January 2007
Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the rest of the race slowing down.
The winners slow down the least. It's that way with most startups too.
The earliest phase is usually the most productive.
That's when they have the really big ideas.
Imagine what Apple was like when 100% of its employees were either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak.
Sprinters hit top speed out of the blocks and slow from there; the winners slow least. Startups are the same: the earliest phase is the most productive, when the big ideas come. Imagine Apple when 100% of its employees were Jobs or Wozniak.
Sprinters reach top speed out of the blocks and slow from there; startups are the same. The earliest phase is the most productive, when the big ideas come.
The striking thing about this phase is that it's completely different from most people's idea of what business is like.
If you looked in people's heads (or stock photo collections) for images representing "business," you'd get images of people dressed up in suits, groups sitting around conference tables looking serious, Powerpoint presentations, people producing thick reports for one another to read.
Early stage startups are the exact opposite of this.
And yet they're probably the most productive part of the whole economy.
Why the disconnect?
I think there's a general principle at work here: the less energy people expend on performance, the more they expend on appearances to compensate.
More often than not the energy they expend on seeming impressive makes their actual performance worse.
A few years ago I read an article in which a car magazine modified the "sports" model of some production car to get the fastest possible standing quarter mile.
You know how they did it?
They cut off all the crap the manufacturer had bolted onto the car to make it look fast.
This phase looks nothing like most people's idea of business — not suits and Powerpoint, but the opposite — yet startups are probably the most productive part of the economy.
The principle: the less energy people spend on performance, the more on appearances, and seeming impressive usually makes performance worse. A car magazine once made a "sports" car fastest over a quarter mile by cutting off all the crap bolted on to make it look fast.
This phase looks nothing like most people's image of business, yet it may be the most productive part of the economy. The principle: the less energy you spend on performance, the more on appearances.
Business is broken the same way that car was.
The effort that goes into looking productive is not merely wasted, but actually makes organizations less productive.
Suits, for example.
Suits do not help people to think better.
I bet most executives at big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and go downstairs in their bathrobe to make a cup of coffee.
That's when you have ideas.
Just imagine what a company would be like if people could think that well at work.
People do in startups, at least some of the time. (Half the time you're in a panic because your servers are on fire, but the other half you're thinking as deeply as most people only get to sitting alone on a Sunday morning.)
Business is broken the same way: looking productive doesn't just waste effort, it makes organizations less productive. Suits don't help people think.
Executives do their best thinking Sunday morning, in a bathrobe, making coffee. People do that in startups — half the time your servers are on fire, the other half you're thinking as deeply as most people manage only alone on a Sunday.
The effort spent looking productive actually makes organizations less productive. Suits don't help you think; executives do their best thinking in a bathrobe on Sunday. In startups, people think that well at work.
Ditto for most of the other differences between startups and what passes for productivity in big companies.
And yet conventional ideas of professionalism have such an iron grip on our minds that even startup founders are affected by them.
In our startup, when outsiders came to visit we tried hard to seem "professional." We'd clean up our offices, wear better clothes, try to arrange that a lot of people were there during conventional office hours.
In fact, programming didn't get done by well-dressed people at clean desks during office hours.
It got done by badly dressed people (I was notorious for programmming wearing just a towel) in offices strewn with junk at 2 in the morning.
But no visitor would understand that.
Not even investors, who are supposed to be able to recognize real productivity when they see it.
Even we were affected by the conventional wisdom.
We thought of ourselves as impostors, succeeding despite being totally unprofessional.
It was as if we'd created a Formula 1 car but felt sheepish because it didn't look like a car was supposed to look.
Professionalism grips even founders. When outsiders visited we tried to seem "professional" — tidied up, dressed better, kept office hours. But the real work got done by badly dressed people (I programmed in just a towel) in junk-strewn offices at 2am. No visitor understood that, not even investors. We felt like impostors succeeding despite being unprofessional — as if we'd built a Formula 1 car and felt sheepish it didn't look like one.
Conventional professionalism grips even founders. In my startup we cleaned up and dressed up for visitors, but real work got done by badly dressed people at 2am — and we felt like impostors for it.
In the car world, there are at least some people who know that a high performance car looks like a Formula 1 racecar, not a sedan with giant rims and a fake spoiler bolted to the trunk.
Why not in business?
Probably because startups are so small.
The really dramatic growth happens when a startup only has three or four people, so only three or four people see that, whereas tens of thousands see business as it's practiced by Boeing or Philip Morris.
This book can help fix that problem, by showing everyone what, till now, only a handful people got to see: what happens in the first year of a startup.
This is what real productivity looks like.
This is the Formula 1 racecar.
It looks weird, but it goes fast.
In cars, some know a high-performance machine looks like a Formula 1 racecar, not a sedan with a fake spoiler. Why not in business? Because startups are small: the dramatic growth happens when three or four people see it, while tens of thousands watch Boeing.
This is what real productivity looks like. This is the Formula 1 racecar. It looks weird, but it goes fast.
In cars, some people know a high-performance machine looks like a Formula 1 racecar. Business doesn't, because the dramatic growth happens when only three or four people are watching.
Of course, big companies won't be able to do everything these startups do.
In big companies there's always going to be more politics, and less scope for individual decisions.
But seeing what startups are really like will at least show other organizations what to aim for.
The time may soon be coming when instead of startups trying to seem more corporate, corporations will try to seem more like startups.
That would be a good thing.
Big companies can't do everything startups do; there's always more politics. But seeing what startups are really like shows them what to aim for. Soon, instead of startups trying to seem corporate, corporations may try to seem more like startups.
Big companies can't do everything startups do — there's always more politics — but seeing what startups are really like shows them what to aim for.
Founders at Work
There can't be more than a couple thousand people who know first-hand what happens in the first month of a successful startup.
Jessica Livingston got them to tell us.
So despite the interview format, this is really a how-to book.
It is probably the single most valuable book a startup founder could read.
Barely a couple thousand people know first-hand what the first month of a successful startup is like. Jessica Livingston got them to tell us — so despite the interview format, this is really a how-to book, probably the single most valuable a founder could read.
Barely a couple thousand people know first-hand what the first month of a successful startup is like. Jessica Livingston got them to tell us — making this, despite the interview format, a how-to book.