Every month at StackAdapt I run an Ask Me Anything for new people joining the company. Last month, a question came up – what was the most significant event in the company’s history that defined its trajectory?
There are other questions that frequently and inevitably come up – what competitive advantage does StackAdapt have over its competitors? What unique features does StackAdapt offer? And so on. Interestingly, all these questions are related.
Very few technology companies, if any, have something defensible long-term that requires no building or maintenance. Today, things are changing fast. Never in the history of business have companies become this dominant or obsolete in such short periods of time. Given the rate of change, for most businesses, any perceived competitive advantage from a technology perspective is short-lived. Overindexing on unique features and obsessing over temporary competitive advantage gives a false sense of security.
If you can’t seek comfort in the durability of your offering or product, where does a leader find comfort? In all the uncertainty, when things change so fast, what can one hold onto that’s unshakable, something that can’t be taken away?
I believe the answer is – your mindset and your attitude.
Back to the question we started with – what was the most significant event in the company’s history that defined its trajectory? The answer I gave was when we internalized the idea that “cavalry is not coming.” We also refer to it as part of a broader way of thinking and operating: “The StackAdapt Way” – which essentially means taking ownership of your destiny and doing things the hard way.
How does the mental model of “cavalry is not coming” show up in practice? Let’s look at a few scenarios. Some of these will resonate more or less depending on whether you’re a CEO, leading a team, working at a startup or a large company, but the essence stays the same:
I want to sell my company
I want to raise money from investors
I want to hire X so I don’t have to think about Y
I want to land a big distribution partner to help me win more customers
All I need is to land one massive customer to hit our target
I’ll bring on an investor/advisor/mentor/partner who can “open doors”
All we need to do is go viral
We’ll hire a PR agency to get great press
Once I have a VP of Sales, sales will take off
I’ll have a consultant figure out how to do X
Who hasn’t thought every one of these at least once when building a business! I have, and even now, I still have to pull myself out of this trap sometimes.
Let’s think through each scenario and explore how to bring the power from an external party back to yourself:
“I want to sell my company.” Great companies are bought, not sold. Instead of wishing someone comes and saves you, go write a massive vision that scares even you, and try to build a great business that can stand on its own.
“I need to raise money from investors to grow.” You may need to raise money to grow, but there are other ways too. How would you operate if you could never raise money? Go do that.
“I want to hire X so I don’t have to think about Y”. If you have never done the job, it will be very difficult to know if the candidate is any good. Also, removing yourself fully from many aspects of the business can and often will lead to some bad situations. Become even remotely good at the things you avoid.
“I want to land a big distribution partner to help me win more customers”. Partnerships are so tempting, but vast vast majority look better in a press release than in practice. None is going to care about selling your product more than your team – bet on that.
“All I need is to land one massive customer to get to us to target”. If you don’t have a history of landing clients of specific size, the likelihood of that suddenly happening is very low. Bet on things that work, and do more of those.
“I will bring on investor/advisor/mentor/partner who can “open doors”. I think this value proposition is overblown. Over the last decade we have proven that a cold email can go very far.
“All we need to do is go viral”. Imagine it never happens. How does your strategy change? Do that.
“We’ll hire a PR agency to get great press”. If you have never been able to get at least one great story yourself, a PR agency won’t help.
“Once I have VP Sales, sales will take off”. Work on generating so many leads that VP Sales is coming in to help process them, not figure out how to get them.
“I will have a consultant figure out how to do X or define Y”. If this is related to how you create and distribute value, you need to be the master of how it’s done. Go talk to more customers, and bring them your ideas.
The bottom line is that in business it’s tempting to think that success, salvation, rescue is just around the corner. When things are breaking, when things are scary, it’s so easy to start wishing for cavalry to arrive. The problem is that cavalry is not coming. But! You have what it takes to make it work. Believe and bet on yourself! 💪