Nesheim Online

WHAT REAL CEOS AND VENTURE CAPITALISTS SAY ABOUT STARTUPS: Richard Branson on the "thin line between survival and success"

This week I thought you'd enjoy a few comments from real entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

I'll start today with Richard Branson, famous for establishing the brand Virgin. Of all the celebrity CEOs I have studied, he has the most fun with his businesses.

At a recent conference for entrepreneurs in Marina del Rey, California run by PerfectBusiness.com, Branson said the following:

"There's a very thin line between survival and success. Staying on the right side of that line is critical, and cash is king."

He ought to know. He's been on the brink of bankruptcy multiple times since he started his first business at the age of 16.

Here are my takeaways for you to think about:

• Like children, startups are fragile. Most cannot survive hard blows. On the first flight of his first aircraft of Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984, without any passengers, (the flight required to certify the aircraft), a flock of birds flew into and destroyed one of the jet engines. His banker refused to lend the money to replace the engine. Branson raced into action, contacted  every business person he knew. Three days later a new banker lent him the needed money. It was a close call. The years following contained numerous blows. At first Virgin Atlantic survived, yet with the skills of Branson, it emerged as a world-class success.
• Entrepreneurs see success beckoning just on the other side of the line of survival. It calls in the night to propel founders in trouble. It generates a powerful call to leap into action in times of deep trouble. It is a call that the entrepreneur always believes in. That is why startup founders are so optimistic. They believe in the impossible, they believe they can find a way through the moments of disaster. That is great. That is dangerous. It motivates with enormous energy. But it may be unwise (time to close the doors and find a better business idea). In either case, the entrepreneur always hears success calling on the other side of the dark river of deep troubles. It seems to be in his genes.
• Wisdom and experience keep entrepreneurs on the right side of the line dividing success from survival. Here is where the serial entrepreneur, have an unfair advantage. They have learned what strategic and operational moves are wise and foolish. They are confident in the people they will hire, based on years of experience. Marketing is one of their great skill sets. Managing people is another ace asset. The first timer has to learn these skills by doing them. The unskilled can benefit from the experiences of people on the board  of directors, and from mentors and counselors. Such borrowed wisdom when combined with a few breaks can lead to success. 
• Entrepreneurs manage cash. It is the measure of health for their startup. It is what fuels the business. Yes, they can read a balance sheet and income statement. They understand the meaning and purpose of a forecast of financial statements. They understand how the cash does flow in their business model. They can explain all of that to anyone, without needing to display the Excel model they have memorized. It all rolls up to a lifetime of managing cash as it comes in and goes out of the new enterprise. That is not delegated. It is done by the CEO. If you cannot, it's time to pause and learn how.

BOTTOM LINE: Branson is wise, he respects the thin line between survival and success. Surviving is no fun.  It grinds people down. If you are there and have been for years, consider packing it in and moving on. Success is a better way to live your life. To find what it takes for success, I advise you to spend time studying and listening to some of the great entrepreneurs. Then discount the high degree of distortion the media puts on what they write about the greats. Find yourself a great local mentor who has been in business for years. Spend time with that person. Discuss what you read said about the great entrepreneurs. Then make up your mind about what you would do when walking the thin line between survival and success. When you can do that, you'll be well on your way to building an unfair competitive advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure.

STARTUP TIP OF THE WEEK: Use weekends to refresh and regain perspective

• Are you going to work a full weekend (again)?
• Do you have time this Saturday and Sunday (calendar blocked) for chatting with friends?
• How much exercise are you going to do (after lunch and dinner) Saturday and Sunday?
• What great book are you reading over the weekend?

If you are giving negative responses to those questions, think about why serial entrepreneurs do not.

The veterans of startups have learned to use at least one day of the week for a special task: refreshing body and mind, and regaining perspective.

Why? Because they have learned in the school of hard to do startups that much of the winning is because they were able to be more creative and have more endurance than their competitors. Their insights were sharper and they made wiser decisions. They kept the battles in perspective and won the big war.

