June 2021 - Venture Out

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

– Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

Launching a startup is a risky venture. It’s been said that 90 percent of startups fail. The statistic is not surprising considering the amount of effort, time, and money it takes to build a company from the ground up.

Many founders, especially first-time founders, inevitably make mistakes. Some more costly than others and some which could have been avoided in the first place. Mistakes are hard and unforgiving in general, but especially in the startup space.

As founders look to accelerate their startup, it can be easy to put the blinders on and ignore key issues that could slow down or stop the momentum of your startup altogether. Learn how to recognize avoidable founder mistakes and how to address them.

1. Launching in an Unfamiliar Space Instead of Sticking to What You Know

You’ve likely heard of product-market fit (which we’ll address later on), but there’s another type of fit founders should have. Technology entrepreneur and investor Alex Iskold calls it founder-market fit. The idea is that successful startups have a strong match between the founder’s expertise and the problem they are trying to solve.

Domain experiences and insights really do matter. Founders with domain expertise have the unique insights needed to understand the pressing challenges and golden opportunities to go fast and launch a successful business.

The reality is that some founders start businesses in spaces they don’t know much about. Even Iskold mentions this is exactly what happened to him after selling his first B2B company to IBM and struggled with launching his second startup which was consumer-facing.

There’s a flipside, it is possible to launch a successful company without having founder-market fit as seen with Convoy, a disruptor and leader in the digital supply-chain revolution, whose co-founders both worked at Amazon. They made it possible by bringing on other leaders who were experts in their respective fields.

2. Underestimating the Value of the Right Co-Founder

The right co-founder for your startup is critical. You need someone who compliments your strengths. Choosing the wrong co-founder could become a costly mistake for your startup.

As a founder, you’ve learned to accept you don’t know all the answers to every question. You have blind spots too. You are going to make mistakes but the key is to limit the mistakes while mitigating the impact of these mistakes. That’s why having the right co-founder who brings in new perspectives and experience is key to failing fast and winning even faster.

Finding the perfect co-founder is like finding the perfect partner in a long-term relationship. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved. You want to make sure you find someone who can speak directly and honestly with you, especially during those pivotal business decisions and times of conflict. You want someone who understands your needs and you theirs. You want someone who can own up to their part of the company’s success as well as failures.
Garry Tan knows all too well about co-founder conflict as a co-founder of Posterous (acquired by Twitter). He directly puts it, “I learned the hard way that if you haven’t prepared for conflict in your co-founder relationship, you’ll be at each other’s throats right at the moment when you most need to be working well together.”

3. Waiting for the Perfect Product to Launch

“Perfection is the enemy of progress.” A quote attributed to Winston Churchill but is as relevant today especially in the startup scene. Nothing kills progress more than perfection. Perfectionism can kill productivity, ideas, momentum, and potentially your new startup.

Don’t spend time perfecting an unproven product, launch as quickly as possible.

Understand what the market is looking for and launch with the minimum viable product. The immediate market feedback will be the invaluable input needed to modify, pivot, and update the business. Tangible and actionable actions based on real market feedback versus the perceived feedback that happens in the space between four walls. By launching an imperfect product, you’ll have created a continuous feedback loop on how close you’re getting to product-market fit.

This is the approach Mary Biggins took when she launched her growing startup MealPal. “Getting it to market quickly (and with some rough edges) was way more valuable than waiting 6 more weeks to launch the perfect version of the product. You don’t really start learning until you are getting feedback from real users.”

As a founder, you want to see your startup succeed and not be part of a statistic. Some mistakes are hard to recover from but some are also avoidable. Remember to stick to what you know, find a co-founder who complements your strengths, and get real market feedback sooner rather than later.

1. What were you doing before you launched your startup?

I was the VP Connections at Amazon.

2. When did you realize you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I have been mentoring young women in STEM for my entire career, but I could only help one woman at a time. I wanted to create a scalable platform that could offer insightful career advice to STEM women regardless of where they lived in the world. I didn’t have a eureka moment where I thought, ‘Okay! Today is the day I quit my job!’ It was a dream I had been nurturing for some time, and, like any great passion, it grew to the point where it couldn’t be ignored. And it was perfect timing from the market perspective. That’s when I knew it was time to scale what I describe as my second [career] mountain. Leaving India to do graduate work in the States and building my professional career here at Nielsen, GE Aviation, and Amazon was the first mountain. It was a fantastic hike, but Gotara is a whole new beautiful landscape to explore.

3. What initial hesitations did you have about starting your first company?

Like anyone, you can get used to the routine of having a job that is intellectually and creatively fulfilling. Still, in my life, I have always tried to resist becoming too comfortable and coasting in a role. I like to have butterflies in my belly; that delicious mix of facing the unknown but also knowing that’s the way I want to lead my life because of the rich adventures it always leads to—like Gotara.

4. Can you remember the day you put in your notice? What was it like, what was going through your mind, how did your manager take it?

I loved my time at Amazon, so the day was a mix of emotions, but it felt like I was running toward a new challenge. You don’t get to experience those moments often in life, so you have to seize them. I had already prepared my manager for a change almost a year before. She was supportive and intrigued, and her curiosity gave me an added boost of confidence that this was the right time to make a move.

5. What are you doing now?

I’m climbing that second mountain and loving every moment. There’s been a few times when the climb seems a little too steep, and the path is uncertain, but Gotara’s mission is so clear, and my dreams for it are so vivid that I catch my breath and dive back in. I’ve created a virtual global team who all share this dream to create this platform because we know it will change women’s lives. And given the hit STEM+ women have taken during the pandemic—Gotara’s purpose is even more poignant. We’ll help women get back on their feet and back in the game. The advice, support and key learning moments we share with them will be life-changing. They’re not the only ones who benefit. Employers have engaged employees and the inventions these brilliant STEM women imagine will make all our lives better.

6. Looking back on your experience of founding a company, what do you know that you wish you knew before? Are you happy with your decision?

Good question. If I had a proverbial crystal ball, I might have made some different decisions earlier on in terms of how and when we might deliver specific services, but having to pivot exercises one’s innovation muscle, and that’s a good thing. We’re constantly examining how and why we do things and if the process can be improved. I’m content with the decisions we’ve made—and proud of how we have innovated around moving goalposts.

7. Any other advice you can share for others contemplating a similar path?

It isn’t for the faint of heart. You have to know what you want; and have a North Star vision that keeps you on course. Be open, curious and have enough humility to know when to trust your team and be open to reevaluating a decision or changing direction. There will be tough days; you’ll have to make tough decisions but our tagline at Gotara is #spiralup. It’s also my mantra in life because I’m wired to reach for the stars.

Learn more about Gotara here

Month: June 2021

Avoidable Founder Mistakes