Startup Advice
sari and
Startup Advice
You can’t be a hoarder of power within an organization. Once you get to a point where you feel like something is ready for lots of scale, get comfortable with letting it go so you can move on to the next building challenge.
23 Tactical Company Building Lessons, Learned From Scaling Stripe & Notion
Founders that step away grow their startup; find a team to trust and then share the power to increase your scaling velocity.
On building “Flavored” startups
Enterprise software is (mostly) not flavor-based. Sure, there are enterprise fads like the metaverse, but generally speaking, large companies only sign contracts when it feels like there is an obvious commercial advantage to doing so.
Networks are (mostly) not flavor-based. If you’re using an app because of the content created by its other users, it’s not necessarily a guarantee for success, but at least if it fails it probably won’t be because it hit a flavor-based asymptote. For instance, BeReal leveraged a unique flavor of photo sharing to build a network, but people are still using it because they like the way it helps them stay in touch with their friends. If it were just a single-player utility, it would not have scaled in the same way. Another historical example is Instagram versus Hipstamatic. Both had a cool new flavor called “photo filters,” but one had a network and the other did not. Here’s a more recent example: the network is what sets Substack stands apart from its flavor-based competition.
Tech-enabled services are not flavor-based. If you act like a tech company but really do grocery delivery, banking, education, housing, healthcare, or any other real-world service, your competition is mostly not flavor-based because starting this type of business involves a lot of cost and complexity. (Also, some, like ride hailing and delivery, are networks.) The downside is that your cost structure is probably not as great as pure tech companies, but the upside is that you have less competition.
All of these types of products can involve some flavoring to help them get off the ground. The point is not that flavoring is bad. It’s good! But it has a very specific role. Flavor provides an initial product wedge. It’s helpful for standing out initially but doesn’t provide long-term differentiation or durable advantage.
Engineer Wei Dai on reinventing yourself:
"Once you achieve high status, a part of your mind makes you lose interest in the thing that you achieved high status with in the first place. You might feel obligated to maintain an appearance of interest, and defend your position from time to time, but you no longer feel a burning need to know the truth.
One solution that might work (and I think has worked for me, although I didn't consciously choose it) is to periodically start over. Once you've achieved recognition in some area, and no longer have as much interest in it as you used to, go into a different community focused on a different topic, and start over from a low-status (or at least not very high status) position."
A solid foundation requires a robust team structure. Hiring individuals who not only have the requisite skills but also align with the company’s culture is crucial. However, building a foundation goes beyond just assembling a team; it involves nurturing and equipping them with the tools and knowledge to excel. Continuous training and professional
Learning is complicated.
While we’re doing it, it’s easy to imagine that those around us are completely sure of themselves, moving forward in a well-lit space.
In fact, if you visit a growing company, a useful school or anywhere that growth is happening, you’ll quickly see that everyone is stumbling forward in the shadows.
That’s part of the deal.
While we’re doing it, it’s easy to imagine that those around us are completely sure of themselves, moving forward in a well-lit space.
In fact, if you visit a growing company, a useful school or anywhere that growth is happening, you’ll quickly see that everyone is stumbling forward in the shadows.
That’s part of the deal.
Stumbling in the dark
If you notice something at your company below standards and don't fix it or make sure someone else does, you have set a new standard.
Complaining about it does not count as fixing it.
If someone gets upset/tells you to stay in your lane, they've set an even worse new standard.
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