Speed: Accelerate or die
Start-ups default path is towards death.
The only way to steer off this default path is through speed. It is the single most important vector for the company. Your team should enable this.
Many successful founders capture this ethos
Facebook’s famous “move fast, break things”
Reid Hoffman’s classic mantra: If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late
Paul G has a famous essay “Start-up = Growth”. [ I admit the essay’s central premise is not speed, but speed in early days is the most reliable vector to produce growth]
Speed is one of your main advantages over large competitors." – Sam Altman
I could go on and on. But here’s why I fundamentally believe this is the most important asset of a technology start-up
You have less of everything than your competitor
As a start-up, you have less money, less customers, less engineers, less sales people, less resources in every way possible. But you have a vector that you are infinitely better than your large competitors - you can move faster. Think of your biggest competitors as Titanic - they have more of everything - but their turning radius is large, they take long time to make decisions and steer the boat. You are in a kayak and can change directions on a dime.
This is your unique advantage, sharpen it, use it, and try to not lose it for as long as you can.
"Speed is the essence of a startup. It's the one weapon no big company can match." – Dave McClure
You are dying, time is running out
As a start-up, your default path leads you to death and very often quick death. As a start-up you have two - maybe three years at best to live. Without enough customers, enough capital and enough experience in the market - you often know very little about what you are doing. The game is - take a shot - miss it - learn from it - take a slightly more informed shot - miss it - learn from it and keep repeating this cycle while pushing the company up and to the right. The more cycles you can get of this motion, the better it is for your start-up. More learnings, more chances to maximize growth.
Since your runway is somewhat limited, your best strategy is to maximize these learning loops - the more of these loops - higher the probability of success.
"Making fast, decisive decisions is critical for startups because each day counts." – Steve Blank
Things that maximize speed
Having a team that can build and sell internally - ideally the skill within the founders
Getting to first 10 customers quickly - find the ones who love you - just focus on them and grow that engine.
Having less people - less coordination. Coordination is a n^2 problem.
Outsourcing things that don’t matter - scheduling, accounting, legal etc.
shipping products - product velocity
clear direction for each learning loop
Things that slow you down
Outsourcing engineering. outsourced shops needs clarity of specs, you need faster iteration and nimbleness - they are at odds - no matter what you or your vendor believes.
Taking too long to ship
Thinking more features will bring more customers
Hiring too many people too soon
Having roadmaps which are pre-decided for next few months - implies you don’t have space to iterate.
Not talking to customers and taking too long to sign your early customers
None of these lists are comprehensive but have the highest leverage points on why to go fast and what you can do (and should not do) to go fast.
