I talked with a founder who had an idea in about 2005. He didn’t execute then for a variety of reasons, the main one being that he realized he was too early. His idea sounded like science fiction. Fast forward to 2015. He felt more confident that people would be somewhat receptive to his idea, and technology advances had lowered the barriers to getting it off the ground. It took a few years to build the tech and work through other challenges, but he was able to build traction throughout 2020. Nothing crazy—just good healthy growth. That all changed in 2021. His concept was thrust to the forefront of mainstream media, and it exploded. Now people and businesses are interested in his solution.

Timing can have a huge impact on a business, but it’s out of a founder’s control. At CCAW, I waited years for our industry to embrace e-commerce (sounds crazy, yes?), but I knew it was right around the corner. When it finally arrived, we were in a prime position and had developed important relationships of trust. I imagine Zoom hoped it would be mainstream a few years after going public. Instead, the pandemic accelerated its plans from years to months (maybe even weeks). Other examples abound.

Timing is something founders should be aware of but realize they can’t control. They should be able to speak to it (good or bad). Ideally, they can articulate why the time is right and how they’re in a prime position to take advantage of it. Sometimes the present isn’t an ideal time, and that’s okay. If a founder thinks that will change in the near future, they should be able to explain that prediction.

When I started my company, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I read everything I could find and made the best decisions I could, but some of them were wrong.

Years later, I needed to create a stock option plan for key hires. I wanted their incentives to be aligned with the company’s. I knew I couldn’t figure out how to do it, so I hired a startup lawyer. He promptly informed me of the mistakes I’d made when I created the company as a legal entity. Luckily they hadn’t hindered us to that point, but we couldn’t go any further without resolving them. I ended up paying him to redo all the paperwork correctly so the new stock option plan would be clean. The process was great and I enjoyed working with our lawyer, but it did cost a decent amount of money.

There’s something to be said for making sure certain foundational things are done correctly. Especially things that relate to ownership. If you can afford a startup lawyer, I suggest going that route. Their experience will be invaluable because they can explain the implications of various decisions. Many now offer packages for startups that are fairly inexpensive (and definitely less expensive than their charges for later redoing paperwork to fix your errors). If that isn’t an option, there are other alternatives, such as Clerky, that provide high-quality documents at a lower rate in a self-service model.

Legal and administrative paperwork that’s relevant to hiring can have huge implications down the road, but creating these documents isn’t something founders do often. Founders should seek out qualified advisors or other resources that can help them avoid landmines.

One of the most productive times for me is Saturday mornings. Others aren’t working, so there are fewer distractions. I can focus intensely on the task at hand. I’ve come up with some great ideas on Saturday mornings.

I chatted with a founder who was working this weekend. He said it was nice to focus without emails or Slack messages flying in. It was noticeably different from his weekdays, and he enjoyed it.

Working on weekends isn’t for everyone, and you can be successful without doing it. I do think, though, that concentrated time to focus without distractions is important for founders. This time allows me to get in the zone and think strategically or make progress on things that require lots of mental horsepower for long periods of time.

If you’re a founder or want to be one, remember to make time to get in the zone.  

Figuring out whom to target as your first customers can feel tough. Many groups may have the problem you’re solving. On the surface, they seem similar, but often there are differences that aren’t obvious.

In a perfect world, founders do customer discovery before building anything. This gives them the chance to learn deeply about the problem and how it’s affecting people (i.e., how much pain it’s causing). And the act of listening to understand people’s problems can help establish relationships and build trust.

These conversations are also great data points. With enough data points, patterns will be revealed. Founders who hear the same thing over and over have found non‑obvious commonalities that can form the basis of the ideal customer group.

Figuring out who your first customer should be is hard, but it becomes a lot easier when you talk to people to understand the problem instead of to sell them something.

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

• Perspectives – I got some great feedback from people who have a different perspective than I do. I always learn a ton when I listen to others who see things differently. I don’t always agree, but I always get value from the exercise.
• Teamwork – Outlander’s pitch competition was this week. It took a lot of planning and hard work by the team to make the event happen. It was a testament to what can be accomplished when people work together.    
• Idea session – I participated in a great session this week that was helpful to everyone involved. Lots of good things can happen when good people get together and focus on a single goal.  

Week sixty was a busy week. Lots of long Zooms and other events, but a good week nonetheless.

Founders usually start off doing everything. They’re the glue that holds the company together in the beginning. They’re in the weeds executing to move the company forward. As the company grows, that’s not scalable, and founders begin delegating (or they should). This usually means they’re managing the executors or managing the managers. If done correctly, this allows founders to look at things from 50,000 feet, metaphorically speaking, and think more strategically about the business.

Having to think only high-level about the business is a great thing. I remember when I was able to do this. It felt like I was lifting my head above the clouds and seeing the horizon clearly. Once you’re above the clouds, it can be hard to go back.

Today I spoke with a founder who has removed himself from the weeds of his business, but it isn’t going well. The business isn’t performing as it should, and he knows he needs to replace the people who are executing (or failing to execute). The problem is that he doesn’t want to go back to executing. He can’t wrap his mind around doing that type of work again.

