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Two Top Lessons from an Entrepreneur Whose Startup Is On a Tear

I met one of the co-founders of a Chattanooga-based startup recently whose company is on a growth TEAR. The company launched two years ago, and have grown to 65 full-timers and 30 part-timers with annual revenues approaching $10MM. Two years… yowza!
With such fast growth, I was curious what were his top lessons and tips he’s learned. Naturally, I asked…
  1. Treat supply and demand the same. The startup follows a model more recently popularized by Uber – that is, they hire providers to perform a service, and they sell the service to customers. Thus, the startup actually has two markets to address. Most people understand that brands must focus on customer experience, but with their model (and like Uber’s), they must also focus on the service providers. The service providers are an extension of their brand, and thus, it’s important to ensure the service providers are taken care of and heard from.
  2. Clearly establish roles at the beginning (amongst the founders). I surmise there might have been issues early on when one co-founder worked on the startup full-time while the other worked part-time. Though, I’m unsure what he meant by “roles” here. At least when it comes to duties, early employees (founders included) wear many hats. Instead, I believe he was referring to a hierarchy of sorts. In my experience with Body Boss, one of the lessons learned was the importance of some level of hierarchy to fall back on when decisions reached an impasse. The four of us co-founders had equal equity, equal authority, and without a clear leader, we could (and we did) spin our wheels on decisions that were evenly split.

It’s always great to hear about rapid growth companies, and learn from their founders.

What are your thoughts on ideas and innovations that must address two markets? What are your reservations about hierarchies vs. flatter organizations?
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5 Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned from Coming Face-to-Face with an Intruder at 4AM

Scene from the “Walking Dead”. (Source: http://cosplayclaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/rick.jpg)
Excited for it to be June now. May just couldn’t end fast enough. Given my run-in with a ninja cat that left me bloody like I was attacked by Wolverine earlier in the month, the end of the month somehow trumped that story with… a break-in to my house at 4AM. It’s quite the experience when you wake-up in the middle of the night to find someone in your dining room you don’t know going through your house. I’ll step back just for a second to give you a backdrop because I know you’re going to be wondering…

Last Wednesday night, I went to bed a little early, and forgot to not only lock my door (to my house and car) but also forgot to set the alarm. During the night, my alarm chime went off signaling a door was just opened. In my daze, I think I thought it was a dream, so went back to sleep. However, I woke up a few minutes later realizing that that’d be a strange thing to have in a dream. From my room, I can see through the house, and that’s when I saw a figure at the dining room table. Wanting to ensure it was not just a friend, but also being cautious, I followed the figure into the kitchen. Not more than 5 feet away, I was staring at the back of someone I definitely didn’t know. 

After about 5-10 seconds of running a highlight reel of every scenario possible (including “is this the moment I go ape-shit-crazy on someone while I have the element of surprise?”). After careful and QUICK consideration, decided it’s probably best to notify 9-1-1 in case I got in a fight and lost. Slowly crept back into my bedroom with ninja-stealth at which point I dialed 9-1-1, and waited for the police to arrive. Long story short, police flooded the house, and caught the intruder hiding on the other side.

Not in my house… (Source: http://www.resto.be/static/images/11/0/117360_1126.jpg)

So like my run-in with the ninja cat, this obviously gives me yet another great story to share with people, but also to somehow draw some entrepreneurial lessons out of this. Yes, I’m that crazy. I’m drawing parallels in the oddest of places/ situations. Ready to hear me out?

  1. Protect your house. When it comes to today’s technology startups and the loads of data available we all put online, it’s paramount to have safeguards as a company. The most important “things” in the house are the people. In your company, it’s your employees, customers, users, etc. Ensure you have the right mechanisms in place to protect user data as it could have painful/ costly repercussions.
  2. Be diligent in security and safety. It’s funny (now anyways) to think how I have locks and an alarm system. However, if you don’t USE the safeguards you put in place, you kind of defeat yourself. Make sure your security procedures are up-to-date and running. Use monitoring tools to check the status of security, the server, etc. You only need one lapse in judgment, one moment of negligence to have the greatest regret of your [company’s] life.
  3. Redundancy is a good thing! In my prior life as a consultant, business continuity was commonly an area of weakness for organizations big or small. That is, if the server farm goes down what’s the back-up plan? When I was on the phone with 9-1-1, I had 3 dominant thoughts in my head if this situation went south (too dramatic?): 1) how do I tell my loved ones I love them and to pursue their passions? 2) Is this going to hurt my leg work out in a couple hours? And 3) do my business partners have all they need from the presentation and financials I was working on? At least in the 3rd concern, my partners have access to all my work vis-à-vis the Cloud.
  4. Calling for back-up is smart. I think I’m right to say probably every man in the world has dreamt of the situation I was in, and like me, had envisioned pummeling the intruder, and emerging as a hero. In the situation, though, I decided that if things went south, people may not find me for days… That, and I don’t know if there are more guys outside, if he’s got a weapon, or if I’m a bad fighter/ he’s a good fighter. At the end of the day, best to call in someone who can handle the situation. As an entrepreneur, you’ll likely have so much belief in your way of marketing, selling, etc., that you will rely on your judgment alone, but there may be someone on your team you can delegate to who is better equipped, or can complement your “genius”.
  5. Don’t panic. It’s about damage limitation/ mitigation now. In my head, I was pretty darn calm to be just a couple steps from a potentially dangerous person. Hopefully, the 9-1-1 tape doesn’t go public portraying me otherwise. Being calm about this situation or any negative situation in a startup is perhaps redundant advice. However, it’s worth reiterating that having a calm-functioning head as a leader in a company goes a long way in keeping your employees, investors, and customers’ morales up, while presenting a solid face (even if you’re going crazy in your head). Check out what Walt Disney said to his brother when Walt just learned he lost his employees, his product/ idea, had no income, etc. in Inc.com.
We all dream of being a hero, right?! (Source: http://184.168.230.109/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hero.jpg)

