Work in a startup: Ideas, routine and responsibility

We continue [ 1 , 2 ] to compare approaches to work in a startup in Russia and the United States. Today, the statements of Sam Altman, Dave McClure, Dustin Moskowitz, Phil Libin on important and controversial aspects of a startup’s life will be commented by Ilya Krasinsky, instructor of accelerators of IIDF, Yandex.Start, Happy Farm on product economics and metrics .

From 2011 to summer 2013, Ilya led the development and product management of LinguaLeo mobile and desktop products (5M installations). C 2010 led the development of iOS-application LinguaLeo, which at the time of release took 1st place among all free applications in Russia. It helped to calculate the economics of the product and identify key metrics for more than 500 companies (from international companies with 30M + users to small startups).

Ilya shared with us his experience and thoughts on what American “start-up gurus” say about responsibility and leadership, about when it is better to leave the main job for a startup, about routine and working with ideas, taking into account his understanding of the specifics of running a business.
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About working with ideas

Sam Altman argues that you should work on your own start-up only if you are haunted by any problem and you see no other way to solve it except to launch your own company. In response to this opinion, Dave McClure emphasizes that you need to look at this situation from the opposite side, asking the opinion of potential clients (not investors, but clients).

Which of these approaches to working with ideas would you have the advantage of mentioning to the Russian teams with whom you have already managed to work? Have you noticed any myths that newbies have about the generation and subsequent incarnation of ideas?

There is no contradiction. In any case, a startup will test 100 hypotheses that will not work because of ideas about the world, market, customers and potentially working solutions - something will go wrong. Only those who are fanatically devoted to their work can do this for 1-2 years. If “not rushing” it is better not to do it: there is not enough energy, and you will give up everything when faced with the first difficulties.

But the answer to the question of how to solve a problem depends on the market and users, since the product or service is aimed at solving the problem of other people, and not just of the founder. The first thing is to go to other people and as soon as possible check for them: what worked and what did not. Accelerators of FRIA, Yandex and others show that it is possible to test a hypothesis, implement the MVP of a product and benefit the client in a matter of hours.

For example, the team came up with a startup: the user orders food in advance in the dining room or restaurant, so as not to wait for its preparation, and decided to develop a mobile application for this. We have seen a similar idea more than once and the key question with it is how much such a service is needed.

While someone doubted, the team made the landing page and received 100 registrations - people were obviously ready to try the service in action. After that, the team created the first version of its product in a couple of hours and served about 20 clients.

Usually startups do what they can do: they draw design and program, program, program, that is, they don’t do business. But companies go bankrupt not because they could not make a product, but because they do not have users of this product.

How did the team get the first customers? The essence of their product is not in the mobile application. The guys went down to the nearest dining room, copied the menu, made a digital analogue of the menu using the Google-form and sent it to early subscribers, in particular to me.

It was one of the best user experiences in my life. Having opened the digital menu, I calmly read it and picked up what I wanted to order for lunch, and not what I usually have time to see while the line is moving. It was time to look at the prices. When I went down to the dining room, my table was already waiting for me with a served tray of food.

My colleague and I had enough time for both food and communication. When I returned to the computer, a message was already waiting for me on Facebook: your account amounted to 223 rubles, follow the link to pay. Usually, connecting a payment system takes 2 weeks or more, but for customer service this is not necessary - the team connected the Yandex.Money widget in 20 minutes. Delighted, I left a tip in the third order.

Another question is how to negotiate with the restaurant. In the evening of the first day, the dining room administrator approached the children with a question of cooperation. Total time to create a product - a couple of hours. Time to receive the first money for the real work of the system - 2 days.



Manual sales and MVP require all teams in almost all accelerators, and it’s not so much money that’s proof that the team can solve the real problem of people they are willing to pay for.

Of course, this is not a scalable process, but the teams don’t need to do things that scale , the project in question, for example, had “jambs”, but the demand for the service was confirmed. This does not mean that the guys will have a business, but they have proven that the problem exists, and they have an unscaled (at this stage) solution to this problem.

About dismissal from the main job

Sam and Dave believe that the implementation of a good idea can take many years, and the growth of the organization itself even more. It is necessary to understand their readiness for such work and weigh the selected ideas also from this point of view.

Do you agree with such statements? Based on this logic, what would you advise those who want to start their startup in parallel with the main work? Do you think such an option is possible at the time of testing and clarifying the idea of ​​a startup?

The main thing in this case is to understand that at the first stage the main task is the opposite: to learn how to create value for your customers as quickly as possible. For many years, it may take the creation of the product and its scaling to the entire market. But the Customer Development approach often makes it possible to test the viability of an idea in a week, look at actual demand, solve a problem and take the first money for it.