For first time entrepreneurs and for workaholics, this may sound counter productive. They think the person who works the hardest wins. But that's not true. Ask the serial entrepreneurs. It takes hard work, yes, lots of it. But the winning startups are lead by people who are fresh and keep life in perspective.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't waste a weekend working hard. Instead, use it to refresh and regain your perspective. That will enrich you in many ways, keep you ahead of your competition and make you a lot more fun to work with. When you learn to do this, you can use it to build a part of your unfair advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

I Can't Get Seed Money for My Startup Idea, What's Wrong?: What startup CEOs can do about it

Weekly I get contacted by frustrated individuals who can't get money to start their new enterprises. I sympathize with them, it is very disappointing.

Their complaints form a pattern that you also may have experienced:

• I talk to seed round investors and when I finish they tell me they are not investing at this time in seed rounds.
• They tell me to keep them informed about my progress and then they lead me to the exit.
• No matter what I say they do not invest.
• I have this great idea but no investor wants to put money into it.

That is common.

It may surprise you, but it happens in boom times as well as recessions! I've watched it for decades. It is always with us.

Here are some reasons the budding entrepreneur discuss when we talk about why they are not getting the money:

• My presentation skills need some polish.
• If I found the right investor he would eagerly give me the money.
• Maybe I need to build a prototype to get the money.
• I asked for too much money.
• I asked for too little money.
  
• The recession keeps the investors from acting.

Those are frequently noted as why the money is not forthcoming.

But I think they are off target.

These are the reasons startup founders do not get seed round financing:

• Management is missing. Most of the sad founders are solo operators, commonly a lone engineer.
• The business plan is incomplete. It consists of one page in Word and forty PowerPoint slides, mostly about the features of the product/service and the technology details.
• Marketing skills and buzz attraction planning are missing.
• A plan for out-maneuvering the competition is missing (strategy).
• The business model consists of a guess and a hope (e.g. advertising will come).
• Forecast of the financial statements is missing.
• The basic idea is not amazingly different, instead it is only 'better, faster, cheaper" than existing products/services.
• Most of all, the idea does not display power in its competitive advantage, i.e. it is missing an unfair advantage.

Serial entrepreneurs who are famous do not take an idea to investors that they thought up in the shower that morning . Instead they use an initial idea to fill out a business plan that is well prepared. They respect that even they, the famous and successful and experienced, will only get one shot at the investor with the idea as presented. If ill prepared, they expect to get the dreaded response "Keep us informed of your progress." No investor says "Go away" because they might be missing out on the next Google after you get your act together.

There are times when you do need to prove the worth of your idea to investors. That requires you to fund the seed round with your savings. It is commonly required of startups lacking an experienced CEO and of ideas that are radically different and bold in their confidence of outlandish future success.

BOTTOM LINE: So do as the Boy Scout motto says it: "Be prepared." Serial entrepreneurs respect the value of doing the hard work prior to contacting investors. They do not seek money to get a business plan prepared. That they expect to do with their own time, paid for by their savings. Naive first time entrepreneurs that do the same will greatly increase their chances of getting seed funding. Remember that every investor is eager to spot the next great startup before competing investors do. So work on the suggestions above and aim at converting your idea into a business plan that comes across to investors with the power of an unfair advantage. That's how you get your seed money.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

WORDS THAT ARE DAMNATION TO STARTUPS: Better

"Better" is a killer word for startups.

That word has such negative implications that startup leaders should delete it from their vocabulary.

If that is all you have to offer investors, employees, bloggers and customers, please go no further. Save yourself the agony of learning the hard way. End it all now (your idea, not yourself!).

Here is what better means for a startup:

• No better than another startup idea that is better.
• A small percentage more, nothing greater than that.
• Vulnerable to being leapfrogged by the same idea done by a different startup.
• Easily out-maneuvered by competitors who are quicker, faster, cheaper.
• Vaguely more valuable to customers.
• Lacks crisp superiority.
• Unable to respond to breakthrough solutions leaping onto a bold, new market.
• Feels like a warm, fuzzy blanket of comfort.
• Says the founders are safe minded, risk-reducing seekers.
• Boring.

