Founder/CEO Burnout; Getting First Customers in early-stage startups; and Bob Iger Prevails
First of all, this is your periodic reminder to regularly review internal processes and remove unnecessary friction lest the process becomes the purpose instead of a means to an end.
Now onto some startup issues, as recently I’ve talked to many early-stage founders and those who have had to shut down theirs.
Founder burnout
There is nothing like it. Well, okay, some glass-cliff CEO jobs are like that too.
The ‘glamorous’ founder life. You have to do so much, fulfil so many different functions, do things you have no skills for, you have to build your product and raise funds at the same time.
Your whole person is involved and swallowed up. All your time and energy is dedicated to the business.
Then you’re out – whether you sold, had to shut down, fell out with your co-founder, whatever the reason.
Whether you have to keep working to pay the rent or can splash out and take a full extended break, it will be an adjustment. It will take time to decompress, to mentally decouple from your startup, and sometimes even to reestablish your identity away from your baby.
Be kind to yourself and take your time. You don’t have to draw lessons immediately from your experience – it will come when you’re ready.
As you are ‘recovering’, it’s super important to find a hobby to occupy your mind and some physical activity to help with the restlessness you will inevitably feel when the high-octane, all-in stress falls away. Your body is used to the stress and the adrenaline. It will take time to adjust.
You can talk to people, fellow founders, about it all – or not. Sometimes the former helps to move on and to put things into perspective as long as you don’t get stuck in a loop.
And then, when you are feeling restless again, just go for it. Because those who have been bitten by the startup bug, no matter how bad some experiences were, can rarely go back to a 9-5.
Onwards!
The Hard Truth of First Sales
No one sends harder ‘hate you’ vibes my way than some first-time founders of pre-launch startups when I tell them that just because they built it people won’t just come.
Many don’t like to hear that they have to go out themselves to capture their first customers, from people they know or can connect to.
B2B, B2C, marketplace, service or physical product - whatever you are building you have to get your first sign-ups and customers by reaching out directly and convincing people to give you a chance. Especially true if the solution you are providing is new to the market. How could people find you if they don’t even know they need what you are selling?
Successful startup founders have all done first sales themselves. Trust me here, relying solely on marketing or hiring salespeople too early is not a good move for most.
The founders of Stripe, the hugely successful payment processing company, are well-known to have personally signed up and onboarded their first howevermany users. Literally, laptop out and they did it right then and there.
The founders of Morning Brew gave short pitches to business school students before class, collected their email addresses (on paper! to reduce friction for the users) then went and signed them up manually, one by one, themselves. They went to every class they could.
You can’t get away from that initial legwork. This will test your conviction too.
It is hard to give concrete advice on how to get your first users/customers because it very much depends on what your product or service is, and who your targets are.
In general, look for people and places that can amplify you. And I am not even talking about social media influencers here. Some examples:
Does your product have the potential to be a corporate benefit to employees? Even if they don’t reimburse it, would they include it in their wellbeing package? Get in front of as many HR people as possible. Not many