Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern. Some people thrive in the early days of a start-up. They love being an early team member and turning an idea into reality. The lack of structure, wearing multiple hats, and small team dynamics appeal to them. They love solving hard problems and building something new. They’re aware the business could fail, but they’re comfortable with that risk. As the company scales, roles become more defined, and structure is added to the company, the experience is less enjoyable for these kinds of people, and they may leave.

These people are critical to the start-up ecosystem. They make great team members early on. Some people see their lack of interest in staying with the company as it matures as a negative. I see it differently. They know what environments are ideal for them and they seek out opportunities that align with that. Sure, that means they may stay only a few years, but that’s OK. Their strengths lie in helping the company overcome early obstacles and achieve product–market fit.

As companies grow, their needs change. The skills needed for, say, international expansion are utterly different than those needed to go from an idea to landing the first customer. What’s required of the team evolves as the company pursues bigger goals. Some people will evolve with the company as it matures, and some will pursue other opportunities. Either is OK. The most important thing is to recognize what stage a company is in and get the people best suited to help you make it to the next one.

For some founders, identifying the exact problem they want to solve is a challenge. They know they want to start a company, but they’re not sure what it will do. There are lots of ways to approach this. If you have experience in a space, think about the pains you and your coworkers have experienced. Or talk to potential customers to learn what problems they have and how troublesome they are. Or consider this unique way to identify a problem you’d like to solve: going for interviews.

Let me explain. A founder I met with has an extensive track record in a space that’s niche but growing. She’s been part of teams that have accomplished greatness. Pondering her next move, she began interviewing with firms in her industry. Over a series of interviews (and job offers), she noticed that employers were interested in her experience solving a particular problem. And she learned that it’s a problem that’s both common and severe across the industry. Most companies are actively recruiting people to build an in-house solution. After hearing this multiple times, she realized there’s an opportunity to build a large company focused exclusively on solving this pain point. I’d never heard of anyone going for interviews to find the problem their start-up will solve, but I love the idea.

If you’re experienced in a space and want to start a company, consider interviewing to let others tell you what big problem you’re well suited to solve.

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Today marks the end of my forty-sixth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week forty-six:

• Tools – I often look for tools to help make me more efficient. I was reminded this week that I should take the time to learn the tools I use. A great tool that isn’t used properly is of limited usefulness.
• Accountability – We don’t always want it, but we always need it. Another reminder this week: accountability is key to outsize success. I do a decent job holding myself accountable, but I push myself more when I’m accountable to someone else.      
• Culture – I had a great conversation with a friend about how working from home will affect company culture. I believe that workforces working from home exclusively or for long periods will have a negative impact on culture. My friend does too. I’ll be watching this and discussing it with company leaders throughout the year.

Week forty-six was a hectic one. It’s over now. Whew!

One strategy for acquiring customers I’ve heard early founders mention is to use marketplaces. Think Upwork, Etsy, Amazon, eBay . . . There’s lots of demand waiting on these platforms if you can provide what users are looking for. This strategy has merit and can be useful, but there are things to consider:

• Customer relationship – The relationship is often between the customer and the marketplace. The customer is loyal to the marketplace, not the merchant or vendor who provides the good or service. Some marketplaces even restrict merchants from doing offline transactions with customers they acquired on the marketplace.
• Learning – In the early days, it’s important to get feedback from customers and fine-tune your product to achieve product–market fit. Not owning the customer relationship can make that difficult.
• Why – Marketplaces don’t usually share data about what’s driving behaviors on their platforms. Vendors seeing what’s happening but they don’t understand why it’s happening. Not a big deal if things are going well. Terrifying if things are going badly. It’s hard to fix something if you have no idea what’s broken. And growth planning is extremely difficult because you don’t know what drives your growth.
• Expansion – When you talk with your customers, sometimes you learn about opportunities to add value. It’s the land-and-expand approach. Get your foot in the door and grow the relationship over time. This is difficult to do with customers acquired via marketplaces. Not impossible, but difficult. Instead of growing by selling more to existing customers, you have to constantly acquire and service new customers.
• Experience – Marketplaces often control the experience for customers. The experience is built for the masses, so it may not be an optimal customer experience.

Marketplaces are great for tapping into demand and supporting a thought-out go-to-market strategy. They aren’t a replacement for a go-to-market strategy and they aren’t ideal for all company stages. Founders (especially early ones) should be mindful of the importance of owning the customer relationship and factor it into their decision about whether to acquire customers via marketplaces.

Most start-ups fail because they run out of cash. They can have great press, a great product, and even customers . . . but still run out of cash. Understanding the cash situation is the founder’s responsibility. At CCAW, I received a cash flow report every morning. I always knew exactly how much was in the bank, down to the penny. Cash is a company’s oxygen. When you run out of oxygen, you suffocate.

