The most common word in the startup vernacular to describe the stage of financing is its round. I told Andy Swan Tuesday, I view startup careers more like rounds in a boxing match with each one being a new business.
In a professional boxing match, a round is three minutes long. In my startup life, some rounds felt like they lasted 30 minutes from the pummeling I’ve taken, while I’ve also been fortunate to knock an opponent at least down (fine… it wasn’t a standing 8 count, but I still clocked him).
One might call the repetition of losing as dumb or crazy or just call them the Cubs, but I think for startup folks the difference can be the accumulation of what you’ve learned. I started MoneyPath with a different approach than any other venture and my gut says it will pay off. Here are a few ways that will make a difference.
- Customer Input First – The best thing I’ve done for MoneyPath is go talk to prospective customers before anything and I mean anything else. I didn’t have a business name, wire frame, business card, powerpoint or even an outline. I just offered to buy coffee, lunch or stop by a bank branch to chat. I briefly spelled out what I thought could be beneficial and then I listened… and listened some more. Maybe I was just lucky, but I was amazed at how open people were about their needs and what a solution would entail.
- Logo Can Wait – I’m lucky to employ a very good graphic designer, who’s done great work for my print design needs, but I’m rare in that regard. For the first two months, we didn’t have a logo or even a “look”. Did we not care about our look? Of course not, I’ve stated your corporate look is important, but remember, you’re building profits, not a design portfolio.
- Names Matter – Buying a domain name is very hard with likely options being create a new word, purposely misspell or choosing from awkward alpha-numeric-hyphenated domains. We tried and tried many iterations for the perfect name, but MoneyPath kept sticking out to us. MoneyPath is the first domain I’ve paid “real” money to acquire. I balked at first at the price, but we’re in love with the name, got great feedback from customers and I’m glad its ours.
- Due Diligence, Then Just Do – I probably spent too much time doing due diligence on the industry/competitors and I know some will argue it’s never enough, but at some point you just have to start. Kevin and I built a very nice piece of enterprise software in a really short time frame, but we would’ve been even faster had we just started. Always dig to better understand your market then just get going.
- Meet Them Wherever, Whenever – Want help fleshing out your idea? Go find smarter, more experienced folks with different perspectives than your own. I drank more cups of coffee, ate more meals out and bought more rounds of beers in the last 100 days than in the past two years. Thank you to everyone who heard us go on and on about our early steps and a big thanks to my brother, Scott who continues to drop serious knowledge on us about the immense amount of nuances of the banking industry.
- Profits Start Now – Our goal was to make a profit when the first quote goes through our site and we’re set to reach that mark. Sure, we put up money to get this going, but operationally we’re staring at the black early on. It feels good mainly because I’ve tried several models… the content play, the brokerage play, the retail play and others that didn’t or just couldn’t reach early profits. Our MoneyPath model would never have been possible without listening early on and finding the REAL problem to solve for both parties.
So those were the early steps I took and now my old cuts are healed, the bell has run and here I am back swinging. Maybe I like the boxing analogy because Louisville is home to a boxing legend they simply call “The Greatest.” Every startup dreams of the big win and MoneyPath is no different, but I suspect my rounds of ups and downs continue to prove beneficial.
I’ll end this post with a request for your comments and input. What have YOU done to start things off right? If you did get knocked out what did you do wrong? Have you seen or heard of others doing things right in the early stages to set up a win? Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, you’ve worked on task forces, class projects, committees or department planning sessions. I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories.
