Startups are a strange, sensitive animal. Sometimes stealthy and elusive, sometimes brash and friendly, your startup can become your best friend, or your very worst nightmare. There are some basic rules to properly feeding and caring for your startup. Because every startup has a personality of its own, you must be cognizant of how your startup is feeling, what its needs are and most importantly, what you need to do to ensure that your startup matures into a healthy, acquisition-ready creature.
Startups come in different breeds: electronic startups, medical device startups, computer startups, internet startups and networking startups -- the list is endless. But regardless of the different types of startups, there are basic rules to every startup that include care, feeding and training, that every startup owner must follow.
It's important to note that in a startup, the owner is "every employee who works there".
Caring for your startup involves understanding the varying needs from day to day. What is important today may be at the bottom of the priority list tomorrow. Startups are sensitive to these changing needs, so they must be addressed right away. Be ready to fold boxes, print labels, run a tensile tester or glue handles together, all on the same day as a board meeting. Be willing to pick up parts, paint walls or mop floors, speak to investors and run accounts payable without breaking a sweat. If you are vigilant and thorough with your startups needs, you will be rewarded with a startup that matures fast, is controlled, predictable and reliable.
Startups feed on a variety of things. The growth of your startup is less about size, and more about efficiency. Just adding machines or people to your startup doesn't make it any more efficient. In many cases your startup gets bloated and lethargic. Your startup needs a balanced diet of upper management, happy workers and safe and reliable equipment to get tasks done. If any of these three things is allowed to overrun the startup, bad things happen. Your startup will lose trust amongst workers, lose momentum to get over large strategic obstacles and lose faith from investors.
Training is the final leg of having a startup. Once your startup is running on a balanced diet, and being card for on a daily basis, you will need to train your startup to execute all that is required to be a good acquisition candidate. Train your startup to complete needed milestones one time and on budget. Next, train your startup to react to changes in company needs, like building extra devices at a moment's notice for a last minute test. Train your startup to handle setbacks with aplomb, and recover from situations that would cause other startups to collapse. Finally, hone your startup into a well-oiled machine -- one that will make any acquirer look forward to an acquisition without hesitation.
Startups can be a joy to have, and fun for everyone involved. But they can be finicky, sensitive to changes and in many cases, their health can go downhill in no time, given the opportunity. Be kind to and mindful of your startup -- they need love and attention if you want them to become the acquisition that you've always hoped for (cue the Sarah McLachlan song).
Your startup needs your love and attention. What are you waiting for?