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Three Things: The fine line between crashing and finishing first - avoiding friends who don't have the best for us in mind - History doesn't repeat itself, people do
hree Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events
1. If you want to finish first, first you have to finish. Saw this on F1's Drive to Survive and it rings true in business. Recession and inflation are the words of the week with all kinds of doomsdayers out and about. They may be wrong and they may be right. Doesn't matter. If we knew that answer, we'd be on somewhere on a beach earning 20% right now. Orlando Bravo, founder of much loved and similarly reviled private equity fund Thoma Bravo shared how businesses many businesses getting flogged in the public and private markets haven't changed at their core, just the valuations have. He's right. As usual. Chasing growth is as tempting as it gets. Trust me. It's a constant pressure from your board and investors. Finishing first is the goal so of course we have to push the limits. Just don't do anything stupid to wreck the car. Even if you see others succeeding doing so (albeit incredibly rarely). Gotta finish - as we've covered here before.
2. Avoid the friends who are only your friends if they think they're better than or above you. And know they're out there. My 6th grade son learned this the hard way in a tournament last week when he took a late lead against his 8th grade "friend" deep in the playoffs. The behavior from there showed him their friendship wasn't what he thought it was. It was hard to watch. Tears from "losing a friend" are more than any match. In our careers, we will have bosses, mentors and co-workers we care about. Sometimes, they'll be so nice to us if we're "below" them and will be the first to turn on us if that perception changes. Then, some can get pretty nasty. It's part of the game. Find the good ones and be thankful for them while being prepared for the Succession treatment.
3. History doesn't repeat itself. Humans do. One of Voltaire's most famous quotes comes to mind as we've had some market turmoil. Free cash flow is the "new" buzzword - which is hilarious as it is about as old a discipline as there is in business. And I can tell ya'll from experience, the early stage VCs weren't asking a thing about cash- it's all growth and fit all the time. It's up to you to know when to flip that switch. We argued constantly when our board member never wanted us to have more than 11 months of burn in the early years and I wouldn't go below 18. Just wasn't a need at the time. Reminder: Growing a strong business is an outlier. It ain't just the moonshots that are that far out on the standard curve.
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By Tony Knopp
5
11 ratings
hree Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events
1. If you want to finish first, first you have to finish. Saw this on F1's Drive to Survive and it rings true in business. Recession and inflation are the words of the week with all kinds of doomsdayers out and about. They may be wrong and they may be right. Doesn't matter. If we knew that answer, we'd be on somewhere on a beach earning 20% right now. Orlando Bravo, founder of much loved and similarly reviled private equity fund Thoma Bravo shared how businesses many businesses getting flogged in the public and private markets haven't changed at their core, just the valuations have. He's right. As usual. Chasing growth is as tempting as it gets. Trust me. It's a constant pressure from your board and investors. Finishing first is the goal so of course we have to push the limits. Just don't do anything stupid to wreck the car. Even if you see others succeeding doing so (albeit incredibly rarely). Gotta finish - as we've covered here before.
2. Avoid the friends who are only your friends if they think they're better than or above you. And know they're out there. My 6th grade son learned this the hard way in a tournament last week when he took a late lead against his 8th grade "friend" deep in the playoffs. The behavior from there showed him their friendship wasn't what he thought it was. It was hard to watch. Tears from "losing a friend" are more than any match. In our careers, we will have bosses, mentors and co-workers we care about. Sometimes, they'll be so nice to us if we're "below" them and will be the first to turn on us if that perception changes. Then, some can get pretty nasty. It's part of the game. Find the good ones and be thankful for them while being prepared for the Succession treatment.
3. History doesn't repeat itself. Humans do. One of Voltaire's most famous quotes comes to mind as we've had some market turmoil. Free cash flow is the "new" buzzword - which is hilarious as it is about as old a discipline as there is in business. And I can tell ya'll from experience, the early stage VCs weren't asking a thing about cash- it's all growth and fit all the time. It's up to you to know when to flip that switch. We argued constantly when our board member never wanted us to have more than 11 months of burn in the early years and I wouldn't go below 18. Just wasn't a need at the time. Reminder: Growing a strong business is an outlier. It ain't just the moonshots that are that far out on the standard curve.