Fix What’s Really Wrong With Your Startup
Strategic repair requires reverse thinking. Here’s how to do that.
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Everyone talks about startup strategy. Very few of those people talk about putting strategy to work. Even fewer talk about the results. There’s a reason for that. A lot of startup strategists are just strategists. They rarely put strategy into action.
I’ve been writing a lot about strategy lately. I don’t expect you to have followed. But if you do read me, you may have noticed that my recent posts have been peppered with talk of business death spirals, inflection points, authenticity issues, and strategic planning vs tactical action.
All of that was real. Furthermore, it’s all shit that every entrepreneur goes through. I’m trying to give you some of what I wish I had known early in my career about some of the problems I still run into today.
Plus, I mean, I just can’t write stuff like “173 Proven Ways To Polish a Pitch Deck.” Tried it. Was awful at it.
Anyway, I wasn’t writing about that strategic stuff for the clicks (pitch deck articles get all the clicks). I was actually living the problem, considering my options, making decisions, and firing up solutions.
And like I said, while a lot of people will freely offer advice, not many of them will give you actual examples of their own advice in action. I can’t blame them. Why potentially give away your business intelligence or break down your own failure and mistakes in public?
Luckily, I have a “practice” startup, one that allows me to share these kinds of insights freely. Teaching Startup is my project to make more and better entrepreneurs by changing the way startup founders and leaders get advice. It’s more mission than business, but I choose to run it like a startup because well, that’s what I do, but also so I can show you what I’m doing instead of just telling you what to do.
I’ve found that to be a really good way to teach difficult concepts, like what to do when you’re neck deep in problems that add up to a startup lifecycle existential crisis.
