who really wants to do it.
Bottom Line
What good is a workout to your startup life?
One thing gets checked off on the to-do list every day. It means feeling good, and even if afterward four meetings end up accomplishing nothing, one thing has still been accomplished. It’s very important to feel good about oneself constantly when on this journey faced with doubts from friends, disbelief from family, and attacks from peers. It’s not only psychological, since the endorphins excreted during the workout can help fend off all this negativity.
Things become so much easier. People look at how much better shape they’re in, and look back with amusement at how much they dreaded working out when they started. It’s a bonus to remind themselves how physically sound they are compared to all those fat cats are who can’t get themselves together! Accomplishing the hardest mission ever — to work out and get fit, means nothing else will beat them.
It keeps the creative juices flowing. People headed toward a workout may drag themselves out of the door, fretting about what hopeless thing can possibly happen that day, but realize that all that is going to be gone the minute they start sweating and pounding. Crazy ideas begin mushrooming, and the solution to that feature which still refuses to work after days magically appears. It’s almost like the mess that accumulates daily gets shaken up and reorganizes itself just by bouncing up and down.
Always Open
Chapter 7
Public Relations Problems
A startup needs to pay as much attention as an established organization to its public relations — which involve developing an audience, fostering relationships with other organizations, crafting messages, and timely publicizing of its services. The trick is that for a startup, because of how premature in its development it is, a lot of aspects of the company are yet to take shape, and what the founder has in mind may not be how the company is perceived in the public eye and how the services are utilized — and that could be how great potentials are discovered.
Winning Social Media Strategy
To Pitch or Not to Pitch
While the startup scene is growing rapidly in major cities, the services that accommodate this growth are growing too, such as startup news sources or pitch events. While the major ones like TechCrunch receive pitches all the time, smaller, regional ones are hungrier for news. Therefore, even if the company isn’t really ready to get its name in front of the public, these smaller sources might still be interested not only because of their need for content but also for the love and support for local startups that the startup communities have in common.
Ever-increasing channels for exposure for startups can make or break them, depending on their goal for the exposure and how it’s leveraged. While the message to be conveyed has to be equally thoughtful as that of an established organization, it’s advisable to not be overly specific in details, as the startup’s image and its corresponding services are still taking shape.
Stealth Mode
A startup may be working on a great idea, and it needs to be kept secret. Understandable. But just how long should it be in stealth mode?
I’ve heard all kinds of answers to this question. Some startup consultants say that a startup should never be in stealth mode, as an entrepreneur is in constant need of advice. Some entrepreneurs won’t say a word unless an NDA is signed because intellectual property is the only thing they have at this early stage of their company. I’ve even heard somebody from a top venture capital firm say that the company should be in stealth mode as long as it can because of the competition.
It depends on how stealthy the founder wants to be and what advantages there are to telling the startup idea to somebody. Is it tempting to tell it to friends for moral support? Not a bad idea, since it’s a lonely journey. Would it be useful to tell this to a fellow entrepreneur for advice? Good, as it can never hurt (and chances are the friend has in mind what seems like a better idea so won’t steal yours). Is there a drive to tell media about it way before launch? Not so good.
Tip:
Being stealthy is not only for public relations, but also psychological. There’s a TED talk, Keep Your Goals to Yourself by Derek Sivers that explains how the social recognition gotten out of telling people one’s goals may create a false sense of achievement, which reduces the motivation to continue working on them.
Dirty Laundry
True, companies generally shouldn’t air out dirty laundry, but a lot of aspects in a startup may seem like it’s doing so, because startups are usually not as professional looking as an established company. In fact, it’s about time that the business world realizes professionalism isn’t where productivity comes from. So one might as well embrace what a startup really is about — casual and offbeat — and invite the world into it. A Facebook update about an office beer pong would be a great idea!
Chapter 8
Working Environments
What type of work space is ideal for a particular startup? While there are all kinds of factors coming into play with different locations, one thing for sure is that there is absolutely no best working place for everybody. An experienced senior manager doesn’t necessarily prefer a plush office to other places, just as someone else may have strong feelings for one particular seat in a Starbucks.