At this stage, the product is essentially a “system of sticks and cords,” but it can really solve the client’s problems. The value of this approach is the low cost of testing ideas, business models, solutions. The project has not yet spent money on development, but can already manually create value for the user. Many guys combine this stage with the main work, and after checking the MVP they start working in a full-time startup. A minus of a format 50/50 (usual work / startup) - lack of intensity and speed.

About responsibility

Dustin Moskovitts notes the fact that people in any profession have a fear of failure, but if you are an entrepreneur, your fear of failure falls entirely on your shoulders and on the shoulders of all who choose to follow you. He emphasizes the really strong pressure and responsibility of the founder of a startup.

Have you ever found yourself in situations that are ambiguous from the point of view of psychological stress that you somehow did not foresee in advance when working in a startup? How would you appreciate the difference in the understanding of responsibility among employees and founders of a startup working in Russia?

Of course, more than once in my career, I personally invested, for example, in client projects, when we were engaged in developing to order, in order to get a meaningful result. Such stories happen all the time.

Entrepreneurship is the solution of tasks with low certainty, no one will come and say what needs to be done.

Much goes against you: ideas turn out to be “raw” and incorrect, deadlines are optimistic, promises are hard to fulfill, and there’s no one to look for new opportunities where everyone except you see a dead end. On the other hand, work in an established company is usually sufficiently defined. Income will come on time before the 10th of each month, even if you have not done the work on time.

I saw how company executives were wrong, and they had nothing to pay wages. The most disgusting situation, in my opinion, which can only arise. And they had to invent something, solve problems, make sales under tremendous pressure. But how good is the market? He is honest, and very quickly breaks fantasies and leads to reality. It does not allow to hover in the clouds and stimulates to do things that are valuable for the work and life of specific people.

I work with a large number of startups, and have never seen in the business plan that the team will work hard for a year, and then close due to lack of money, although statistics predicts just such an outcome. If you ask the team how it happened, you will often get my favorite answer: “Something went wrong.” Business is always when something goes wrong.

About the manual

Phil Libin says that there is a certain myth when people think that if they are the founders and CEO of a company, then they are at the top of the pyramid. It motivates someone, but the reality is not at all like it. Phil notes that in reality, your superiors are becoming everything: all your employees, customers, partners, users, the media — all of them are your superiors.

Do you consider it possible to work as a leading founder of a person who is not quite ready to “report” to everyone around?

You can look at it from the other side. In WoW raids there is a division of team members: the tanks protect the raid from the boss’s attack, the dealers attack the boss and inflict the main damage, the healers restore the team’s strength. The CEO most often is a tank, he protects the team from all the vicissitudes that fall on it and shields employees from unnecessary uncertainties, focuses them on achieving the goal. Well, when a CEO or someone from a team can play the role of a healer, adjusting the microclimate in a team.

The real leaders are the ones that will bring the soup to the developer and think over the system in advance so that the team will not storm.

The point is not so much to whom the CEO reports to, but to the fact that any miscalculation of the team is his miscalculation. He is the chief in extinguishing everything that “burns” in the company.

About the daily routine

Sam Altman continues the logic of Dustin and Phil, saying that the founders do not get anything for trying to do something. You earn points only when you do what the market wants. Many entrepreneurs form a series of small goals, covering all the affairs of the company, which are known to all team members.

How to understand what to focus on every day? What approaches would you suggest?

I like the following idea: the main point in creating some products is to bring people benefit and to do what works. And while earning enough and a little bit more. I know a lot of owners who focus on money. The charter of each company states that the main goal of the company is to make money today and in the future. Here, as in the third "Heroes" : if you want, you do not want it, but you need 10,000 gold to build the capitol. It is important to remember that money is not valuable in itself, it is another resource.

But the main resource of the team is time. The only way to do everything is not to do 80% of the extra work that does not lead to the achievement of goals. So, everyone in the team must know the goals.

Performers in startups need less. Wanted those who see the global picture and understand how to win on their front. There is no time and energy for re-checking activities or for constant disputes and out of sync. Everyone on his site is an independent combat unit. If there is no such understanding, the situation in the “swan, cancer and pike” style is ensured.

Managing by goals, not by tasks is one of the most important skills of the CEO, saving you from micromanagement and allowing you to get a team you can rely on. Great things alone do not do. The next step is to focus the team on the immediate task, giving multiple, significant progress and leading to the achievement of a larger goal.

Every week we start planning with the whole team from the main goal for the next 3-4 months, remember the immediate task on the way to this goal and discuss what needs to be done to achieve it. It is not always easy for the team, there were conversations in the spirit: “You are suggesting that the soldiers begin to plan military operations.” But there is no soldier in the team, there are independent combat units - they need to see the whole picture of the battle and understand how their actions affect the team and common goals.