Early founders often lead the sales efforts at their companies. It makes sense. They typically understand the problem and solution better than other team members. Resources are limited, so the founder picks up a lot of the slack. When the founders land early customers, it’s a cause for celebration, and rightly so.

Before the celebration, though, stop and think.  With so much going on, the team can let mission-critical tasks slip, which can deeply harm the company.

Today I spoke with a founder who onboarded his first customer recently. His company’s a service business, so he had to hire staff and train them to meet the customer’s expectations. A little over a month in, they’ve hit a serious hurdle. The customer hasn’t paid as promised. The startup has been paying the team but hasn’t received any revenue from the customer. Translation: the company is losing money because of this customer. Investigation has revealed that the customer never signed an agreement. The company can’t raise capital from investors or banks because it can’t prove it has a customer. The startup is in a difficult financial situation and has no leverage with this customer.  

Things fall through the cracks all the time at early-stage companies. It’s part of the chaos of startup life. Unfortunately, some of them can sink the company. If you’re an early-stage founder, make sure you have agreed-upon terms in writing (or better yet, payment) before celebrating or incurring expenses for new customers.

Growing up, my first summer job was with a homebuilder. This was in south Louisiana, so it was often in the mid 90s with 100 percent humidity. The days were long and the work was hard. I’d leave around 6 a.m. and get home around 7 p.m., exhausted. I was in middle school and got paid $125 a week. Doesn’t seem like much now, but I was ecstatic. (Opportunities were limited—I was too young to work legally.)

That experience was pivotal, and I learned a lot. Some cool woodworking skills. That I’m deathly afraid of heights (and that looking down when I’m on a scaffold will make me freeze up). The power of teamwork and the value of a dollar. To not cut corners and to do things the right way the first time. For the first time, I noticed that entrepreneurs are different. Spending most of my time alongside the owner of the company, I took note of how he saw the world differently and made decisions differently than everyone else.

Today I connected with that owner. He’s at the tail end of a successful career but still works (albeit at a slower pace) because he enjoys what he does. He’s passionate about his work, and it shows. That job shaped me, and I’m not sure where I’d be without it. Proximity to success matters; it can have a big impact. I’m thankful that he took a chance on me and gave me my first opportunity to observe entrepreneurship up close.

I had a good chat with a friend about work styles. She used to work a consistent pace, which, since she’s a high achiever, meant she was giving 110% every workday. The eventual result? Burnout. She experimented for a while and eventually landed on a new approach that she refers to as “bursts.” She works hard for a set period (a week, month, or quarter). Then she works at a slower pace for the same amount of time. The result is that she operates at a high level overall but avoids burnout by recharging.

I enjoyed learning about my friend’s approach to working. It’s interesting to hear what helps others be productive and able to stay the course. From personal experience, I know it’s important for people to understand what they need to avoid burnout.

A few months back, I shared my experience in the realm of pricing and target customers. I learned over the years that all customers aren’t good customers. Today, a conversation with a good friend who’s a solopreneur reminded me of this topic. After running his business for years, he now has more customers than he can handle.

He explained how he identified the type of work he excels at and enjoys. He noticed that customers who’ve been loyal customers for years share certain characteristics. When he meets potential new customers, he doesn’t try to sell to them. In fact, he looks for reasons to decline the work. He asks questions to determine if the work is in his sweet spot and these people are likely to do business with him for a long time.

It was very interesting to hear him describe his process. It reminded me of what I learned at CCAW. Understanding precisely who the target customer is can be an important milestone. It allows a company to focus its resources on the right customers and build a strong business around a loyal customer base.

I recently spoke with a founder who’s had some turnover on his team. He’s an early founder and doesn’t have a working MVP yet. He said that his highest priority is finishing the MVP, which he’s considering doing himself. He isn’t worried about trying to replace his team.

This founder has hit a rough patch on the people side of the business, and he’s understandably frustrated. I’ve been there as a founder, so I get it. But it’s part of the journey —most founders experience it at some point.

This founder wants to forgo replenishing his team and focus intently on building a great product by himself. He’s very smart and will likely build something impressive. The problem is that building a product isn’t the goal. The goal is to solve a problem extremely well and get customers to pay for the solution. To achieve it, product development isn’t enough—you also need to develop other functions, including marketing and sales. To put it another way, you need to build a company.

Early-stage founders should keep in mind that their goal is to build a company. And that requires a team.

