Jan 1012
You need a road map or you WILL DIE!
I had the privilege of hearing Gabe Zichermann, the CEO of beamME, speak to a group of young entrepreneurs about company road maps. He made a great analogy between starting a company and the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. What Gabe so rightly pointed out that for all intent and purpose both expeditions are death missions. You start with an unproven idea, load up a bunch of supplies (likely the wrong ones, because you are only guessing on what you need), convince some crazy friends to sign on to the voyage and off you go.
Venture capitalists, much like the Spanish Crown of Magellan’s day, are more than willing to share some tidbits of advice, pay for a portion of the voyage and send your behind out in to rough waters to sink or swim. The venture guys are in the business of funding super high risk voyages with hopefully high rewards. Not sailing – that’s all you baby!
What do you need to survive the voyage? You need a road map! So what does that need to have in it?
- Any tools you can get a hold of from experienced explorers – they have documented their path and you can learn from their mistakes, there are a tons of great books, websites, etc.
- Learn everything you can about the waters are setting out into – your competitors and the market forces that may eat you for lunch
- Enough provisions to last 24 months on your journey – enough capital, enough customers, enough energy. By the way since you don’t really know if you are going to make land, don’t worry about what happens in the 25th month you might be dead
- Great navigation skills – your ability to stay focused on the signs of landfall will be your most important asset. Repeatable customers are your land, find those and you will find riches.
- An easy way to know if you are still going the right way. Magellan had a sexton and checked it every night. If nightly is too much, at least check your path monthly. Getting off course will always kill you.
- You will hit rough waters, icebergs and storms – there is no way to avoid them, so be ready. Stay vigilant, practice in your mind how you weather a storm and don’t give up when it comes. Personally believe you have to weather three huge storms before you find land and most people give up the first time it gets really hard.
- Know what land looks like and head towards it as soon as you see it. Dream about repeatable customers and steady cash flow, describe it to friends and develop signs to know you are close. Interestingly enough, some people don’t do this and thus never steer towards it. Repeatable customers are your land, which is where you will find riches.
While the early explorers were braver than most people in their day, they were NOT crazy. They brought with them whatever maps they could gather and a sexton to chart the way. You would be completely insane to set out on the most expensive, most time consuming, and bravest mission you have ever done without a company road map.
Remember, your venture capitalists are likely to let you explore for a while. Sooner or later if you are not heading towards land, they will lose interest in your voyage. Eventually they will not even care if you come back alive.
Do you have a company road map? What does your land look like?
