Copying Ferd's point from the Facebook side of this thread, for my records:
"My suggestion ... your axioms, which are good, still only address execution. The first and greatest challenge for a startup is conceptual, exactly what capability and in what form will you bring to market? Much of the churn in early stage companies is indeed from specs changing, but they are changing because the business questions were never settled and the organization is adapting or compensating. Too typically the adaptation happnes in haphazard fashion.. I guess my point is, without clarity on the business side and awareness that evolution/adaptation are necessary part of the process, no Project Mgt model will give good results."
This is an extremely important point -- the single greatest predictor of startup failure, in my experience, is when the company starts to "thrash" its business plan. Indeed, the greatest failure I've worked at was the company that changed its business plan repeatedly -- it's probably not accidental that the same company never had a clear vision of the product, and never had anyone really in *charge* of the vision, with the result that we were all moving in slightly different directions.
As CEO, your job is Leadership. That doesn't have to (and shouldn't) mean bull-headedness -- it's quite common to find that a pivot is necessary at some point -- but you should have a clear vision about the business plan and a clear *direction* for the company (even if it tacks a bit as reality sets in). And you need to make sure that *somebody* (maybe you, maybe someone else) has the right and responsibility to translate those business requirements into product requirements in a clear and reasonably consistent way.
I should note that one *big* win about this annoying process of starting to raise funds is that it has forced me to pay more attention to Querki's business side. That, in turn, has led me to focus more specifically on Querki as a *community* tool first and foremost -- while it is and probably always will be good for personal projects, I think we're going to prioritize making sure that it really sings for communities and small businesses. That's what makes most sense for Querki as a business, and it's where I believe the need is sharpest...
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"My suggestion ... your axioms, which are good, still only address execution. The first and greatest challenge for a startup is conceptual, exactly what capability and in what form will you bring to market? Much of the churn in early stage companies is indeed from specs changing, but they are changing because the business questions were never settled and the organization is adapting or compensating. Too typically the adaptation happnes in haphazard fashion.. I guess my point is, without clarity on the business side and awareness that evolution/adaptation are necessary part of the process, no Project Mgt model will give good results."
This is an extremely important point -- the single greatest predictor of startup failure, in my experience, is when the company starts to "thrash" its business plan. Indeed, the greatest failure I've worked at was the company that changed its business plan repeatedly -- it's probably not accidental that the same company never had a clear vision of the product, and never had anyone really in *charge* of the vision, with the result that we were all moving in slightly different directions.
As CEO, your job is Leadership. That doesn't have to (and shouldn't) mean bull-headedness -- it's quite common to find that a pivot is necessary at some point -- but you should have a clear vision about the business plan and a clear *direction* for the company (even if it tacks a bit as reality sets in). And you need to make sure that *somebody* (maybe you, maybe someone else) has the right and responsibility to translate those business requirements into product requirements in a clear and reasonably consistent way.
I should note that one *big* win about this annoying process of starting to raise funds is that it has forced me to pay more attention to Querki's business side. That, in turn, has led me to focus more specifically on Querki as a *community* tool first and foremost -- while it is and probably always will be good for personal projects, I think we're going to prioritize making sure that it really sings for communities and small businesses. That's what makes most sense for Querki as a business, and it's where I believe the need is sharpest...