“Anything you have to do, get it done. Why wait?… When you do these things, do them as quickly as you can and with your full attention so you do them well. Then be patient with the results because you’re dealing with complex systems and a lot of people” – Naval
One of the things that has been scariest for me in building a new company is the weight of expectations. Because Instacart was a success, I felt the bar for success to be naturally higher.
As a result of this insecurity and my observations about how the companies I most admire operate, impatience with actions and patience with results are core cultural norms we are trying to establish at Beacon.
We recognize that sprinters are the fastest when they get out of the blocks, and the winners in a sprint slow down the least.
Why is speed so important?
Market opportunities are fleeting.
A funny thing happens when you are building a company. Just like when you buy a new car, you start to notice that every fifth car is the same make model as the one you just bought, you quickly realize that what you are building is also being pursued by many others.
While the presence of competition may not matter to your particular start-up, it generates additional noise for your employees and customers. Your most important employees start to get calls for coffees from your new competitors and the waiting rooms at the offices of your potential customers become much more full.
For many of Instacart’s early years, we had the luxury of losing a lot of money each time we delivered groceries. While this was bad for our bank balance, it was great for keeping competition out of the market.
However, when we started scaling the business, and the secret started to dribble out that a relentless focus on operational efficiencies combined with localized scale could generate a profitable business – we attracted several copycats.
Everything takes longer than you think it will.
When starting a company, you have no idea how long it takes.
You don’t know what your sales cycle will be.
How long it will take to ship a basic change to your product.
As a general rule of thumb, I have found that everything takes 2x longer than I thought it would.
Motivation (and attention) waxes and wanes.
Your employees and your investors will be most engaged at the beginning of the company’s journey or their involvement with your company.
When you start a new company, your team is so excited about the potential ahead that they work irrationally hard. They are not yet burdened by ‘competing priorities’.
For your investors, who just wrote you a check, you are their latest shiny object. They are like parents who just gave their kid keys to the new car—they put their necks on the line for you and will look for signs that either support or disprove their initial investment thesis.
You have a window when the resources you gathered are highly motivated to get things done.
Momentum drives resources.
Everyone is busy.
Your investors have a fixed amount of time in their days and are highly rational allocators of their time and attention.
If you can show momentum, you will get an outsized share of help. The offers for helpful intros and novel ideas will be plentiful.
Sadly, a near-perfect correlation exists between a lack of momentum and a lack of ‘how can I help?’ phone calls.
What does this mean in practice?
Finding what to compromise on.
Moving quickly at the start of a company, when you don’t yet understand the market and have only the shell of a product, will require many compromises.
It is helpful to remember that (almost) nothing decided at this stage of company building is unchangeable.
Your customers barely know what to expect from you.
Your employees have low(er) expectations than they ever will about things not directly tied to the core business.
Everyone will give you degrees of freedom on ‘administrata’ at the time that you need it most.
Approvals, well-written documents, internal meetings, and anything planned for more than two weeks out can likely be compromised.
Drawing a hard line on what is non-negotiable.
While you should compromise a lot to get off to a quick start and generate some momentum, there are definitely some areas where compromising could end your start-up journey before it really starts.
You cannot compromise on anything legal/regulatory.
You cannot move too quickly when hiring.
Finally, you must maintain the rigor and discipline you expect when examining questions about strategy and the market.
Creating a narrative of progress.
It is also critical to ‘feed the beast’ with your investors and potential employees.
Drip out positive news and momentum and develop a reputation for being on top of things. Respond to texts and emails, and remember that your efforts during this period will give them the confidence to leave you alone.
I also think it is helpful to telegraph bad news and missed timelines/expectations to your investors—treat them like you would like to be treated after you have handed someone a bunch of money.