In the early days of a start-up, the founder is responsible for cash. If investors are the sole source of it, the founder pitches to investors. If customers are the sole source of it, the founder sells to customers. If cash comes from both sources . . . you guessed it, the founder is pitching and selling. Absent product–market fit and a defined sales process, the founder is the rainmaker who keeps the bank account in the black.

Raising capital is a core part of the job for early founders. If you’re considering starting a company or you already have, take this responsibility seriously. If you don’t, your journey will be short.

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Yesterday I talked about the importance of founders simplifying their pitch. I didn’t mention another critical aspect of pitching: founders should convey their passion when they pitch. I’m not talking screaming or doing anything inappropriate. Just make it clear how much it means in a way that’s authentic.

Founders are evangelists for their companies. Especially in the early days. They’re who will get others excited about buying from the company or even joining it. Effective evangelism requires passion and enthusiasm, both of which convey conviction. Founders often lay everything on the line to start a company. When they pitch, their listeners should understand that the venture is so important to them that they’ve taken on an almost incomprehensible level of risk.

If you’re a founder or want to be, make sure your passion comes through in your pitch (in a way that fits your personality). If people can’t tell you’re excited about your company, it will be hard for them to get excited.

Founders are always pitching their companies. Most people think you pitch only when you’re raising capital, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hiring your team, convincing customers to pay you, finding vendors, even talking about your new company at Thanksgiving dinner . . . all are forms of pitching, just to different audiences with different purposes.

It’s really important that founders be able to articulate clearly what their company does. Someone outside your industry (like Grandma) should be able to say, “Oh, that makes sense.” When people understand what you do, they find it easier to support you.

If you’re a founder or want to be, consider simplifying your pitch (and trying it out on Grandma). It could end up being the most valuable tool in your arsenal, at least in the early days.

Speed matters to a start-up’s chances of success. Let me explain. Most founders have a defined runway, even if they don’t realize it. They have a certain number of months or years to achieve a certain amount of traction (e.g. get 20 customers). If they don’t do it, it’s game over. Think of a plane during takeoff. If it doesn’t reach a certain speed and elevation before the runway ends, it’s in serious trouble. Game over for a founder can mean running out of cash, other resources, or family support.

Getting traction requires work. Founders have to execute. Doing nothing will lead to failure. Founders understand all of this. But what some don’t realize is that speed of execution is equally if not more important. They can take the right actions, but if they’re too slow about it the outcome won’t be what they’re aiming for. Founders have to be aware of time and make sure they’re executing and making progress toward their goals quickly. Otherwise they’ll find themselves staring at the end of their runway.

If you’re a founder, be mindful of how quickly you execute. If you’re not moving along at a good clip, consider tracking it and discussing it among your team.

A college student interested in entrepreneurship wanted advice on how to best position himself to found a start-up. He asked about my journey and if corporate America helped position me for success. Here are a few things I shared with him:

• Corporate America – The experience was good. It gave me some credibility. It showed me how a well-run company operates at massive scale. I left with company experience at an enterprise level. My goal was to build my company to the scale of the companies I’d seen in corporate America. The strategies they used worked for them, so I used many of them at my start-up. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that it takes time to get to that level. Things that work at an enterprise level aren’t what got them to that level.
• Start-ups – Corporate America didn’t prepare me for start-up life. I had no idea what I was signing up for. I had a massive gap in my brain where it would have been helpful for start-up knowledge to be. It took me years of learning by doing and talking to people to understand start-up life. I learned to move quickly and break things. Done is better than perfect. And a host of other things.
• Passion – Find a problem you’re passionate about solving. Your passion is what will carry you through the bad days (plenty of those in your future) and motivate you to take the leap (and the next leap, and the one after that). All the preparation in the world is worthless if you’re not trying to solve a problem you’re passionate about.

I went on my journey by making the best decision I could with the information and resources I had at the time . . . and doing it again the next day . . . and the next. It wasn’t perfect or pretty, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I learned so much about entrepreneurship, myself, and life on the journey that was amazing. Everyone’s journey is different and that’s the beauty of it. There’s no right or wrong approach. Only the one that works for you.

Today marks the end of my forty-fifth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week forty-five:

• Pace – This week’s pace was swift. It felt like everything hit at once. There was lots of activity in a variety of unrelated areas.
• A little win – I’ve been working on a project since last spring. It’s been challenging, but I had a little win this week. It was nice . . . it felt good to see my hard work pay off a little. I still have tons of work to do on the project, but this win stoked my motivation.
• Learning from mistakes – I read this post and it stuck with me all week.  It was a reminder that a mistake is a learning opportunity, which is a good thing. If I want to learn, I must accept that I’ll continue to make mistakes. And I do! The key is to not make the same ones I’ve made before.

Week forty-five was a normal week. A little busy, but pretty normal overall.