It takes a while to figure out the right balance of freedom and constraints to bring out the best in people in a startup environment. It can be helpful to identify what about past workplaces might have been changed, perhaps things that were particularly annoying or otherwise disrupted productivity, as well as conditions conducive to doing good work. It could be that cubicles feel suffocating. It could be that chatter and seemingly never-ending brainstorming sessions disrupt thinking and quality work. It could be that working with bosses who act psycho makes it hard to relax and be innovative around them.
When a founding team is in place, finding a working setting satisfactory for a group tends to add more constraints, as it’s harder to find a mutual place that is good for all. But the added motivation and talent can be priceless, which makes compromising worthwhile.
Home
Pros:
Home is where everyone has the most control over the working environment in many ways — working schedule, clothing, devices, and a bunch of other daily needs such as food. Working at home saves on commute costs and the inevitable eating out when time and energy run out for packing lunch or when a rewarding dinner with friends awaits after a long day spent at the office.
Cons:
With great power comes great responsibility. It takes an incredibly disciplined person to be on schedule with goals when working at home with no one watching over one’s shoulder. Also, there is no clear distinction between work and rest, which a daily commute would otherwise conveniently serve as a divider for, so it’s tempting to dilly dally without the discipline of watching the clock.
Tip:
One way to help manage time while working at home is to set daily goals and review them every day. There are several gre
at project management tools, which could be anything from Outlook tasks, allowing ticking off completed tasks, to Google Docs, allowing work with partners simultaneously, and even more sophisticated tools that may be useful, like Huddle, allowing the setup of annoying alerts to whoever’s involved in key tasks. For moral support, anything from Facebook, where team members can participate in the same chat, or Yammer, when chats are strictly for work, can act as virtual water coolers.
Coffee Shop and Library
Pros:
This category of places has the bustle to put people into the working mood when they find the home environment isolating and lacking in motivation. What’s more, when the noises in these environments serve as the background for inspiration and productivity, no one owes them anything — meaning workers don’t report to anyone there like they would have to in the office, and they aren’t stuck with the place like they would when signing up for a co-working space. Rotating between places can feel like taking a trip every day, which can spark different ideas.
Cons:
This type of environment is still a bit lacking for people who can’t force themselves into accomplishing something daily when nobody’s watching. Therefore, some of the same tools mentioned as useful when working from home are still good ideas. Another disadvantage is that the startup business can’t own these places — meaning the employees are working around them, not the other way around. If this place has a great view but bad food, that’s another choice to have to make. If someone’s favorite seat is taken, that means having to find another spot. Also, it is probably not advisable to walk around freely whenever needed in the space for the possible disturbance to strangers, which could be inhibiting in the creative process when one has to stretch and get some fresh air.
Tip:
If it’s just the background chatter at the coffee shop that’s needed, to avoid the other inconveniences, Coffitivity, which streams coffee shop sounds to listen to, may be a good option for working alone while needing some stimulation.
Co-working Space
Pros:
To provide not only the hustle and bustle, but also some bells and whistles to get things in order, signing up for a co-working space is an option. It’s the difference between trying to lose weight running around the neighborhood versus signing up at the gym — by paying the fee for a period of time, there’s the added motivation of seeing people who are in shape or want to be. These spaces also allow seeing pretty much the same people every now and then, allowing a constant exchange of ideas and opportunities to make friends. As these places typically cater towards entrepreneurs and freelancers and have affiliations (or also serve as) venture capitalists, it’s a good idea to get into the ecosystem this way and open some doors at an early stage of building the company.
Cons:
Even though co-working spaces tend to have cooler designs than traditional office spaces, there may be more chatter, as there’s the stress of working while having fun in a place that will not always be as quiet as some might hope if the office is managed poorly. Also, co-working spaces tend to use evening times to host events, meaning there’s less privacy and exclusion than from leasing dedicated office space.
Tip:
There are co-working spaces that are free to work at, on the condition of contributing services and expertise to projects belonging to the space’s members or affiliations, such as Gangplank in Chandler, AZ. There are spaces that even have showers, such as CLBC in Taipei. There are also working environments that are hybrids of co-working space and coffee shop, like Next Door in Chicago, where the space can be used for free on a one-time basis and includes the option of ordering refreshments. Shopping around to see which one fits the needs of the business can also help identify places to stick around once it’s big enough to own an office.