The last is the worst. Boring means none of the stakeholders will get excited enough to go into action (invest, accept job offer, buy the product/service, blog about it).

If your idea is better, you have to drop it or use it in a breakthrough way to solve a huge problem. That is tough, time-consuming work. But well worth it.

BOTTOM LINE: Better is for small businesses in local communities. It works fine for them if they can also figure out how to stand out in an intensely competitive market. But for people (like you, hopefully) who want to convert an idea into a world-class, barn burning, rocket that make people watch in awe, better is a killer. When you understand this, you'll have insight that could lead you to move to greatness that amazes the world. That will be part of your unfair competitive advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

BLOWS TO STARTUPS TRIGGER WINNERS: Adversity (2nd in a series)

Monday I decided to begin a series on what impacts new enterprises so hard that such events strikes blows to people like you who are leading startups.

My decision to discuss the series was triggered by an event I attended this past weekend. Ina conference center among the coastal redwood mountains near my home, I listened to a group of men share how they had coped with adversity in their lives. Each had a very personal story that we listened to. We benefited from the adverse experiences of other men. This was part of a weekend retreat sponsored by the church I belong to. We focused on testing how we had applied the advice of Jesus to troubling events in our lives. Then we told what had happened.

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Today let's talk about people blows. The kind of thing that happens because of the people working on your startup.

• Main technical leader cannot deliver the great thing. It may shock you, but now it has become clear to you. After nearly a year of "Just one more month . . . " you realize the lead technologist is not able to deliver the great thing everyone in the company has been dreaming of, working so hard on.
  
  ACTION = Terminate that person from those responsibilities. Do not prolong the agony. Get it over with. End it. Now. Be tough minded (not tough nosed). Deliver a solution (replace the person immediately). The tech leader may be a co-founder and -- if possible -- you'll be wise to keep him in the company. He will continue to keep the spirit of the startup burning brightly. This is a tough call, but you have to make it, right now.
• Business development leader brings more promises than deals. And another report from the head of biz dev says "We did not close the deal with XYZ Corp." You feel like you've been punched in the gut, you are writhing on the floor in agony. Sales have to happen. Deals have to be done. Startups cannot wait. Neither can you.
  
  ACTION: Terminate the person, replace him immediately. Rally any other biz dev people. Keep selling and deal making alive. Do it yourself for a while. It's the life blood of the startup.
• Media continue to ignore your startup, favor others. Your person in charge of marketing communications brings you yet another report: nothing significant written or spoken about your startup during yet another week. You are reading more on Techcrunch about others than your startup. Bloggers can't find you and don't care. Reporters interview and promise stories, but they don't happen as promised or at all. Spreading the word ("PR") is vital to a new enterprise.
  
  ACTION = Your Marketing leader does not have the skills to position (psychologically) your startup in the minds of the media people. Is this your problem (you are a naive, stubborn old bull) or the marketing leadership's headache (who chose poor messaging)? Get help from outside (neutral) experts. Figure out why your startup is not newsworthy. This is very serious. It could kill your startup. Wrong positioning is poison that works very fast to destroy weak new enterprises. You may end up changing your marketing message, or PR firm, but serial entrepreneurs are more likely to end up terminating existing marketing people and replacing them.
• Next round of financing fails. You hear on the phone the lead investor say "We'll pass on this round." You hang up. It is over. The last in a long list of investors contacted over the year has said no. Your lead VC says everyone on the board says "No more cash from us." End of rope. Cash is gone, in fact you are bridging with existing investors for the third month. You feel everyone in the startup has let you down, from the board of directors to the nightly maintenance crew.
  
