I’ve been spending time lately with two startups helping them get clarity on their business strategy. One is growing organically selling a hardware adapter for signal processing and the other is venture backed in the telecomm services space. In both cases (and in my experience, most of the time) I find it’s not about “what to do”, it’s about what to “stop doing”.
Often I find the winning strategy is usually buried underneath the rubble. What is “the rubble”? It’s the daily priorities that the company is pursuing. Startups buried in the rubble typically have traits like this:
- Discussion of customers includes a mix of end-users, OEMs, corporate accounts, and licensing deals.
- A long list of product features, all top priority, because of the multiple customer requirements.
- The team is spread across multiple market opportunities and putting equal emphasis on them all.
- The startup typically cannot define its single point of difference/competitive edge, because each customer wants something different.
If this sounds like you, then you’re not alone. It’s natural that we get excited by all the possibilities in front of us and want to pursue them – but if you try to do everything all at once, it will lead to confusion, frustration, and stalled growth. I recommend focusing on a different core strategy to address each stage of growth.
Most startups have this winning core strategy inside them, but it’s buried. Startups tell me all the time “we’re already doing that”, but what they fail to realize is that it’s lost inside everything else and not coming through clearly.
Get your core strategy pulled out – make choices and set priorities. Then communicate this in plain simple language – to your team, to investors, and to customers. Assess all other “distractions” against the value it brings to the core strategy.
Customers and investors like to see discipline and focus. Make it easy for them to say yes!
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