Today marks the end of my sixty-third week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week sixty-three:

• Start Times – I played with starting my days earlier than normal this week. I noticed that I was more productive as I was able to get more things done earlier in the day.
• Measuring  – What get’s measured gets managed. This is true for myself. I noticed the personal things I’m measuring started to move in the direction I was hoping for this week. The measuring helped me realize I wasn’t making progress and motivated me to experiment until I figured out what moved it in the right direction.  
• Moderation – I thought a lot about this lately. I think avoiding extremes works well for my personality and has led to sustainable results. I have to remind myself that moderation is better than quick results.    

Week sixty-three was a great week. The pace was good for me and the change in routine was nice mentally. Hoping for more of the same next week.

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I recently had a major issue with a product I’d purchased. The timing couldn’t have been worse, so I was frustrated. I tried to solve the problem myself, but I failed. I wanted to avoid calling the company’s customer service, but in the end it was the only option left.

The agent had a great attitude and was knowledgeable. He listened with the intent of understanding my situation, and he made sure we agreed about what problem we were solving. He set clear expectations: he told me he’d do everything he could but that there was a fifty percent chance, at best, that he could resolve the issue. He tried various tactics to resolve the problem. We got close, but it turned out to be impossible.

I found out this company stands behind its products and will do everything in its power to make my experience positive, and that goes a long way with me. Its rep turned a negative situation into an opportunity to reinforce its brand by giving amazingly good service. They’ll be at the top of my list the next time I need to purchase something.

Early-stage founders can learn from this. People don’t remember problems; they remember how you resolve them (or try to). This is true of customers, employees, investors—everyone who’s watching. Every company has issues, but not every company deals with them in a way that leaves a positive impression.

Founders, when you hit a snag, consider it an opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition and turn people into advocates.

Building a company is hard. There’s so much you don’t know that you have to try to figure out. I recently connected with a founder who’s building his second venture capital–backed startup. He raised over $100 million from investors for his first company and scaled quickly. During our conversation, it was clear that he’d learned a ton and planned to apply that knowledge to this new company.

A lot of people are interested in entrepreneurship but wait on the sidelines until they think they’re on to something that could be massive. Nothing’s wrong with this approach, and it works well for some people. I do think there’s another approach, though, that can increase your long-term chances of being a successful founder. Start working on building a company around a problem you’re passionate about. If the market ends up being smaller than you hoped for or customers won’t pay for your solution, that’s okay. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll gain valuable knowledge that will help you in your next entrepreneurial endeavor. That knowledge will help you avoid mistakes and save you tons of time the next go-around.

Being a founder is about learning as much as anything else. If you want to be a founder, put yourself in position to start learning as soon as you can. The more you learn and the earlier you learn, the more you increase your odds of succeeding . . . if not this time, next time.  

I connected with a founder living in the Southeast in a city that’s not a major metropolitan area. He raised capital from investors a few years ago but had an experience that wasn’t pleasant. He received a term sheet from a venture capital firm in a big coastal city. The investors expected his team to move to a large tech hub, but he politely declined. His team was remote (this was pre-COVID), and he didn’t think moving was necessary to success. The investors disagreed and pulled the term sheet.

Great teams can be found in all cities, not just the big tech hubs. The reasons people have for living where they do vary. Work is important, but it’s not the only factor. The decision often revolves around what suits their personal lives (e.g., being near friends and family). The last year and a half has been very difficult, but there’s a silver lining: less pressure for people to relocate for work. More great people are now able to live where they want and work remotely for a great company.

Is this a temporary or permanent change? Time will tell. My gut tells me people’s mindsets have shifted. I predict that employers and investors will continue to embrace team members living wherever suits their personal circumstances. This won’t apply to all roles, but I think it will be an option for a much large number of people that it was a few years ago.

I recently got an update email from a founder I haven’t spoken with in months. He sends them out every month to a distribution list. They’re pretty good, and this one put his company back at the top of my mind.

Update emails are a simple yet powerful tool that can benefit early-stage founders. They help with accountability and focus and they remind outsiders that the company exists. The exercise of creating the email is good for founders because it forces them to reflect on the most important things that have happened and how the company’s KPIs or other metrics look.

These emails don’t have to be long or dense. The more concise the better, in fact. I’ve seen founders create a template and change only key pieces of information each time. Most importantly, these emails should be consistent and truthful. Pick a time interval (I’d suggest monthly at a minimum) and stick to it. Sporadic updates with constantly changing formats and KPIs give the impression that the company or founder is unfocused.

Updates shouldn’t be all about everything that’s going well. Running a startup is hard, and things are constantly going wrong. Share those things, too. When you’re open about where you need help, it’s easier for people to help you. And people will tend to trust you if they feel they’re getting the complete story. If you say your startup never struggles, people won’t believe you.

If you’re an early-stage founder, consider asking people you meet with (at the end of the meeting) if you can add them to your update email list. And send regular updates to everyone on it.