I lived this situation myself in the early days of CCAW, so I can relate. I delayed making changes because I didn’t want to get back in the weeds of a specific area of the company. That delay proved costly and the business suffered. The business lost so much traction that I was ultimately forced to go deep into the weeds to identify the issue and reverse the damage. I had waited so long that we had a razor-thin margin of error. With the support of others team members, I dug in and figured things out. We reversed the trajectory, and I was ultimately able to get back out of the weeds. With the problem solved, the team thanked me for jumping in alongside them. They hadn’t expected it (neither had I!), and they appreciated it.

My lesson from this was that I should’ve always been ready to jump in and do what was needed. I was the founder and it was my company, but I wasn’t above getting into the weeds. Founders do what needs to be done, even when they don’t want to.

I connected with an early-stage founder who spent a few years building some amazing technology. He released the beta version of his product within the last seven months. To his surprise, he’s received two unsolicited acquisition offers. He’s now deciding whether he should raise capital to grow or be acquired (he’d become an employee of the acquiring company).

This founder is in a great position. Users are signing up and paying for the early version of his product. Two larger companies want to acquire the technology. These are signs that the solution he built is creating value. He has a difficult choice to make. I have no idea which way he’ll go, but I’m sure his decision will be well thought-out and he’ll do well.

I think this founder’s situation is one other founders should take note of. Why is he in a position to choose his destiny? Because he hyper-focused on solving a single problem extremely well. His solution is creating massive value that others are happy to pay for!

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Outlander Labs held a virtual pitch competition today. It was an opportunity for innovative startups in the Southeast to compete for a $100K investment. Lots of great applicants were whittled down to these six finalists:

• All Access Advance – Nashville, TN – A platform for managing touring artists, venues, and events in real time from a single dashboard
• City Shoppe – Austin, TX – A two-sided marketplace and software platform that helps consumers “shop their values” and helps local brands and retailers get discovered and reach a larger audience
• Linguix – Miami, FL – An AI-based writing assistant and language learning engine
• OrderNerd – Atlanta, GA – A platform for restaurants that consolidates third-party online ordering platforms onto one pane of glass
• Prospectus.ai – Charlotte, NC – A sales intelligence tool designed to create an internal relationship graph that companies can leverage by making introduction requests that will generate warm leads
• SportAI – Birmingham, AL – A mobile app integrated with AI that optimizes your fantasy sports lineups and, more importantly, helps anyone understand fantasy sports

The founders did an outstanding job pitching, and I enjoyed hearing about their companies. Can’t wait to track these companies—I’m sure they’ll all do amazing things.

It was a tough decision, but I’m happy to announce that City Shoppe was the winner! Congrats to City Shoppe and to the other founders for building interesting companies.

I had a very interesting conversation with a successful founder. He accomplished what a lot of founders aspire to: he sold his company for a significant amount. He’s had time to reflect on the journey, and I was curious to pick his brain. When I asked him about the most pivotal decision he made, he replied, “Putting my ego aside and stepping aside.”

This founder built the company over a number of years. Eventually, he noticed he wasn’t as effective as he’d once been, and over time he realized the company might be better served with someone else as CEO. The decision wasn’t easy, and he struggled with it for some time. Ultimately, he replaced himself with another CEO (with the board’s approval). He took another leadership role in the company that was product-focused. Fast forward a few years: the company was acquired, and everyone was happy.

Hearing this founder describe his decision was engrossing. He clearly had a strong desire to be the leader. He also wanted what was best for the company, though, and that attitude won out. He put his pride aside. The end result confirms that his difficult decision was the right one.

When I read about a new indoor entertainment venue that recently opened in Atlanta, I called a friend who lives in the area. He said the venue is doing well—he often sees a line of customers waiting to enter. I drove by this weekend and saw the line for myself. Opening this venue was no small feat. It required tons of construction. It must have been preceded by years of planning. And given that it just opened, I assume the owners decided to push forward during the uncertainty of 2020.

Last year was a once-in-a-lifetime circumstance (hopefully) and one of the scariest situations a lot of entrepreneurs will face. But on a smaller scale, short-term changes in the market and unexpected hurdles are common. If founders focus on what’s happening right now, they’ll constantly be changing their plans.

The successful founders I know have taken a longer-term view. They decided where they thought the world was going and developed a vision for how their company fit into this future. They were heads-down focused on turning that vision into reality. They powered through short-term ripples in the market, always believing in their longer-term vision. Not over-focusing on the short term was the right call and these founders built great companies that went on to do great things. Often, others couldn’t see it and thought they were crazy for bucking current trends. They didn’t care, stayed the course, and were proven right.

I don’t know the owners of this new venue, but I imagine this describes them. After all, they chose to continue building an indoor venue in the midst of a pandemic!

If you’re an early founder or considering becoming one, be mindful that success will come from taking a long-term view of where the world is going, not reacting to daily changes.