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Share Three Things: 1. Start-ups are like group projects in college 2. When the big guns are aimed at you 3. Bank your time - you'll be happy you did
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Three Things: 1. Start-ups are like group projects in college 2. When the big guns are aimed at you 3. Bank your time - you'll be happy you did
Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events
1. "Start-ups are like group projects were in college." What a terrific analogy. Think back to those days: If you had 5 people in a group, two would do the majority of the work, another would kind of pitch in, the fourth would at least show up for the meetings and the fifth would do just about nothing. Think about how important picking your group was. Friends were nice, but we needed grades so we didn't choose them. Just like here. Not much different in the start-up and growth tech world. Most leaders think their company is the exception. They're not. And I'll take that bet every time. Find those doing the heavy lifting and reward them handsomely
2. "If you're taking heavy flak you're getting close to the target." There will come a time in your business when the big companies 'all of the sudden' concentrate their firepower on little 'ol you. For us, it was 2016. Similar to "it's a good thing to have haters," it's a great thing to have those you're disrupting taking aim at you directly and with resources. We've seen the internal emails from StubHub where the top execs planned to come after us. Swing and a miss. Same for the threats of others in and around their space. Survived those too. As the military adage states: it means we were getting close. It all seemingly comes at once and it is quite a bit of firepower which can be scary. Just don't forget: their coming to the jungle for warfare….and that's your turf, not theirs. Win or lose, you'll know you're getting closer to the goal when they focus attention on you.
3. Bank your time. A seemingly obvious hack we've learned over time. If you have the time, run the errands, do the admin work, and go to the gym! Eat right and sleep when they're available, even when you really don't want to, because weeks will come where those things just aren't possible. Trust me on this one. Five alarm fires come in our lives - we're promised as much in the good book - and we'll want to be rested and ready when they do.
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By Tony Knopp
5
11 ratings
Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events
1. "Start-ups are like group projects were in college." What a terrific analogy. Think back to those days: If you had 5 people in a group, two would do the majority of the work, another would kind of pitch in, the fourth would at least show up for the meetings and the fifth would do just about nothing. Think about how important picking your group was. Friends were nice, but we needed grades so we didn't choose them. Just like here. Not much different in the start-up and growth tech world. Most leaders think their company is the exception. They're not. And I'll take that bet every time. Find those doing the heavy lifting and reward them handsomely
2. "If you're taking heavy flak you're getting close to the target." There will come a time in your business when the big companies 'all of the sudden' concentrate their firepower on little 'ol you. For us, it was 2016. Similar to "it's a good thing to have haters," it's a great thing to have those you're disrupting taking aim at you directly and with resources. We've seen the internal emails from StubHub where the top execs planned to come after us. Swing and a miss. Same for the threats of others in and around their space. Survived those too. As the military adage states: it means we were getting close. It all seemingly comes at once and it is quite a bit of firepower which can be scary. Just don't forget: their coming to the jungle for warfare….and that's your turf, not theirs. Win or lose, you'll know you're getting closer to the goal when they focus attention on you.
3. Bank your time. A seemingly obvious hack we've learned over time. If you have the time, run the errands, do the admin work, and go to the gym! Eat right and sleep when they're available, even when you really don't want to, because weeks will come where those things just aren't possible. Trust me on this one. Five alarm fires come in our lives - we're promised as much in the good book - and we'll want to be rested and ready when they do.