  ACTION = Reality arrives at last: no one wants to invest further in your enterprise. Now you have no other alternative left for funding growth. The assets have to be sold (by the investors on the board of directors, not you.). Too late to sell the company with its fine employees and existing (few) customers. Oh the pain! But serial entrepreneurs know that such times come, even to the finest, most experienced. Now is the time for you to show how your character behaves during the darkest of days: shutting down a new enterprise. And while it is happening, keep notes in your daily journal "What I'll Do (Differently) With My Next Startup". Welcome to the club!

How will you cope with such people blows? Are you prepared and able (psychologically) to sustain the blows, to manage through the pain and depressed days? Take a look at my blog yesterday on adversity for a few tips on how to do that. In a nutshell, you'll need a bit of training to prepare (in the school of hard knocks = rotten things happened to you), and you'll need help to keep your spirit up through it all (family, friends, mentor, counselor, religious leader). That's why veteran VCs want to hear -- from you -- all your war stories, the times when all went dark and how you coped, got through it all, learned lessons of life. Such days are always going to happen to startups and their people.

BOTTOM LINE: People get startups into trouble. People have to get the new enterprise out of the messes they have to cope with. Your job is to keep the right ones in key positions of leading employees out of the swamp filled with alligators. It will be a hard test of your character and guts and determination, as well as a challenge to your realism. When you have such skills, you will be top on the list of people the great venture capitalists want to finance, and on the list of people employees want to work for in their next startup. It will be part of your unfair advantage.

I wish you The Best on your great Adventure!

STARTUP TIP OF THE WEEK: You have to give your people hope

Hope is a must for startup employees. They have to have hope to motivate them to continue their creative hard work. When they lose hope, you will lose them.

I had a recent discussion with a serial entrepreneur about what to do when employees sense a startup is drifting sideways. She had past experience with good people leaving when that happened.

Over the past two years I have had similar discussions with very smart CEOs of startups. So she is not alone, nor are you if you are facing this situation.

My experience is that when this happens, the CEO is then confronted by the company culture with a decision: to continue on as is, or decide to work together in a fresh way to find something that moves the startup from a destiny as a small, dull, private business into a growing, exciting startup that can go IPO within five years.

That inflection point may not be obvious to the CEO, especially not to the enthusiastic founder.

But it is an inflection point that demands a decision. Employees agree. So do investors.</p><p>It is also an opportunity for you to think out of the box, to consider your alternatives.

It is also a time for you to be bold in your thinking.

It may save your company. Without the good employees, you are going to find it harder and harder to lift the business out of its dull sideways movement.

So let me give you some things to dwell on, to discuss with your leaders, your core team, perhaps at an off site location where you will have a fresh perspective on the business:

• Sift your market: Can you think of fresh markets to apply your idea/service/product/technology to? These would be rising, large markets that are open for you to enter in which you can pick a segment to dominate. This would most likely be a related market, but could be a radically different one. Example: the late arriving Japanese facsimile manufacturers moved from police and defense contractors (small but fat profits, dominated by American companies) to consumers (sending hand drawn directions to get people from one place to another in confusing Japanese roads and cities).
• Change business model: Are you offering a product? Consider offering a service instead. Example: Software.com set the example for moving from selling software to renting it and morphed into creation of a new category, software as a service, SaaS.
• Jump on a solution for a big problem in a hot rising wave: Can you solve a big problem for social networking? Or how about video content delivered over the Internet? How about smart energy grid solutions? Those are a few of the tsunamis we are experiencing. You can ride the energy of one of them and not have to push so hard to get your current market started. Example: My Space leapfrogged pioneer Friendster and then Facebook leapfrogged My Space. Each of the leapfrogging companies won huge market share of huge, different market segments.

Gather your key employees and listen to them. It is not a time to talk or lead. Make notes. Do not interrupt. Use a facilitator, a neutral person. Get the people involved with the idea generation and you will start to grow their hope for a better tomorrow. I bet you will be amazed at how much you hear in fresh ideas.

