Building a Startup Factory
"The biggest epiphany I've had this year is that what really matters is the machine that builds the machine, the factory. And that this is at least two orders of magnitude harder than the vehicle itself."
I came across this quote a few years ago and it stuck with me. Although the context here is cars and factories, the idea can be generalized to many different things.
In 2021, I have used this idea to approach my startup work differently. Instead of focusing mostly on the latest project, I now prioritize my personal development. This means that I first improve myself (the factory) before building the startups (the cars).
I visualize this approach as a pyramid:
In order to reach the top, I begin at the bottom and work my way up:
1. Personal development
Since the beginning of the year, I have tracked 8 daily personal development goals. The goals are intened to make me more effective, both in professional and personal settings. I plan to write about them in a dedicated post, but they include goals such as daily excercise, reading, writing, and meditating.
The underlying idea is that by doing these things every day, I will become more effective at everything I do. I will make better decisions, have more energy and my vision of the future will be clearer.
This will naturally lead to better outcomes when I work on individual projects. Furthermore, these habits will benefit all my future projects, not only the one I am currently working on.
In practice, this means that I make the daily habits a priority over progress at work. As a result, my workday is shorter than before, but I view this as an investment that will pay off in the long term.
2. System for value creation
This step is a set of principles I keep in mind when working on a single project:
- Invest my energy into entrepreneurship: Before, I used to do a significant amount of consulting. This slows down my progress and learning when it comes to entepreneurship, so for 2021 I have decided to turn down all consulting project opportunities.
- Think very long-term: I resigned 3.5 years ago and have worked on my own projects since. During this time, revenues from my own projects have risen at a steady pace. I now work under the assumption that by remaining committed to my current path for many more years, success will surely follow.
- Choose ideas based on pre-defined criteria: When working independently, some ideas have a better chance of succeeding than others. I have defined criteria for startup ideas which I use when choosing what to work on.
- Rembember opportunity costs: Right now, there are many promising ideas I could be working on. By focusing only on one, I am wasting opportunities to pursue all the others. Thus, it is important to learn as quickly as possible whether the current idea is worth my time.
- Ensure the work leads to learning and growth: If I am bored by a task at work, this indicates that I am not learning from it anymore. I try to outsource or minimize all such work to ensure continued professional growth. Additionally, I am fine with taking more time to develop something if I feel that it provides me with an opportunity to learn and improve.
3. Individual projects
Only after taking care of my personal habits and ensuring that the current project aligns with my system can I start working on it.
How I approach the "actual work" is not the topic of this post. I have come up with some general rules of thumb for building startups, so that could be a topic for another post.
One of the challenges of entrepreneurship is instability. In one week, things can be going great and you are full of optimism. Then, a couple of rejections or bad growth numbers can fill you with doubt.
By using this new approach, I reduce these fluctuations. With a systemic approach and a long time-horizon, I can now tell myself that I am on the right path, no matter how my project is looking in the short term.
Newer: The Journey to Product-Market Fit
Older: Moving from Goodreads to my own website