A year in the start-up ecosystem — Things we need to fix in 2018
Through 2017, I applied to two dozen start-ups, worked for two, saw a wide spectrum of leadership styles, cultures, values, ambitions and challenges. While I loved the diversity of problems startups aimed to address in 2017, the fresh band of people who pumped their energy into their work, the rise in startups working on social problems, I saw some very obvious gaps that we as a community need to work on. Here’s the list of things we need to fix in 2018 —
1. Cleaning up after the act
There is never a good excuse to not get back to stakeholders.
Back in my first year of college, I started a project with friends I had not spoken to in years just because I needed their skillset and then abandoned the project within a month.
One evening, I found myself boasting about this project to my brother who is a seasoned entrepreneur. He then said to me words that I have taken to be the foundational responsibility of an entrepreneur — always clean up after your act.
Project didn’t work out? Let everyone involved know why. Can’t find time for a critical task? Let people dependent on the task know. A candidate doesn’t seem like a great fit to the company? Let them know that.
90% of startups I applied to never got back to me. Some disappeared after scheduling a call. Some disappeared even after the interviews. I realise its hard to deliver bad news but not getting back at all is just not professional. And nobody is too busy to not have the time to do this.
2. Reinvent the job descriptions
The framework of a start-up is ripe ground to rethink how and who to hire.
I see a lot of startups using corporate-speak in their job descriptions.
“We need bazillion years of experience with command over a bazillion number of skills. Do not apply if you don’t meet this requirement.”
I realise there are roles that need this kind of a description but I feel (and I have witnessed) that people are capable of burgeoning their skills once they have the foundational pieces in place.
Addressing this needs a first-principle thought process — what are the skills one really needs in order to perform their role. Do they need that college degree, that grade? Do they need that certification, that new JavaScript framework?
3. Enough of the IIT fad, it’s old now
Let’s look at people for their skills and nothing else.
A lot has been said about this but the fad only seems to grow. Coming out of an IIT doesn’t make anyone smart and vice versa. I have met geniuses who never set foot in an IIT and I have met knuckleheads with a glowing IIT degree and a ten-pointer.
4. Culture building starts on day 1
Small differences and gaps between people magnify over time and can be fatal.
I underestimated the importance of culture for a very long time. I always thought if there are a bunch of people who like each other and who can have fun, what can go wrong? As it turns out, a lot can go wrong. I interned in a company that I eventually came back to, for a full-time job.
During my internship, I saw glimpses of people not talking to each other, the technical team separating from the non-technical folks, the lack of quality discussions and arguments but it was at such a small scale that anyone would have ignored it. From the outside, we were a fun, happy startup that was going to change the world.
When I returned after finishing my college for the full-time position, everything was different. The tiny cracks had become deep crevices. Each new person that gets added to the team emulates the values he sees around him and it quickly becomes a cascading effect. It might seem like corporate mumbo-jumbo but culture is critical to a start-up’s success.
5. Companies with a tech product should have everyone understand the product
A functional understanding of the product improves everyone.
This is something I have seen happen time and again — this creepy, uncomfortable divide between the technical and the non-technical folks.
It stems from the dramatic difference in the vocabulary the two groups use on a day-to-day basis. It’s not hard to feel lost about what the other group is up to and how they work.
Since in tech companies, the marketing, sales, support, content and almost everything else revolves around the product, it becomes really hard for the non-technical teams to relate to the product, how its elegant and robust and why it will matter to the customers.
Having a functional understanding of the underpinnings of the product gives everyone the models they can use to perform their own role insightfully. Also, more pairs of eyes on the design always improves the design. I have seen examples of marketers suggesting things to engineers which they completely missed and could never have thought of.
6. Ownership without empowerment doesn’t work
Hiring smart people isn’t enough, you have to empower them or they’ll bail.
If there’s an individual who can take an area of work and be completely responsible for it, fix issues, answer questions, there’s nothing better than that. Every manager loves that. Thing is, ownership won’t work if the individual isn’t given the freedom to make decisions in that area and isn’t trusted with those decisions.
It’s a simple thing to say that is incredibly difficult to implement. It takes an enormous amount of trust in the individual. Having said that, it becomes a lot easier to do if hiring is done right. If you hire people you know you can trust and continue to do so at scale, ownership will become a part of the culture and there’s nothing quite as powerful as that.
7. Frugality is important but not at the cost of tasks that matter
Priority should be — what moves the metric, not what saves the most money.
Startups are copying the frugality value from Amazon without understanding what it really means or how to quantify it. Since frugality is subjective and context-dependent, there is no line in sand to define what counts as frugality.
A good way to think about it is if saving that extra dollar causes in-turn to impact a metric negatively, it is not worth saving that dollar. For example, if outsourcing a task frees up time from a dev who can now focus on a more meaty task that plays to his strengths, it is better to outsource since it will in-turn impact a metric in a very significant way.
8. Humility is the king
Humility is scarce, it’s far too easy to be proud, also, far too risky
Being humble leads one to focus on metrics that matter, be empathetic, argue reasonably, bond well with people and take feedback. Many founders buy into the glorified a****** image of a leader who says and does things without any regard for others. I believe it’s just statistically a better bet for all of us to be kind and humble given the advantages of humility above, if not anything else.
P.S. Everything I have learned about how a start-up needs to run, what culture really means, how to build for scale and so much more has come from the amazing people over at Swym. We are always looking for passionate folks to join us, and if you are keen on building the consumer shopping experience of the future, we’d definitely be interested in chatting — hit us up!
