Jeshua Soh

Most startups end up spending a bunch of money on two things: hiring and ads (Facebook and Google are always ready to collect VC dollars). Augment staff with remote talent who can not just be more economical but hungry and have better staying power while utilising tools to optimise ad spend can go a long way towards stretching your dollar. Founders shouldn't just run continuously from one funding round to the next, but focus on making the most out of the limited funds they have. This is not just good business sense but protects from over-dilution!

The problem, vision and mission should be clear but the path will never be set in stone for a startup. Given that the company might be pre-PMF, the uncertain macro context or team changes, founders need to be comfortable tearing up the plan and starting again esp. when things are not working out. However, what cannot keep flip flopping is the reason for the company's existence, the big WHY or the change in the world that the startup is trying to create. Everyone needs to be aligned on that but not necessarily agree upon 100% of decisions - the only time 100% agreement is present is in a company of one.

Do a strengths and values assessment for each of your team members and find people who are a fit with the company but yet not carbon copies of each other to avoid group think! This can be through a formal quiz of qualitative observations through the interview process. One man's poison may be another man's meat- don't simply discount folks who have career breaks/switches or unconventional journeys. I've always found it better to work with someone who has a solid attitude, alignment on company's vision/mission/values as well as eagerness to learn over simply being skilled or experienced for the role. No experience can be better than bad experience where one carries the baggage of needing to unlearn before relearning.

Instead of asking WHY, try WHY NOT? Or 'what's the worst that can happen if we try...' because our minds have a natural long term memory for bad incidents and short term memory for positive events. This negativity bias is a survival mechanism as we just need 1% of dangerous situations like a lion lurking around the bush to endanger our lives. However, in modern society, risks are often not as black and white as a lion in the bush. They are nuanced and can be managed, with those who know how to take the right dosage of risk often being able to reap the rewards. It all starts from how we see and perceive/process these opportunities that present themselves. Startups are not for the faint hearted and doing average will lead to average results!

Watch your costs! There are many people clamouring to sell performance marketing campaigns, tools and 'tried and tested' growth hacks, but going back to basics means not just maximising revenue but minimising cost. Consider remote teams which can give you similar results for a fraction of the cost- look beyond the mainstream destinations for doing average will likely result in average. It's not timing the market but time in the market which can more often help startups to stay alive and catch the wave when they find PMF rather than burn too quickly and die before seeing the light.

All success should belong to the team and all failure and responsibility/blame, to management. That way there is no 'competition' or finger pointing for genuine and sincere mistakes and people feel like they can learn from them. The most disempowering thing is saying something to the effect of 'you can decide'/'up to you' and then turning around when things go around and pointing fingers or punishing the individual(s) involved. Conversely, the team will not be motivated to take ownership and exceed expectations if founder(s) bask in the limelight and take all the credit for the hard work that the team puts in. Hoard the faults and share the credits!