Is a Startup a Company, Yet?
A must read if you were planning to start a company.
Back when I was in an accelerator program, we were asked to think about the culture we want to instil in our company. At that point of time, with so much other stuff to work on, and raising funds being the main focus. Those topics were put on the back burner.
Now looking back, I should have given it more thought because as pretentious as the word culture sounds, it is very important. It serves as a constant reminder and guiding principle on what type of personality to hire and clarity of thoughts and accountability of each other.
Before we can arrive to understand how one can think about culture, we must first define what a company is, and what a company is not.
What is a company to me?
A company is the result of a group of people coming together with a common vision. A company has culture, though the culture can be shifted and moulded to different forms, nonetheless, each company has its own DNA.
A company has structures, processes and hierarchies. The reason why a company has those things defined is important. There’s a saying, if everybody is unique, nobody is unique. If everybody is a leader, nobody is a leader, hence hierarchy and reporting lines must be clear, they can be informal, but clear.
Having a product is not a company. Having a tech team is not a company. Having a sales team is not a company. Having a product, with committed teams working with other business units, with proper processes in place for all departments, clear goals and growth plans and long term visions is a company.
There will be many challenges to create a culture in the early days of your startup, even with full autonomy and low headcount. A startup has limited resources and constantly racing against time, there will be tons of compromise you, as founder, would have to make when hiring talents. Even with the mantra of “hire fast, fire fast”, you certainly do not want a revolving door of employees.
Most employees when they join a company, as messy as some things might look, there is already a prerequisite. Somebody before them took the time and effort to lay the foundation — as shaky as it might be — at least it is standing on shaky concrete and not a muddy ground.
Is a startup a company?
A startup is a business proving it found product market fit. A startup is not a company yet but the end goal is to become one.
Building from 1 to 100 is not the same as building from 0 to 1. First one through the wall always gets a bloody nose. And all founders should get a bloody nose.
Running a company is difficult, building a company from scratch is almost insurmountable. The task of building a company is so challenging that I do not believe anybody can do it part time.
As a founder, you should not be distracted and constantly focus on the vision. If you truly believe you are solving a problem, have a great vision and want to build a company, you will only have that in mind, and that itself will have enough challenges to keep you busy.
I am not giving advice, I am just sharing from my past experience and opinion, which I hope can help somebody else form their own views, internalise it and infer meaning from it.
