Startups: It's just like Riding a Bike

Goodday Readers...

I love startups - and I love riding my bike. While I was weaving through foot traffic the other day on the seawall, I realized that biking actually has a lot in common with startup life.

1. You have a destination

The vision - the market opportunity, the technology. If you've worked at a startup, you know how important the vision is. Usually in the beginning, it's faith and passion that will give you the incredible energy required to push through when nobody really knows what's going to happen. You need to believe you can get there, and you need the whole team to be going to the same place.

In a great startup, you probably have a team full of innovative, intelligent people who aren't afraid to try new things and take initiative. It will be great at first, when the team is still small enough to work together without any systems for communication; however, as the team grows, that communication drops off, projects diverge, silos form and the ultimate goal can become much fuzzier.

Maybe the sales team has found that we are getting a lot of calls - but from the wrong people. Marketing needs to know how to extract those leanings and tweak the strategy, or the limited resources that the team has could go to waste.

Even within the individual department - if everyone takes initiative, great! But if the everyone isn't working toward a common vision, it will be difficult to harness the true power of the team. If everyone is peddling different directions, you won't be getting anywhere fast. You need to share a common vision, even if it's too early to understand the destination completely.

2. There are many ways to get where you're going

There really are no right answers. The more I learn, the more I realize how much more I have to learn. Just because something has been done a certain way before, doesn't mean it was the best way and it probably wasn't the only way. Just because I usually take a certain route on my bike, doesn't mean that it's the fastest, most scenic, or safest.

Just because one company succeeded by doing things a certain way, it doesn't mean that the formula will work for everyone. Scaling is a dynamic process and there is no single strategy that will work every time.

3. There are obstacles and moving obstacles that you can't control

Weaving through pedestrians, other bikes and cars, it is obvious on a bike that you need to be alert and ready to pivot should the need arise. You never know when a kid is going to jump directly into your path or the light is going to turn red, and similarly, you never know when market conditions are going to change.

New regulations? New competitors? Maybe your customers suddenly need a new feature that you haven't developed yet. Without a doubt, there will be critical decisions that need to be made, often without all the information or a clear idea of what will happen. Do we develop that capability for this big lead? What if they don't convert? Do we focus on an integration with a big name partner or try to create the capability on our own? These decisions need to be made, fast, you have a runway and you need measurable results before you hit the end of it.

4. You might fall down, but you don't fail unless you stop

Fail hard, fail fast. One of Procurify's core values is humility. We encourage each other to take risks and learn from our mistakes. If you fall off your bike, get back on - next time you'll know not to take such a sharp left turn. It'll hurt a bit, but once you get back on, you put it behind you and move forward.

5. Enjoy the ride

If someone asks you how to ride a bike, it's hard to explain, all you really know for sure is that you need to look in front of you and keep peddling. Sometimes, if you take a big tumble or if you make a few wrong turns, it can be hard to keep moving forward.

In a startup, passion keeps us going. Believe in your mission, believe in your team, keep dreaming bigger! The moments where you are 100% engaged in your task, loving every moment is when you are going to produce your best work. So enjoy the ride, find a better way and blaze your own trail.

"When nothing is sure, anything is possible" - Margaret Drabble

Startups - it's just like riding a bike.

Why not start something today.......... Cheers.