A VC in Vacationland

Image by dbking via Flickr

Anyone who has seen Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 will remember the mission commander Gene Krantz uttering this line as the Mission Control people in Houston were looking for a way to get the astronauts back to earth. It turns out that no one ever really said exactly that line in Mission Control. The script writers, however, thought it was a great tagline for the movie.

Failure is not an option is a good motto for start ups. No founders I deal with say that doing a start up is "insanely enjoyable" as one entrepreneur said to me the other day (I chose not to invest, wondering about his sanity). It's 100 hour weeks, lots of pizza and Raman Noddles in the diet and constant rejection/frustration/lack of resources, etc., etc. But the ones that succeed are the ones for whom failure is not an option.

Problems begin to emerge in a start up when the founders begin to believe that failure is an option. You can feel it happen and see the issues arise. The founders becomes distant, key deadlines get missed, morale plummets and investors get nervous. It's ugly. Replacing founders is very difficult, since new players are not "owners" of the original idea. Keeping the founders active, motivated and happy is often the only option. 

How does a founder regain their mojo? Here are a few ideas:

1. Listen to Your Customers–too often, I see founders get over involved in "running the business", even though they hired competent people to make sure that happens.  A founder needs to be most close to the customer community to make sure the offerings are meeting evolving customer needs.
2. Be ready to Switch Horses–most of my successful start ups stick to their original horse and ride it hard. But sometimes the market shifts and you do need to change horses. Understand what you would do with your company if change is necessary and if you can make such a transition.
3. Failure is not the End of the World–There are many facets to failure. An idea can fail but the company may not and even florish. Successful companies are not a "one-trick pony".  Be sure that you have a variety of new ideas to move your company down the path to success.

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