David Cummings on Startups

Blog

  • Stage-Specific Startup Advice

    After yesterday’s Growth Stage Entrepreneur Summit, one of the entrepreneurs mentioned to me how even though he’d heard a few of the best practices before, now that his company was much bigger, the ideas resonated and he was going to implement them. This got me thinking about the importance of stage-specific startup advice. When hearing advice, apply a startup stage lens and ask these questions:

    • Is this advice for idea, seed, early, or growth stage startups?
    • Is this advice relevant for us now or do we need to be at a different stage?
    • What’s the context of the size and scale of startups this person has worked at in the past?

    The next time someone offers advice, put it in the context of a specific startup stage.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on stage-specific startup advice?

  • Takeaways from the Growth Stage Entrepreneur Summit

    Earlier today we had a Growth Stage Entrepreneur Summit at the Atlanta Tech Village. The idea was to get a group of 15 entrepreneurs together that have 20 – 100 employees and share best practices for scaling a startup.

    Here are a few takeaways from the presentations and discussion on scaling a startup:

    • Plan for different “missions” as the startup hits different stages
    • Know that not all early team members will be able to make the transition to the next stage as the business grows
    • Spend more time on communication as the company grows (alignment and focus gets harder and harder)
    • Move from generalists to specialists (e.g. hire specialists like sales engineers to make your best sales reps even more productive)
    • Build a Simplified One Page Strategic Plan and update it quarterly
    • Ensure a culture of accountability
    • Hire for culture fit
    • Develop a meeting rhythm

    Today’s event went well and we’ll likely do it again. Know any entrepreneurs in the Southeast in the growth stage? Send them our way.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on scaling a startup?

  • The On-Purpose Person

    I just started reading the book The On-Purpose Person: Making Your Life Make Sense after a friend recommended it. Most of it is commonsense, as expected, but it does a good job of driving home the message that it’s important to be intentional (on-purpose) with your time.

    One of the exercises is to map out The 24-Hour-Day Time Budget and allocate hours for the following:

    • Financial/Material
    • Vocational/Career/Work
    • Social/Community
    • Family
    • Physical/Health/Recreational
    • Mental/Intellectual/Emotional
    • Spiritual
    • Other

    Once you’ve mapped out what you want to do, it’s important to compare that to what you actually do, and adjust accordingly.

    Next, the author writes:

    To be on-purpose, we begin with your being (purpose). It sparks your seeing (vision) which you then put into action or doing (mission). This linkage of purpose, vision, and mission is governed by your choosing (values) how to think, act, and respond.

    Read the book if you’re working towards more clarity and focus in your life. Everything is straightforward and readily understood in The On-Purpose Person.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on The On-Purpose Person?

  • End of Quarter Review

    With the end of the quarter only a couple weeks away, it’s a great time to review. Depending on the size and stage of the startup, there are a number of items to do:

    Every startup needs a rhythm. Build a process to run at the end of the quarter and continually refine it.

    What else? What are some other steps in your end of quarter review?

  • 3 Quick Tasks at the Start of the Week

    At the start of every week it’s a great time to be intentional and do some prep work to make the most of it. I don’t have a complex process but I do three quick tasks each week:

    1. Calendar Review – What’s on tap for the week? Anything pressing? Is there a good mix of scheduled time and flex time?
    2. Progress Review – How do the numbers look? Anything out of whack? Anything of note in the weekly updates?
    3. Top 3 – What are the three most important things to accomplish this week? What needs to happen to make sure they get done?

    This simple process gets me focused for the week and helps me stay on target. I’d recommend it to all entrepreneurs.

    What else? What are some more tasks you like to do at the start of a new week?

  • Where are the Startup Goals?

    One of the lessons I’ve learned recommending the Simplified One Page Strategic Plan to entrepreneurs is that they often don’t have goals. Crazy, right? When asking for the one pager before a meeting, most of the time I get a response that they don’t have any goals yet but will put some together and send it over. After enough of these conversations, I’ve realized there are a few factors at work:

    • Entrepreneurs are focused on the here-and-now. It’s hard to work on the business when the business isn’t working yet (it’s a startup!).
    • Goals are a form of commitment. If I make a goal, it means that I want to hit it. Without goals, I can keep ambling along.
    • With goals, there’s a scorecard. With a scorecard, it’s black-and-white as to how well things are going. Many entrepreneurs struggle with admitting they’re failing.

