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Golden Oldie: When Execution is an Anagram of the Act

Monday, May 1st, 2017

It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of some of the best posts during that time.

Often the most important stuff we need to learn doesn’t require multiple videos, books, and coaching. Sometimes a simple memory aid that’s easy to remember will do it, although execution still requires effort and self discipline, as in this case.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccabarray/8985496669/An executive once asked me what the single most import thing he should do and how best to do it.
I told him the answer was simple and the key to execution was found in an anagram of the act.
Can you guess the action and anagram?
The action is to LISTEN.
The anagram is SILENT.
The first is impossible without doing the second.
Flickr image credit: RebeccaBarray

Entrepreneurs: Post Seed with Marc Dorneles

Thursday, December 10th, 2015

Today we welcome Marc Dorneles, another new voice at MAPping Company Success. Marc is a very untypical commercial insurance broker whose employer won B Corp status (definitely not the norm in his industry), plus he’s extremely knowledgeable about startup needs. (Click About Marc to learn more.)

MarcThere it was and here we are, Post Seed Conference SF 2015. There were many pearls of wisdom and insight offered at the event by the likes of John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and others substantiating its strong attendance. From, Ideas are easy, execution is hard and the notion of challenging thinking to the more precise strategy of Empowering, encouraging OKR’s (Objectives Key Results) because it gets Alignment and Operational Excellence.

It was the place to be if you wanted to hear more about the key ingredients for a leader in the start- up environment. Namely; technical expertise, outstanding leadership, strategic focus on large opportunities, reasonable approach to finances, and having an incredible sense of urgency.

It reminded us that story telling, show and tell, is critical. Equally as instructive; a question to ask yourself when entering any partnership is: do you want to make mistakes with this person? Said another way, can you have the attitude with them that “I’ve got your back, let’s go tackle this problem together.” 

There were market insights discussed such as the analysis that there are approximately 200 unicorns in the world, “Americorns” being a substantive number of them. Today’s dollars are a third of what was around at the height of the boom, making it less likely for unicorns to get acquired. Even a little antidotal comedy, like Unicorns are often albatrosses and bottom line focused zingers quoted from the likes Bill Campbell were offered; “all that matters is that we achieve operational excellence.”

The conference identified markets that comprised major opportunities, such as 

  • the online ad market which is at half a trillion dollars. Likewise;
  • US Healthcare which is bigger than all but some three economies;
  • Public Education;
  • Transportation; and
  • rounding out with batteries (projected to be three time’s better than they are today)

as additional significant opportunity sectors. Overall market perspective was given: downturns are good things because more attention is given to the outstanding startups.

Operational consultation ideas were shared by many veteran experts including Christine Herron of Intel. Ideas such as, don’t over-capitalize, think long term, and have guts or that venture capital is not the end, it’s a means to an end. When looking for funding, don’t worry about the financing market, focus on the business. Don’t worry about unicorns. Consider “Optionality” i.e. keeping options open, looking for those with large upside and little downside. Rounds are taking longer to close. Be patient.

Concerning founders, a big key is learning.

  • Anticipate pre-launch, scaling issues.
  • Focus on process and measuring.
  • Know that rigorous hiring is extremely difficult and that the best talent usually needs to be lured away from other opportunities.
  • Long term, keep in mind that people who started with small companies don’t necessarily want to be there when they’re bigger.
  • Four major cities: SF, NY, LA, Boston are the most sought after locals. There’s a significant importance to understanding and adapting to local markets.

Focus on what is needed to prove key initiatives. Questions and actions such as,

  • How much did you raise?
  • How much accomplished?
  • How long is the runway?
  • Know exactly what the other side means.
  • Avoid grey areas.
  • Create your deck around the most effective metric, which is traction!

Keep in mind that investors roughly don’t invest 95% of the time because 40-60% of investments in startups are complete fails but have confidence nonetheless.

Traction = Execution. As soon as you raise equity round, get VC. Never letting company run out of money is the #1 job. Pressure your investors to use their network. “ABR” – always be raising. Don’t be concerned about dilution just raise as much as possible.

Vinod Kholsa generously shared some particularly brilliant insight, imparting the functional dynamic that value equals perception and the perspective to ask what’s valuable about the company. He went on to emphasis that the core business is much more important than valuation which is peripheral to long term success. In addition, to keep in mind, what kind of assets are you adding for long term success? How you approach people – extremely important. Be humble. Where are you today? Is most important. What risks do you need to eliminate or reduce in the next 12 months?

The analogy was made of having a good base camp, meaning a stable business with decent returns. Think big, act small. Think about Everest but plan to get to base camp first. The single biggest help a VC can give is to figure out who you need on your team. A company becomes the people it hires.

Understand the risks you’re taking. Sequencing which risks you prioritize is very important. You want people who will push you to ask the hard, not easy, questions. Talk to as many VC’s as you can. Find out what they think of your risks! Have a plan to eliminate risks one by one.

Wrapping up it was discussed that seed stage investing is both harder and easier than ten years ago because entrepreneurs are more sophisticated, but there are also more VC’s. It also speculated on what the future holds noting the impact of machine learning, which will replace most jobs.

The recognition that there is abundance and income disparity increasing at the same time was also made and that income inequality will have to be addressed. It was speculated that more than 50% of jobs will disappear.

Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create technology. However, emotional elements can’t be replaced, which is exceptionally valuable knowledge.

The fact that the human element can’t be replaced leads to this article’s concluding point, i.e., why conferences like Post Seed are so valuable!

Entrepreneurs: Beyond the Vision

Thursday, February 12th, 2015

https://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4427310974Where will a vision take you?

Nowhere.

Visions are what Sherlock Holmes had when he was smoking opium; they’re what dance in kids heads before Christmas; they’re what the religious see on slices of bread and potato chips.

Visions come in two flavors — hopeful and executable.

Both may have a plan, but the first is missing a key ingredient.

Call it grit (currently popular term), tenacity or moxie.

Whichever you use, it’s the difference between

  • rosy predictions, high hopes and self-deluding prophesies

and

  • a founder and team that is well-planned, efficient, business-smart and fearless in the face of obstacles.

Executable means more than writing great code — in spite of tech people’s generally dismissive attitude to skills such as marketing, sales and even fiscal controls.

In the best case, executable means having a team member with cradle to grave product experience and another familiar with the initial market and growth markets — or at least a team that listens to advisors who do.

In short, a truly executable is vision is a complete business, with all the moving parts having equal value.

Image credit: opensource.com

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