The human element you brought to this made this resonate. Letting people go is never easy, doing it with empathy is key. And it just feels shitty any way you slice it.
Like you said... A ceo is there for the office parties and the layoffs, it all comes with the territory.
I really hate the "cockroach" metaphor applied to prudent entrepreneurs who manage their cashflow and focus on delighting customers. I strongly prefer Alex Lazarow's "camel" metaphor for enduring companies instead of the "cockroach" model popularized by Caterina Fake.
"Building a company is not a short-term endeavor. For many, breakthroughs don’t come immediately, but rather occur later in the company timeline. Survival is often the primary strategy. This allows time to build the business model, find a product that resonates with the market, and develop an operation that can scale. Competition will exist. But the race is about who will survive the longest, not about who goes to market first."
The Season of Startup Cockroaches is Upon Us
The human element you brought to this made this resonate. Letting people go is never easy, doing it with empathy is key. And it just feels shitty any way you slice it.
Like you said... A ceo is there for the office parties and the layoffs, it all comes with the territory.
Great read as always! 😊
I really hate the "cockroach" metaphor applied to prudent entrepreneurs who manage their cashflow and focus on delighting customers. I strongly prefer Alex Lazarow's "camel" metaphor for enduring companies instead of the "cockroach" model popularized by Caterina Fake.
"Building a company is not a short-term endeavor. For many, breakthroughs don’t come immediately, but rather occur later in the company timeline. Survival is often the primary strategy. This allows time to build the business model, find a product that resonates with the market, and develop an operation that can scale. Competition will exist. But the race is about who will survive the longest, not about who goes to market first."
Alex Lazarow in "Startups Should Think Like Camels--Not Unicorns" (Oct-16-2020) [https://hbr.org/2020/10/startups-its-time-to-think-like-camels-not-unicorns]
His write-up defines rules of thumb that new businesses outside of Silicon Valley follow as a matter of course:
1. Value based pricing
2. Prudent growth built on paying customers
3. Cost management with expenditures following revenue ("bootstrapping").