So like my run-in with a ninja cat, there are some lessons to be learned in coming face-to-face with an intruder that can be ported to entrepreneurship and startups. It’s already a great story that draws the attention of people at Starbucks (it’s not a pick-up line, but somehow, I’m getting introduced this way by others in just a week since – Monica, this is your shout out). No doubt this will be a fun story to share and to use in drawing some sort of attention when I start running some sales and biz dev efforts (trust in relationships is built on personal connections, not actual work – think “water cooler”).

What are some other take-aways/ lessons you think you’d get out of running into an intruder? How do you think you would react in my situation?
And of course, out of the 40 t-shirts I grab from my closet, I grab the one about a donut race to go to the police department… They got a kick out of it, though. Shout out to the quick Brookhaven PD!
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At The End of My 2.5-Year Startup Roller Coaster: 21 Rough Lessons Learned from Failure

Yowza, starting a startup from nothing is wicked hard. After 2.5 years at Body Boss, my team and I have been riding the startup roller coaster with high highs and low lows. Our ride has been one of the most frustrating, stressful, challenging, and rewarding experiences of our lives. A ride that sadly stops here.
We aimed at curing time-consuming spreadsheet madness and bringing intelligence into a world where technology feared to go before – the gyms of high schools, colleges, and the like. We made pivots to our dream, but sadly, we won’t be continuing further. Our market is incredibly young, and though growing, does not provide a sustainable operation for the foreseeable future. So as it stands, we’ll be supporting Body Boss as it is today, but unless/ until the market matures, we won’t be building out new features or spending heavy resources on marketing at this time. 
As they say, you learn more from failure than success. And boy have we learned… If you’re looking to start your own venture, the below list of 21 lessons we’ve learned should help plot out your course and watch out for traps. Or in the least, these lessons can save you from punching helpless pillows or picking up all the papers you threw in the air from frustration:
  1. Have customer-PARTNERS at the beginning. Partners at the beginning give you momentum coming out of the gate to not only build the product, but also to sell the product. Social motivation is a powerful tool.
  2. Research should weigh heavily on building your product/ service WITH your customer-PARTNERS. Engaging your customer-partners early and often (in an effective way) will mitigate risks you’re building something that they don’t want, need, or it’s just too far outside the process. The first versions of your product/ service will need refining, and communicative partners will tell you how to improve.
  3. Dedication to the startup is clutch to iterate. I’ve said it in a post before that speed is one of the critical elements of a winning startup strategy. With speed, you can iterate through ideas and test them with your customers. The best way to do this is to work full-time on the startup and have high quality engineers/ developers. Quality builders can implement changes quickly and mitigate against the risks of glaring bugs.
  4. For a tech startup these days, design is the second part of the winning strategy.If it isn’t quick to understand and navigate, users will likely not give you the time of day to figure it out.
  5. Quick set-up is the catalyst for early success. Apps these days that sign up and login with Facebook, or have API implementation with big platforms like Salesforce.com can help customers get set up quick. It turns out to be a turn-key solution. Most people don’t want to take precious time to learn or set up a program, especially when they have an existing, albeit weaker, solution.
  6. Establish an effective method and rhythm to reach prospects. With social media, many people believe it’s the best way to reach new customers. But it’s not necessarily. You should know how your target market absorbs new ideas/ products. Do they read magazines? Do they read blogs? Are they social media users? Your marketing strategy may not make sense.
  7. Don’t believe you’ve made a sale till days after a check clears. Can’t tell you how many prospects said they’d buy only to go cold a day later. And even when someone gives you his/ her credit card information, wait for the amount to clear your bank account before you celebrate that new signing.
  8. Establish roles be it with titles or equity. It’s amazing what happens when everyone is equal and everyone has different ideas – wheels spin but you’re going nowhere. I applaud those avant-garde companies trying out flat orgs with “no titles”, but that’s not for me. In Body Boss, we had 4 Co-Founders — equal shares, no hierarchy… just friends. To have a single, clear vision to fall back on when consensus isn’t there is a beautiful thing.
  9. Treat your startup like a real company. Your startup is not a hobby. It can’t be a “project” if you want it to be something greater. It’s a company. Take it seriously. Everyday you aren’t improving your company, everyday you’re not making your product or service better, you’re wasting your company’s talent and resources. Sadly and ironically, that happens to be your own.
