CHENNAI: We had previously discussed the importance of founders. Today, we will talk about what roles should founders play to skyrocket their startup’s growth. What we are discussing today is also the biggest secret to exponential startup success. What is exponential success? Rapid growth and lineup of important accomplishments backto- back that boost your startup’s metrics.
Why was Game of Thrones so popular? It had many jaw-dropping moments, one after the other. A startup has to be similar. Your startup needs to deliver a jaw-dropping accomplishment back-to-back. But is it possible? The secret to a startup’s exponential growth is employees work in the present while the founders work for the future. This is a thumb rule that you should always check to keep yourself on track. Don’t get trapped in day to day operations.
A startup operation has a lot of repetitive steps. Most founders try to do everything by themselves to reduce costs. This dries up their work time and they get trapped into daily operational issues. A startup needs lots of fi refi ghting and immediate problem solving. But if a founder is just involved in fi refi ghting to save overhead costs, he will never be able to concentrate on the future, and build partnerships and relationships that will help skyrocket the startup’s success. Most of the founders fall into this trap of solving daily issues in a startup. How do you prevent this? Simple! Hire a mini CEO — or let’s call him Chief of Staff.
Let this person run your day-to-day operations. You should instead focus on the future — on building strategic partnerships or products that will benefi t your startup in future. If you get caught in day-to-day ops, who will write the future for you? Even your best employees might not understand your startup as personally as you do. And thus, if you put any of your employees in charge of carving your way to the future, you are likely to fail. Figure out what your focus for this quarter is. Is it the reach? Is it traffi c to your website? Is it profi t? Whatever it is, focus your time in that direction. Just remember — the future is built today!
Rajeev Tamhankar
@rajeevtamhankar