Many attribute Instacart’s success in a brutally competitive environment to solid strategy, great timing, or, most frequently – luck.
Partnering with grocers instead of competing with them (strategy), catching the mobile wave (timing), leveraging Amazon buying Whole Foods to drive market adoptions (strategy + luck), and capitalizing on consumer demand during COVID lockdowns (luck) are what people typically say when discussing why Instacart was successful.
There is no doubt this all helped, but as I have reflected on what I have observed in other start-ups and on what we need to do at Beacon, I have come to believe that none of these were the most important driver of Instacart’s success. We won when we did everything just a little bit quicker.
Cycle Time May Be The Most Important Thing
Reducing the cycle time of day-to-day tasks may actually be the most important ingredient in a start-up’s success.
Here’s why:
- Faster Feedback Loop: Moving through tasks quickly increases the pace at which you receive feedback from customers, collaborators, candidates, and the market. This rapid feedback is essential for making changes to your product, sales story, or strategy.
- Scarcest Asset: Time is our scarcest asset. Incumbents have already won. They have the customers you want. They can afford to wait out new competition—a luxury they earned by getting there first. Startup entrepreneurs, on the other hand, must make the most of their limited time before they run out of cash, lose their teams, or, most importantly, lose their own passion for the project.
- Embrace Market Response: In an entrepreneurial environment, welcoming market responses allows us to focus our energies on ideas that have a chance of working sooner.
“Business is actually about finding problems, embracing and even enjoying them — because each problem is an opportunity to remove an obstacle and get closer to success.” – Brad Jacobs
- Solving Problems Quickly: The primary job of an entrepreneur is to identify and solve problems. The only way to do this is by working rapidly and getting things off your desk. The only thing worse than failing is taking a long time to fail. When you fail – you are not successful. When you take a long time to fail – you are not successful, and you have lost time that could have been spent trying something else to solve the problem.
Securing Our First Customers At Instacart
It was early 2014, and we were trying to sign our first retailer customers to join the Instacart marketplace. I was in Pittsburgh on a Friday night, waiting for a connection home after a series of meetings.
We had a number of small mom-and-pop grocery stores intrigued about potentially working with us. A couple of them were willing to look at a pilot agreement but only after they got a chance to test our ‘retailer analytics dashboard.’ There was just one problem—we did not have an analytics dashboard.
In a panic, I promised these retailers that we would send them a link and login credentials to play with the dashboard early next week. I called our co-founder, Brandon Leonardo to vent and see if there was something we could do. Instead of asking for a meeting to align on what should be built or requesting a PRD, Brandon said, “Can you sketch out some mocks of what you want me to build and we’ll get it done?”
I took out my black notebook and drew up a set of mocks of Instacart’s ‘retailer analytics dashboard’, took a picture of the pages with my phone and texted them to Brandon. He went to work, and we had our first version of the product in production by Sunday. On Monday morning, I sent those first couple of retailers a link and demo to try it out. They were so impressed that we were able to start the contracting process, putting Instacart well on its way to signing our first two retailer partners. The funny thing is, the product Brandon built that weekend formed about 90% of what became our analytics solution for retailers for the next 5-6 years!
Rather than waiting for perfection or seeking internal approval to act, we did what needed to be done to get the commercial outcome. We sold something that wasn’t yet built and built something from a little more than a sketch on a napkin.
What Does Reducing Cycle Time Mean in Practice?
“Somebody would ask me if he could get back to me about something next week, and I would reply ‘how about tomorrow morning?’” – Frank Slootman
- Get First Drafts Out Faster: Produce initial versions of work product quickly, even if they are not perfect.
- One-Touch Responses: Respond to the vast majority of emails and texts with a single touch. Avoid the urge to feel productive by ‘starring’ emails you have to get back to – deal with it when you read it, or assume you are not going to deal with it at all.
- Embrace Difficult Conversations: Make the call you’ve been delaying, especially if it’s to a difficult customer. Worrying about it is taking up valuable space in your head which you can use to solve a different problem – and chances are it won’t go as badly as you think it will.
- Ship Beta Products: Release beta versions of products even if they are not perfect, and prioritize fixing bugs swiftly.
- Push to Close Quicker: Ask for the pilot after the 2nd or 3rd meeting not the 5th. In my experience, not much is going to change in between.
- Take Ownership of Deal Follow-Ups: Chances are you are dealing with larger companies. They will take their time getting you the first drafts of term sheets/contracts, etc. Take the pen and propose something. Even if they throw it out, you have collected your thoughts on the deal and put them on paper first, which will make it easier for you to respond to whatever they put in front of you.
Enjoy The Fresh Oxygen Generated From Moving With Pace
I found that the lingering ‘tasks’ that I had unaddressed actually soaked up more than 50% of my daily energy. I knew this, but it took me a long time to reset and move with urgency. Often, our teams act this way due to fear—fear of being wrong, failing, looking foolish, or facing criticism.
I think one of the core jobs of a ‘captain’ with their ‘crew’ is addressing these (irrational) fears head-on and setting pace. I don’t have it all figured out, but here’s how I am endeavoring to consistently reduce cycle time at Beacon:
- Set High Expectations: Establish pace expectations that initially seem unreasonable, but be empathetic and point out that those timelines may normally be unnatural.
- Support Over Perfection: Be supportive and understanding when speed occasionally sacrifices minor details. Over time, I’ve found that speed and work quality are positively correlated – but not at first.
- Lead by Example: Endeavor to meet or exceed the same standards of pace and responsiveness set for the team. If you are not doing it, why should the team?