Walking Through the Desert

There's a split in any company, there's the earliest period where it's just kind of survival, it's crazy, most people are going to not get it or they're just not going to get it at all - they'll look at you with a funny look. That's a period where you almost have to, certainly, you need to have friends that are wise and you accept their wisdom and their advice, but not too much. There's also a period of kind of ignoring the advice of people you respect and admire, otherwise, you will never do it, right? So, that's kind of a weird mindset, but yeah, I think it's very much like hiking in a desert and hopefully you have enough water to get through the desert to the product market fit. We deliberately describe our companies to our early teams that way: you're walking through the desert, so you only got a certain amount of water (or capital money), and don't walk in circles because you're going to die, try to get over that next hill, and over that next hill, then we'll reevaluate where we are. I mean, that's a good visual that I always kind of like to have.

And what's their reaction when you describe it that way? Because this sounds a little scary.

Well, I think with teams, especially early teams, people who join early startups, they're also pioneers. They're taking huge risks, they're probably being underpaid for their talents, and of course, it's the bet on you're going to make it and you'll make much more of the equity value. So, I think in the early days, when you get the right people, theyÕre real missionaries, right? And we can talk about this as well, but I always think there's kind of three types of people in startups, right? So, the missionaries, the mercenaries, and the misfits. You want the missionaries. The mercenaries come later when it's obvious, when tons of money is coming in. The misfits, well, that can be good or bad, right? So, you know. But, the missionaries, they really get charged up about walking through a desert and the idea that the probability is we're going to die, most startups do, but if we make it work, we're like, it's like hello, I can be proud of it forever, you'll be rewarded, we'll make the world a better place. That's what charges most great early team members, and those are the kind of people you want to have in those early days.