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When I started my first company 15 years ago, I didn’t know who Steve Jobs was, what Silicon Valley was, or that an early-stage business run by naive optimists was called a “startup.” My current co-founders were the ones who brought me into the company. We were part of an ecosystem where we were taught that “new markets” and “disruption” were the foundations of innovation. It took a journey through venture capital hell to dispel these misconceptions.
To understand what I mean, think of a magic trick: The magician holds up a deck of playing cards and asks you to name a card in the deck. You say the Ace of Spades. The magician shuffles the deck, there is a moment of silence, and then he asks you to reach into your pocket. You pull out the Ace of Spades.
You may have some idea of ​​how this trick works, but you don’t know for sure, and you probably don’t even care. You’re just amazed and pleased with the result. That satisfaction comes from months of refining an age-old method to reduce the error rate and perfect the result. That’s the real magic.
Innovation in business is rarely technical discovery, but rather innovation in process. Great companies build products that make this innovation a given. I call this “boring magic.”
In the world 75% of startups failI learned that if I get excited about the boring stuff, I can build better products, run a more stable business, and innovate more reliably.
These are the areas of your business, the boring bits of magic that will help drive your long-term success as a founder.
Related: Define your short-term goals with these three elements for long-term success
1. Getting obsessed with boring problems
Living in New York City, I’m reminded daily of the incredible feat of human engineering. On the Brooklyn Bridge, a puzzle of steel and stone, cars carry thousands of people from island to island. I am transfixed by the bridge’s columns, A person who makes bridge bearings He is the true innovator behind the bridge design.
I think it’s helpful to think of software as a bridge. As new foundational technologies like AI emerge and become widely available, few operators have the discipline to think practically about how they can improve the experience of those who use them. While you should definitely think about how your company uses off-the-shelf AI tools, my recommendation is to use AI like a bridge pillar, rather than making it a product. Here’s an example:
Many businesses, at some point, need to ingest data from various sources and transform that data into a specific format. Large Language Models (LLMs) are an operational goldmine for this. Forget AI; LLMs are great at ingesting data and transforming that information into a format for your design. This process is called data normalization. What previously took months, with LLMs, now takes seconds and fewer engineering resources.
Most people probably won’t be too impressed with data normalization, but they will be impressed with how product optimization reduces burn rate and acquires a ton of new customers.
2. Thinking big can be boring
One of the biggest mistakes I see founders make is designing their business as if it’s already successful. They overinvest in management before there’s market traction, overinvest in product features no one knows exist, or even worse, overinvest in perks like giveaways and free meals because they’re so caught up in the “startup” life.
If you overinvest and are unable to run your business in a healthy manner, you will end up regretting it.
Before you decide to launch a new product, you need to do three things:
- your Cash Balance.
- Create a budget to determine how much time and money you can spend on building a new product.
- Then, create your product strategy based on those decisions.
It’s amazing how many businesses don’t have an answer to the question, “What’s your budget?” or don’t know the basics of budgeting. And even if they do, they usually don’t think beyond the initial investment money they received. Creating a long-term budget requires factoring in ongoing product maintenance and forecasting costs depending on the scale of your service.
All of these decisions have a huge impact on who you can hire, how you build your team, and how quickly you can move as a result. Focusing on how much money it takes to not just develop your product, but to build a business around it will pay off in the end for your customers and your bank account.
Related: How to Organize and Build Your Team for Long-Term Success
3. Invest in your people. They are your magic.
A year into our first business, the other founders and I realized that our pipeline couldn’t cover the next month’s staff salaries. We assumed the next project was always just around the corner and didn’t model turnover. But when you’re responsible for making sure people can feed themselves and their families, this is a big wake-up call. We decided that founders wouldn’t take a salary for two months. We paid our employees and got back on track.
This is the foundation of every culture I’ve built as a leader. We never take a month’s revenue for granted. We never take people for granted. We deeply understand our responsibilities and the importance of fulfilling them.
I never want to go through the experience of not being able to make payroll again, which is why I only hire people if I am sure I can afford them in the lean months. This has forced me to have some tedious thoughts about how I run my business. Even with a lot of money coming in, you need to hire with intention. You need to think strategically about where you are as a business and where you want to go next. Hire people that will help you get there, move quickly if they are not a good fit, and make sure you are in the next stage of growth before adding roles.
Many founders don’t want to spend time doing “boring” things. But to not only survive but grow your company over the years, you need that magic of boredom. It’s the magic bullet you need for longevity.
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