Instigator Blog

In the movie Jaws, the character Quint has an amazing monologue where he describes how his ship had just delivered a nuclear bomb (that would be used on Hiroshima) only to be torpedoed by Japanese submarines. The ship sank quickly, and eleven hundred men were stranded in the water. And then…the sharks came. Quint goes on to describe how the men formed tight groups in the water to fight off the sharks, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Near the end of the story, Quint says, “I’ll never put on a lifejacket again.”

A couple weeks ago, in a post titled, Living on Loyalty, Trust and Big Ideas, I talked about lifejackets too, although not in so many words. Time to clarify a bit…

“Startup teams can’t succeed without immense amounts of loyalty, trust and faith in big ideas.”

Mat Balez questioned my point about “faith in big ideas”:

“I’m 100% with you on the first two: trust and loyalty - I’m not sure about the big ideas part. Who doesn’t have big ideas? I’d swap that for “unbelievable execution”, because ultimately that’s more important.”

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Getting a startup funded isn’t easy. There’s no shortage of hype, and multiple announcements daily of new companies getting money. And there’s an equal (and growing) amount of chatter about a “new bubble” that we’re entering. Still, raising money is far from a cakewalk.

Most people I’ve spoken to say it takes a solid 4-6 months to raise money. Mark MacLeod, CFO at Mobivox, echoes those thoughts (Mobivox recently raised $11 million dollars.)

Sure, it can happen faster than that. In the hottest startup hubs it might seem like everyone and their brother is getting funded for something. Don’t let that fool you.

You might also think that everyone knows everything about startup funding, but that’s not the case. Recently someone sent in a question asking about the differences between angel and venture financing. With that in mind, I’ve put together a brief, introductory guide to startup funding.

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Most bloggers give their content away for free. It’s what we do. It’s the nature of the beast.

But is it a smart strategy?

Yes and no.

As an attraction strategy to draw an audience in, giving away free content makes complete sense. It’s the carrot at the end of the line. It’s the hook you use to provide additional services or sell additional products.

Wait…you mean you don’t offer anything extra? You’re focused on monetizing with AdSense and Google searches? It’s an obvious strategy, in the sense that everyone’s doing it, it’s relatively easy to setup, and we’ve heard plenty of success stories of people many thousands and thousands of dollars. But does it really make sense? There has to be more right?

There’s an old saying: Those that can, do - those that can’t, teach.

Not anymore.

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Entrepreneurs are leaders. Entrepreneurs are passionate and resolute (sometimes beyond reason!)

We’re stubborn and inquisitive. Curious and determined. Certain we can do better than anyone else.

And so it makes sense: When entrepreneurs turn their attention to the environment, good things happen.

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There are plenty of reasons to work at a startup. But what those reasons fail to address are some of the core principles that drive startup success.

Not everyone is suited to working at a startup. Even if the reasons entice you, it takes a considerable amount of intestinal fortitude. The ride can be rough. And many of us are programmed to believe in an “us versus them” work environment — the relationship between employer and employee has to be at odds, fellow employees can’t be trusted, it’s a “dog eat dog” world.

All of that is true, to a certain extent, but you can’t succeed in a startup with that mentality.

Startup teams can’t succeed without immense amounts of loyalty, trust and faith in big ideas.

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