The hard part for you will be to make a decision that moves your startup in a radically different direction. That is why it is so important for you to have objective friends and mentors and advisors who can be frank with you about what you are thinking and how you are behaving. They can give you perspective and wisdom that may sting and hurt a bit, but it can give you what you need to make a critical decision when you find your employees losing hope.

BOTTOM LINE: All your employees need hope in the outcome of your startup. So do your investors. It is more than hanging on and surviving. It is about how to make a critical decision to alter the business so it can move from dull to exciting, from moving sideways to growth. That is what CEOs are hired to do, even if you are the founder CEO. Letting go can be very frightening. But dropping the dream and moving on realistically can save not only the business and your job, but also can give your people hope once again. That is key to building your unfair competitive advantage.

I wish you a great weekend and The Best on your Adventure!

LEARN FROM AN ANCIENT STARTUP: How Josiah Wedgewood overcame amputation to form and market a ceramics giant. (3rd in a series)

He hurdled poverty, illness and class barriers to become one of the world’s foremost makers of fine ceramics and a renowned entrepreneur, pioneering many of the sales and marketing techniques taken for granted today. (Source: Investor’s Business Daily, 2009 September 18)

CONSTANT INNOVATION

"Even rarity soon grows stale'" said Wedgewood. So he picked up on growing fascination among the aristocracy for Greek and Roman antiquities, producing "jasperware" which typically depicts classical scenes, painted white against a blue background.

BRANDING

He put his name on every item he made, becoming what business historians say is the grandfather of modern branding.

GUARANTEES AND COMMISSIONS

Wedgewood was the first manufacturer known to have offered money-back guarantees and free shipping, and his salespeople were the first to be paid on commission,

RETAIL OUTLETS AND SAMPLES

He created well-lit showrooms in London where customers could touch his wares. That was an early version of modern "experiential retailing." He gave away china to the aristocracy, imparting a cachet to his products that attracted buyers from the emerging middle class. This created value added and a reason to pay more for it than other china.

MANUFACTURING MANAGEMENT METHODS

Wedgwood built on of the first factories to employ "division of labor" techniques being developed by Adam Smith. He used a time clock and campaigned to improve roads and canals to transport goods more efficiently.

LABOR FORCE RETENTION

He developed, motivated and retained skilled workers by building homes for them and providing training, medical care and a pension.

HIRING COMPETENT MANAGERS

Wedgewood hired the best managers he could find. He trusted them to manage while he embarked on one of his many sales and marketing trips.

EGO MANAGEMENT

Biographers wrote he was not encumbered by and ego that blows up like and air bag. He acknowledged what he could and could not do. He hired competent people to do the latter.

WEALTH

Upon his death, Wedgwood was worth the equivalent of today of $100 million.

LESSONS FOR MODERN ENTREPRENEURS

• Note the many additional things Wedgewood added to his original idea.
• He used each to build an unfair competitive advantage.
• That produced an enduring gorilla: the business is still is in operation today.

Tip of the week tomorrow.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

LEARN FROM WISDOM OF AN ANCIENT STARTUP: How Josiah Wedgewood overcame poverty to form and market a ceramics giant. (2nd in a series)

I thought it would be fun for you to read a true story about an amazing entrepreneur. He hurdled poverty, illness and class barriers to become one of the world’s foremost makers of fine ceramics and a renowned entrepreneur, pioneering many of the sales and marketing techniques taken for granted today. (Source: Investor’s Business Daily, 2009 September 18)

CONSTANT EXPLORATION

Wedgewood constantly explored materials and techniques. It was inspired by his Unitarian minister grandfather who preached that knowledge based on reason, experience and experiment was preferable to dogma.

Josiah also followed the Unitarian code that wealth should enrich society,not just the individual. That was a confrontation with the views of the established society of the time, but was gaining in popularity with leaders challenging the established order.

CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE

Wedgwood's religious and political views led him to Thomas Bently, the worldly Liverpool merchant. Bently helped Wedgwood the potter enter aristocratic society, and the two men stayed business partners.