    My recommendation is to at least track the weekly operational metrics. Start with metrics, then add goals as the business matures.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on entrepreneurs not tracking progress against goals?

  • Video of the Week: Simon Sinek – Why Leaders Eat Last

    Our video of the week is from Simon Sinek (author of the famous book Start With Why) on the topic Why Leaders Eat Last. Enjoy!

    From YouTube: In this in-depth talk, ethnographer and leadership expert Simon Sinek reveals the hidden dynamics that inspire leadership and trust. In biological terms, leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils, but at a cost. When danger is present, the group expects the leader to mitigate all threats even at the expense of their personal well-being. Understanding this deep-seated expectation is the key difference between someone who is just an “authority” versus a true “leader.”

  • Startups Selling to Other Startups

    As much as we like to think that we’re bringing our new product to the old-guard businesses, the reality is that a number of startups sell their product to other startups. At Pardot, most of our early customers were other tech companies (more progressive and tech savvy) and many of them were startups. Over time, the market expanded and more non-tech companies became Pardot customers. Many startups start this way.

    With so many startups selling to other startups, there are a few things to keep in mind:

    • If we have another Great Recession, startups are more likely to be less stable customers
    • When bartering one product for another (this happens often), sell the product to each other and pay full price in lieu of just swapping apps (this is important in the event one side isn’t living up to expectations but be careful as this is one of the reasons the Dot Com implosion happened so fast when the house of cards crumbled)
    • Be upfront with investors the percentage of sales that comes from selling to other startups as well as the percentage from bartering deals
    • When startups are a good type of customer, use a data source like MatterMark to target startups that are similar to existing customers

    Startups selling to other startups is commonplace but still needs to be better understood. Not all customers are created equal and it’s important to be intentional.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on startups selling to other startups?

  • Saying No is Harder than Saying Yes

    As an entrepreneur, there’s often the desire to say “yes” to many requests. A potential customer wants this one feature added. A partner wants to do a webinar with you as the guest. A community leader wants you on the board. Yes, yes, yes. Only, after looking around, it’s clear that you’re over committed and don’t have time to work on the business.

    Saying “no” is harder than saying “yes.” Yet, it’s time to do more of it.

    The next time someone asks something of you, ask yourself the following questions:

    • When answering this request, am I being intentional with my time?
    • Am I the absolute best person to work on this?
    • How easy is it to delegate this?
    • If I say “yes” to this request, what am I giving up?
    • If I say “no” to this request, what will happen?

    Saying “no” is often harder than saying “yes” for many entrepreneurs. The result: too many things to do and not enough time to think. My advice is for entrepreneurs is to get better at saying “no” and being more intentional with their time.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on saying “no” being harder than “yes” with requests?

  • Today’s Business Ideas That Weren’t Possible 10 Years Ago

    One of the ways I like to think about business ideas is in the context of what can we do today that we couldn’t have done 10 years ago. As an example, when we started Pardot in early 2007, we could build a web application quickly using open source software, run it on commodity web hosting, and deliver B2B marketing automation with analytics, campaign execution, and insights in a cost effective manner to SMB customers. 10 years prior it would have been 100x more to build it, 100x more to host it, and the market wasn’t ready for it (being too earlier is still a failure).

    Here are a few things to think about when considering ideas that weren’t possible 10 years ago:

    • What new ideas are possible because we have a super computer in our pocket (e.g. iPhones didn’t even exist 10 years ago)?
    • How can we use cloud computing and big data tools like Hadoop to unlock insights we never knew about before?
    • How do advances in technology in one industry help another one (e.g. GPU advancements helping self-driving cars, cell phone miniaturization helping a number of other devices, etc.)?
    • What ideas were good before but the timing wasn’t right (e.g. limited broadband penetration, GPS adoption, independent contractor availability, etc.)?

    The next time you’re considering a business idea, ask the question why wasn’t this done 10 years ago and see what you come up with. Some ideas weren’t even possible and some ideas were just before their time.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on thinking about business ideas in the context of what wasn’t possible 10 years ago?