Startups: Focusing
Having worked with a good number of startups intimately, I can honestly say that “focus” is one of the main issues that can kill a startup. In a fantastic article on the blog, OnStartups.com, they talk about the force of focusing and how important it is to your business as a startup.
The comment I left on their blog posting is:
Great article! One thing that never fails to amaze me is how early stage companies or startups get sidetracked by inquiries from larger media companies or potential partners. Without fail, once a startup releases their press release that they have opened their doors, a larger company will contact them about a biz dev deal and the startup will solely focus on that. 9 times out of 10, that biz dev deal never comes to fruition but the startup wasted 6 months chasing that unfocused dream. Stick to your guns, focus on what you’re doing and if there are things that happen parallel to you – make them happen… do not go perpendicular.
I cannot stress enough about how important it is to ignore distractions. Half the time, one does not know what a distraction is until it plays out, but entrepreneurs are amazing at having these distractions find them! Recently, I sat down with one of the companies I’m advising, and had a meeting to talk about funding strategy and business development. After talking for 25-30 minutes to catch up on what they had been up to that specific week, I realized that 99% of that week had been tied up into inquiries from businesses trying to talk with them… all of which had contacted them straight off their website without a referral.
Since this particular company is a startup with a permanent staff of 5 and freelance employees fluctuating each week, can you really afford to have 75% of your company focusing on new business deals that are tangential to your business? Shouldn’t the company be focusing on getting their product to market?
This happens often. New contacts from a website come in and the company gets all excited because Media Conglomerate X wants to establish contact and find out what you’re up to. I’m not saying to ignore these contacts, but unless your business is fully operational and your product is well on its way to market, you just do not have the bandwidth to talk about tangential business development deals or even have lunch with that 3rd party. Focus on your company and if you execute correctly, you will find that a majority of the time, the inquiring company will come back when you’ve had some traction.
You don’t have to ignore the inquiring company but let them know that you’re busy focusing on your startup and that when you have bandwidth to chat, you’d be more than willing to open up conversations. Remember, your startup is your vision and you need to act upon it.
Note, this posting could get lots of “heat” as a few startups are sold at a very early stage from inquiries from their website. Do not ignore each inquiry… just let them know you are focusing on your startup and that when you have the time….will contact them.
It’s always tempting to talk to the Media Conglomerate, Sales Partner, Technology Vendor, etc – but each of those conversations have a very high probability of falling through so why waste time. Time is more valuable to a startup than anything.
Focus. Focus and focus.