INVENTIONS

By the early 1700s, Wedgwood's experiments had yielded a creamy look that resembled porcelain and attracted the nobility's interest. The ivory-white, smoothly glazed surface was decorative and strikingly different from common brown wares locally produced.

Orders poured in. Author Brian Dolan, of "Wedgwood: The First Tycoon," wrote "nothing excited aristocrats more than the early hint of a new trend." Britain's Queen Charlotte ordered a creamware tea set in 1765. She was so happy about it that she commanded that it be called Queen's Ware and dubbed Wedgwood "her majesty's potter."

MARKETING

In a bold marketing move, Wedgwood trumpeted his new title in a newspaper advertisement.

In 1773, Russia's Catherin the Great ordered a massive dinner set for use on state occasions. It is now part of Russia's Heritage Museum's collections. More to feed the growing fire of publicity.

LESSONS FOR MODERN STARTUP LEADERS:

• Constant innovative thinking marks great entrepreneurs, they never stop such thinking.
• Deep spiritual values are the foundation for motivation of the great startup kings and queens.
• People connections of the highest commitment come from shared values and lead to friendships.
• Door opening comes through friends connected with the other side.
• Distinctly different marks the great winning startups and their products/services.
• Very hot sales marks the startup which is "first to get it right" with a new family of products that triggers a wild purchasing wave.
• Great products attract great customers who spread the word (for free) to other great customers.
• Public relations makes a startup stand out and makes it very difficulty for competitors to say "Me too!"
• Gorilla power arrives as sales grow and grow, from great customer after great customer, and everyone spreads the word on the exciting new product and its company.

More tomorrow about what Wedgwood do to remain in the lead and how he pioneered modern branding techniques.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

LEARN FROM WISDOM OF AN ANCIENT STARTUP: How Josiah Wedgewood overcame poverty to form and market a ceramics giant. (1st in a series)

i thought it would be fun for you to read a true story about an amazing entrepreneur. He hurdled poverty, illness and class barriers to become one of the world’s foremost makers of fine ceramics and a renowned entrepreneur, pioneering many of the sales and marketing techniques taken for granted today. (Source: Investor’s Business Daily, 2009 September 18)

BORN INTO POVERTY

Josiah Wedgwood grew up the 12^th child of a struggling pottery maker in a damp thatched-roofed cottage north of London. A bout of smallpox weakened one leg so much it had to be amputated. No longer could he turn the wheel to shape pottery for sale. As the youngest he had no claim on the family business. He would have to make do on his own.

USED HIS BRAINS

Wedgwood (1730-95) knew he would have to use his mind rather than his hands to be successful. And he did exactly that. Over the next 50 years, he produced some of the world’s finest ceramics while pioneering many of the sales, marketing and manufacturing techniques used today.

GOING IT ALONE

He started as an apprentice to his eldest brother, Timothy who had taken over the family’s pottery business after the death of the father in 1739. Later he worked for Thomas Whieldon, the best known English pottery maker of that era, before striking out on his own. I’ll expand on that innovative side of Josiah in tomorrow’s  blog.

SPURRED TO INNOVATE

Josiah had bigger ideas than churning out the same dull, porous earthenware common at the time. He was fed by boundless curiosity, a desire to improve his products and an ability to forge connections with people who could help promote his business.

LESSONS FOR MODERN STARTUP LEADERS

Here are some things from Josiah Wedgwood’s life for you to think about applying to your startup:

·         Adversity stimulates entrepreneurs, does not discourage them.

·         Losses are turned into winnings by entrepreneurial minds.

·         Relying on oneself is typical of startup leaders.

·         Brains triumph over brawn when creating fresh businesses that win.

·         Learning from a great boss in a great company is seen as a precursor to doing a great startup.

·         Boundless curiosity is one characteristic of great entrepreneurial minds.

I’ll expand on that innovative side of Josiah in tomorrow’s  blog.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

STARTUPS ARE LIKE FLY FISHING: To succeed you need lots of creativity and agility

I'm back from the high Sierra Mountains at Yosemite National Park in California. Reflecting on the week, I again concluded that fly fishing is like doing a startup: to succeed you need a lot of creativity and agility.

