Living the Startup Life

This is the trailer for our upcoming video series for Future Delivery - Living the Startup Life.  Let me know how you like it and if you want to watch the full episodes.

Startups are tough. It can be a tough and lonely road where you will work 100+ hours a week, and see no initial movement in your business. Few companies make it to the point where the company finally starts running on its own, and subsequently, the company starts running you. My business partner Yu-kai Chou and I call this point the “point of no return (PONR).” Up until the PONR, you are the sole driver of your company. If you stop working, then your company doesn’t advance, and you don’t eat. However, after the PONR, even if you stop working, the company will continue advancing and the work will continue to pile up. You are no longer the main driver of the company because it is pretty much on cruise control and hopefully headed in the right direction. Just because the company is moving, it doesn’t mean that it is moving efficiently or to the place it should be moving to.

This is the second point where most startups fail. There is so much work after the PONR that the business owner is completely overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do. He puts in more and more hours but the work never ends and he eventually burns out. So how can you ensure that you are prepared for the PONR?

1. Create systems

You should not be working on the day-to-day activities of your company; instead, you should be working ON your company’s overall strategy, direction, and management. Each area of your company - tech, finance, operation, marketing - should have a system that works on its own. The system should be efficient and easy to understand so that a new employee could easily pick up the system and work in that area of the company.

Don’t wait till the PONR to start creating your systems. If you have not created your systems before you’ve hit the PONR, then it is probably too late because it will take a tremendous amount of time and money to create systems for your company. Start to create systems as soon as you start your company. Even if you’re the only employee, make sure that there are systems to the way everything is run and make sure to document the systems so that your first team member will understand how to run the systems.

2. Empower your team

A startup company has very little capital. How on earth can you gather a team of people who will be passionate about your company and work for you for free? The key is to empower the members of your team and to choose your team members very very carefully. You need to hire people who are self-starters, and like to work in open ended, creative environments. You need people who do not need their hands held in order to accomplish an assignment.

What I mean by “empowering your team members” is that you give them the opportunity to accomplish their goals in the their own way. If they feel that they own a piece of the project and company, then they will feel passionate about it and work extra hard to achieve their goal. Empower your team members by giving them big responsibilities and giving them free-reign on how they will accomplish their goals. In essence, you set the finish line; they choose their path.

What other ways have you found effective in empowering your team?

I recently wrote a blog post that was posted on Twentyset.com. My blog post is called Entrepreneur Life vs Corporate Life.

If you are not sure whether the entrepreneur life or the corporate life is the right one for you, then I feel this post will definitely help you find the right path. I would love to get your feedback on my post and discuss our ideas and opinions about the topic.