Of all the problems that a startup faces in its early days, nothing is more fundamental than spending time doing the wrong things. Unlike a large company, a startup has limited access to resources like money and people, and therefore it is necessarily the correct and precise utilization of these resources that is the key to succeeding.
We can go one step further and boil every problem down to its core essence: a lack of time. The amount of time we have is the ultimate limit to what we can achieve. Therefore, spending time working on the wrong things is the most costly mistake a startup can make. If we look at all the important todos of being an early-stage founder, everything falls back to this simple concept.
Founders need a clarity in vision for it is what keeps the company from wasting time going down pathways that make sense within some myopic context, but ultimately are just distractions. The vision can and will change, but there must be a clearly articulated reason for every pivot beyond just the whims of early users.
Hiring and retaining the right people is important on multiple levels. Not only do the right hires serve as a multiplier for the company’s ability to utilize time, the wrong hires will do the opposite. Therefore, in cases where there is not a good fit, it is important to bite the bullet as soon as possible and not let things fester for a long time.
Good advisers are important because the right advice made from a wealth of experience can save the company from weeks of aimless wandering. Having strong and complementary co-founder(s) is crucial for similar reasons. A startup cannot afford to spend months or years working on the wrong things and a stern but caring reality check can be the difference between a missed opportunity and total success.
As a software engineer by training, I am used to the engineering mentality of solving problems by finding the most effective and efficient solutions. In recent weeks, I have come to gain a much deeper meta-problem that lurks behind every successful and failed startup: identifying the right problems in the first place. I still have a long way to go on that journey, but at least now I know the direction to start from.