Office
Pros:
Entrepreneurs who are ambitious at every level of their startup might want to own office space quite early on. It can be a big motivation if everyone on the team has a place to come every day that has the company logo on the door, the printer at their disposal, the furniture arranged however they like, and a beer pong table whenever they want to start a tournament. Investors, stakeholders, and recruits might be impressed by the presence of a physical office at an early stage, and listing a physical address on the business card and website makes the company look like something.
Cons:
The cost associated with leasing a physical space essentially means raising the team before anything else gets taken care of — electricity, supplies, snacks — which can pile up the bills when working hours are long (which presumably is one big reason for cooping up people in an office). Also, such a place can’t possibly be as spacious and plushy as some cool co-working space or Google office, because it’ll be a huge resource burden so early on. This is the time to think about how disliked the stifling office at the old workplaces were, now that boredom has extended to the startup under even more stress and uncertainty. How to keep the office motivating and productive requires a lot of thought when any normal creature needs some privacy and quality time alone.
Tip:
Leasing office space isn’t advisable for a startup until there’s some reliable and sustainable source of funding or revenue coming in the foreseeable future. By all means, if there’s a need for a private space for the company, reserving library meeting rooms or rotating between team members’ places is worth considering. These places should work well when there’s a need for more intense brainstorming or co-working sessions, and other times, people may be better off working remotely rather than being cooped up in a small space.
Everywhere Else
Chapter 9
Sustainability
What defines the success of a startup is not just the accomplishment of a single one-time goal — a pitch, a launch, or an acquisition, to name a few — but a series of goals that over time produces positive results — including becoming revenue-positive, gaining value, and having positive morale.
For an entrepreneur planning a sustainable startup, there are several aspects to consider to help think wisely about spending valuable energy and resources.
You Are Human
While it’s excruciating to count the days until the next big milestone, it’s tempting to shorten the wait by extending daily work hours. While there are ways to plan days strategically, sleep is one area where there’s very little wiggle room.
First of all, the optimum number of hours of sleep falls within 7 to 9 per day for an adult, depending on the person. Insufficient hours of sleep in the long term are often associated with illnesses such as depression and obesity that’ll affect the optimism that’s essential to the organization. Secondly, timing matters. There is an internal clock that responds to the daylight and rising of the temperature that in turn says when to be alert and when to go to sleep. Sleeping at odd hours goes against this clock; therefore, it disrupts the system that governs when to be rested and when to be alert and perform. Last but not least, the benefits of sleep aren’t just a matter of accumulating hours. Sleep has to be uninterrupted long enough to allow the process of going through the different phases of sleep in which different body functions occur.
The same goes for other things that keep our body balanced and functional, such as diet, healthy relationships, and enough recreation. These things are like savings in a bank account that will become empty if not taken care of, but will take their toll once the loss occurs. While health issues are not the emphasis of this discussion, the point here is that a well-balanced individual can perform and think on an optimal level that’s conducive to the business.
The Team
At the group level, team composition and dynamics can make or break the company, which is not to debate the importance of idea vs. team, but rather to talk about how the human factor intertwines with and complicates things. And in order to keep that influence a positive one, there are a few things to consider.
What probably comes firs
t in the process is the founding team. While the commonly used analogy of co-foundership to marriage is mostly to illustrate the importance of the right fit and complementary skills at the beginning, there seems to be a lack of emphasis on what comes after that — the day-to-day interaction, which is where the founding team members get to know each other. Just like marriages and friendships, co-foundership can rarely be sustained in dire situations, which can be anything in a startup — miscommunication, distance, and financial adversity. It is also susceptible to the third wheel, which can be anyone — like another team member who takes on a task, an outside person who gives input. It’s not possible to know how ugly things could turn and where to draw the line because a startup inherently is a mess.
While there are bound to be instances where things don’t turn out perfect, learning how to move on and recognizing patterns is the way to go. If unhealthy patterns form when all attempts to correct course fail, the team morale will go downhill in an exponential fashion, as problems only snowball.
Beyond the Team
Sustainability at the exterior level means balancing the internal focus and outward reach to keep growing without going out of control. A good basis of discussion is in terms of finance and human resources.