  10. Market like a king with a blacksmith’s earnings. If you’re going to spend any money on marketing like attending trade shows, make sure you standout. We once sponsored a dinner for an event thinking it’d be a great way for us to reach prospects, except it didn’t. Everyone just ate and barely heard our message. That’s a good bit of money down the drain. If your hard-earned dollar isn’t going to WOW and prompt your prospect to the call to action (CTA), don’t bother.
  11. Be ready to pitch anytime and everytime you walk outside. It’s an amazingly small world, and you will run into potential customers, investors, or just everyday people who can connect you. Be ready to pitch.
  12. All about the team. To have diversity in a team is incredibly frustrating. However, it’s beautiful. It’s needed. For success, you need people to debate productively. If you don’t debate new, fresh ideas from your team (not just customers), you may be potentially paddling down a waterfall in unison. Diversity forces you to sometimes build only what’s necessary, and cut out the fat unless there’s true value. That, or you may never get those new, fresh ideas at all.
  13. New sales are good, but recurring sales are better. One issue that we found at Body Boss was many customers subscribed and bought in, but then, didn’t re-subscribe. After talking to many, there were various reasons why it didn’t work out including glaring product-related issues that we weren’t aware of. If they don’t sign back up, find out why because marketing a product that loses customers later can crush your business. Existing customers can be powerful advocates, and word-of-mouth marketing is the best type of marketing.
  14. Solve a real problem. Definitely don’t introduce a new one. So much of the above can also be addressed if you solve a real problem. With a real problem, you’ll get the buy-in from prospects to buy what you’re selling, or work with you because in the end, IT’S A PROBLEM!
  15. Pick an industry where you have LOADS of experience can go a really long way. Not only to give yourself and your startup credibility, but it’s a great way to network and find your initial customer-partners. I think one of our struggles at Body Boss has been because we approached professional strength and conditioning within an institutional setting – a setting none of us have had much experience. Thus, we didn’t understand our customers as well as we should’ve to build and sell our product.
  16. Know your limitations, and when to break them. Not all of your customers will buy into what you’re selling. Not all of your team members can work full-time. You might not have the skills to pick up the keyboard and start coding. However, all of these challenges end up being opportunities to build a greater startup, a better product, and a better service. If you pay attention to those limitations, you may be able to find creative solutions around (or through) them.
  17. Know when to stay rigid, when to flex, and when to break on your ideals. We start companies with the confidence that we can do things better. By that very nature, we enter with ideals. Know when your ideals should stick or when they should take a back seat for the growth of your company.
  18. Don’t make excuses. Just sell. My main role in Body Boss is to sell. I catch myself sometimes saying, “oh, it’s hard because of timing” or “they’re not answering their phones, so… yeah”. It’s admittedly poor. If you feel an inkling like you didn’t bust your @$$, then you probably didn’t. Find the value. Convert.
  19. Measure everything you can within reason. Use Google Analytics to track your website traffic. Analyze user engagement data (effectively, not analysis paralysis). Track by device, by user, what is your customer doing? With data comes the ability to draw patterns and make actionable changes. “What gets measured gets improved.” (That’s actually a Trademark we have.)
  20. It’s your company so choose who to hear and who to listen to. Everyone has ideas. Everyone will give you advice whether you want it or not. Know which ones make sense. It’s your company. You have to make the calls.
  21. SALES IS HARD! At the end of the day, companies, teams, etc. are made of people. And because you’re selling to people, it only makes sense that not everyone will be seeking the same values out of your product. It’s best to learn quickly about your prospect when selling, and catering your value prop accordingly. A couple tips: (1) the international language and what everyone wants more of: money. Help them pull and push the lever to add revenue and/ or cut costs. (2) You have two ears and one mouth. Let your prospects do the talking so you can assess what he/ she needs, and they’ll be bought in. (3) In-person goes farther than phone or email. Also, emails suck. Too easy for customers to delete/ not read.

Are you ready for the ride? Have you perhaps fallen victim to any of these hard lessons? What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?

(Also, how fitting is it that I’m petrified of roller coasters? They freak me out.)
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