Failure – The Learnings

After 9 years of entrepreneurship and several companies, less than a week ago I went through a dissolution for the first time. While obviously not the preferred outcome the last two years provided many learning opportunities and will certainly make me a better leader. Here are six of my top lessons learned/reinforced.

1. Hire Fast & Right.  It is better to pay up (or equity up) the right person for the job rather than settling. Too many times I have felt constrained by resources. When it comes down to it, a shorter runway with the right people will outperform the alternative.
2. Fire Fast.  The hardest thing to do. Bad hires happen. Do not live with your mistakes. At best a bad hire will slowly under-perform. At worse they kill your culture and bring everyone down with them. Everyone deserves a chance but if you can’t see an employee with you long term cut them immediately.
3. Open, Honest Communication. Having open, regular communications with my team and investors made a bad situation much easier.  Monthly informal 1-on-1’s with my team provided an opportunity for them to clear their minds of any questions.  With investors a monthly traction report was the baseline for my communication strategy. With everyone I was blunt, focused and honest. What do we need to do to succeed? What does it mean if we don’t hit goals? Where are we financially? In a start-up there are no secrets. Better to be open and honest. When it comes to tough questions it is better to answer things than to live in the fear of doing it.
4. Iterate Quickly. Set up schedules for all of your key processes and stick to it. Product development, consumer insights, marketing, and software development are just a few arenas that you should have processes and iterations schedules set and followed.
5. Talk To Your Customer. Customers don’t always know what they want or need, but you better believe that getting their feedback and buy-in early is valuable. Take their feedback, iterate, and then talk to them again.
6. Take Care of Your Team. They are your lifeblood. Without a good team you will never succeed at scale. No matter what phase of your company you are in put your team first.