Here is how it all happened:

• My fishing buddy and I arrived at our camping spot to find record high 92F temperature, fish sleeping, sky blue, windless. Set up tents, cooked a never-to-be-forgotten dinner of smoked wild Norwegian salmon penne pasta (part of the secret is in the vodka, whipping cream, and fresh dill). Talked until sunset, skipped fishing in the hot weather, hoped for the weatherman to be right: cold front moving in tomorrow as the jet stream drops south from Canada.
• • STARTUPS expect one situation and adapt to what they find when they arrive (at the next stage in their march to create an enduring business).
• Woke to weather dropping 20F overnight, skies cloudy, wind picking up. Decided to fill backpacks, string fishing rods, make lunch and start hiking up the river. Expected that the cooler weather will make the fish hungry, biting, eager to play.
• • STARTUPS act on an adjusted plan, expecting the best.
• Fishing was good though not great during the morning, as expected. Small fish, but fun to catch and release. But by 11:00 a.m. the rain started. Half an hour later the sleet started. By i:00 p.m. the snow started. Wind began to howl. We got very cold, hiked back to my Jeep, got colder, and finally arrived and turned on the Jeep's high temp heater to recover.
• • STARTUPS encounter adversity, face reality, give up on pushing harder, return to home base, hunker down and re-think the plan.
• Returned to camp, did another great dinner, early, as the temperatures headed toward freezing. Started adding extra clothing, built a hot camp fire to warm up, finished the Norwegian salmon and aquavit. Discussed possibilities for fishing in the morning, agreed on three. Will decide over coffee at breakfast. Headed to bed as the sun went down. Kept all clothing on as we climbed into our sleeping bags.
• • STARTUPS agree on another set of modified courses of action, gather scarce resources, get some sleep and agree to make a decision in the morning after thinking it over a bit longer.
• Woke to 28F temperature, ice frozen in the dish washing basin, blue skies, no wind. Put on fleece cap and gloves to make hot coffee. Finger tips went numb. My fishing buddy and I decided to break camp, fish an alternative river an hours drive down the mountain and return early to home. We remained positive and continued to enjoy our time together and the beauty of our surroundings.
• • STARTUP leaders choose sharply different plans when the prior one and its modifications do not work well. They remain optimistic and hopeful. They continue to enjoy what they are doing and look forward to more time working together.
• Arrived at the alternative river to find sun, clear skies, no wind and 65F temperatures. Started fishing, soon caught a few eager smaller fish, and began to change flies, experimenting to find the patterns that attracted the larger fish. As the day progressed and we moved down the river to the toughest fly fishing section, our fly selections became more and more effective. We caught more and more fish, larger and larger sized. They were strong, healthy, beautiful in coloring. We took photos and released all of them. At 3:00 p.m. my buddy hooked a huge trophy sized rainbow trout, fought it until it succeeded in wrapping the skinny line (tippet) downstream, around a rock and broke off. It was amazing! What a great day!
• • STARTUP leaders execute revised plans creatively, with determination and patience, executed with agility. When they get it right, the success is amazing!
• We stored our rods and drove to Mariposa to eat in our favorite restaurant, The Mining Cafe. Ordered the Senior Specials, laughed and talked about our experiences on this trip. Agreed on things learned and what we will do differently next time.
• • STARTUPs celebrate success. And they reflect and learn from it. Then they move on, ready for the next chapter in the company's long term march to victory.
• The weather report for the next day said it snowed two feet that night in our campground. We had made the best decision.

BOTTOM LINE: Startup leaders that are creative and agile win. They triumph over competitors who stubbornly stick to an original plan, or don't have a plan. They learn from every change, encounter the unexpected with realism, and decide on every turn in the trail. It is how they build a winning startup, one that endures, that grows its competitive advantage day after day until the competition complains it is unfair. You can do it too.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

I'm back from the high Sierra Mountains at Yosemite National Park in California. Reflecting on the week, I again concluded that fly fishing is like doing a startup: to succeed you need a lot of creativity and agility.

