I feel like I’m learning some valuable, if frustrating, lessons.
I’ve made no blog updates for the last few weeks as I’ve been flat-out trying to plan and prototype the idea I had started working on in my last post.
After a lot of hard work we have a road-map, a very viable business plan, and a working prototype that shows what we wanted to do is very possible…
But the realization that despite this, it is likely to take several months (at least) to actually create a sell-able system, means that there are some lean months ahead, unless we can get funding; and even this is likely to take time.
…and not everyone on the team is prepared to batten down for the long haul.
Things are still in flux, but it’s looking as though one of our critical team members and domain expert is going to walk away, leaving the remainder of the team significantly disadvantaged; and probably unable to continue.
I think there are several lessons here:
- Setting up a start-up takes time. It takes time to create a viable plan; it takes time to build a product; it takes time to get funding (and the later you leave it the better in many ways); and if you are a founder, it can take a long time to get any kind of income – as investors will not expect founders to draw a salary. With this in mind, you have to be prepared to tighten your belt in the short-term if you want long-term success.
- Everyone on the team needs to fully understand what they are committing to; and commit to it. If you are asking people to come with you on a journey, and you are critical to the success of that journey; then you need to be clear with each other how far you are prepared to go to reach your destination. Getting off the bus half-way along will be letting everyone else down.
- There will be set-backs – nothing is ever plain sailing; and members of a team need to be prepared to weather the storm and overcome problems as they arise: adapting and pivoting in response to things that are learned along the way, rather than falling at the first hurdle. There will be lots of hurdles, but if you stay focussed and flexible, a lot of these can be overcome.
- Communication is critical. Our current situation partially arose because one team member went off on a limb and did something which destabilized their financial situation before we had secured any kind of funding. If they had talked to the rest of the founders before doing this we would have strongly advised that their plan was a bad idea, and we wouldn’t now be in this situation. When you have a tight co-dependency on a group of people, it is critical to discuss anything that could have an effect on that group of people.
So, we live and learn, and time will tell what happens; but it feels as though it’s time to start getting back to the drawing board…