Here is how it all happened:

• My fishing buddy and I arrived at our camping spot to find record high 92F temperature, fish sleeping, sky blue, windless. Set up tents, cooked a never-to-be-forgotten dinner of smoked wild Norwegian salmon penne pasta (part of the secret is in the vodka, whipping cream, and fresh dill). Talked until sunset, skipped fishing in the hot weather, hoped for the weatherman to be right: cold front moving in tomorrow as the jet stream drops south from Canada.
• • STARTUPS expect one situation and adapt to what they find when they arrive (at the next stage in their march to create an enduring business).
• Woke to weather dropping 20F overnight, skies cloudy, wind picking up. Decided to fill backpacks, string fishing rods, make lunch and start hiking up the river. Expected that the cooler weather will make the fish hungry, biting, eager to play.
• • STARTUPS act on an adjusted plan, expecting the best.
• Fishing was good though not great during the morning, as expected. Small fish, but fun to catch and release. But by 11:00 a.m. the rain started. Half an hour later the sleet started. By i:00 p.m. the snow started. Wind began to howl. We got very cold, hiked back to my Jeep, got colder, and finally arrived and turned on the Jeep's high temp heater to recover.
• • STARTUPS encounter adversity, face reality, give up on pushing harder, return to home base, hunker down and re-think the plan.
• Returned to camp, did another great dinner, early, as the temperatures headed toward freezing. Started adding extra clothing, built a hot camp fire to warm up, finished the Norwegian salmon and aquavit. Discussed possibilities for fishing in the morning, agreed on three. Will decide over coffee at breakfast. Headed to bed as the sun went down. Kept all clothing on as we climbed into our sleeping bags.
• • STARTUPS agree on another set of modified courses of action, gather scarce resources, get some sleep and agree to make a decision in the morning after thinking it over a bit longer.
• Woke to 28F temperature, ice frozen in the dish washing basin, blue skies, no wind. Put on fleece cap and gloves to make hot coffee. Finger tips went numb. My fishing buddy and I decided to break camp, fish an alternative river an hours drive down the mountain and return early to home. We remained positive and continued to enjoy our time together and the beauty of our surroundings.
• • STARTUP leaders choose sharply different plans when the prior one and its modifications do not work well. They remain optimistic and hopeful. They continue to enjoy what they are doing and look forward to more time working together.
• Arrived at the alternative river to find sun, clear skies, no wind and 65F temperatures. Started fishing, soon caught a few eager smaller fish, and began to change flies, experimenting to find the patterns that attracted the larger fish. As the day progressed and we moved down the river to the toughest fly fishing section, our fly selections became more and more effective. We caught more and more fish, larger and larger sized. They were strong, healthy, beautiful in coloring. We took photos and released all of them. At 3:00 p.m. my buddy hooked a huge trophy sized rainbow trout, fought it until it succeeded in wrapping the skinny line (tippet) downstream, around a rock and broke off. It was amazing! What a great day!
• • STARTUP leaders execute revised plans creatively, with determination and patience, executed with agility. When they get it right, the success is amazing!
• We stored our rods and drove to Mariposa to eat in our favorite restaurant, The Mining Cafe. Ordered the Senior Specials, laughed and talked about our experiences on this trip. Agreed on things learned and what we will do differently next time.
• • STARTUPs celebrate success. And they reflect and learn from it. Then they move on, ready for the next chapter in the company's long term march to victory.
• The weather report for the next day said it snowed two feet that night in our campground. We had made the best decision.

BOTTOM LINE: Startup leaders that are creative and agile win. They triumph over competitors who stubbornly stick to an original plan, or don't have a plan. They learn from every change, encounter the unexpected with realism, and decide on every turn in the trail. It is how they build a winning startup, one that endures, that grows its competitive advantage day after day until the competition complains it is unfair. You can do it too.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!