star

I keep hearing from my founders’ friend about the star player in their team. Someone super-efficient. We become so dependent on him/her that we start defining companies process at their convenience. That is a huge mistake. This effects the overall growth of companies’ development and culture suffers.

Do not let your company or product development run in the hand of a star player. He or she can end up becoming the biggest bottleneck for the future. On top of that keep a strong code review process, that way if he/she leaves nothing remains at their mercy.

As a founder company is your baby, people will come and go. Don’t be a hostage in the hands of these star players. Treat, incentivize everyone and keep a level playing field.

commitment

People switch jobs like taxi ride finishing a trip. There is no sense of commitment. People are willing to let go of their year-long hard-earned respect and trust.

Finding people who will abide by their ethics is like searching for wise men in daylight like Diogenes.

Any kind of perk, freedom or trust is valued as peanuts when an employee finds a newer pasture. Most don’t even stick by their virtues and commitment. The willingness of ethics is for philosophers, not job-hopping employees.

My learning, if someone wants to move on: have them quit immediately. Their presence gets burdensome for the entire organization especially when you have a pizza size team.

cure

What is the cure for yours?
Your sadness, pain, and misery,
That feeling of nothingness,
Willingness to give up without putting a fight,
Vice winning Over virtue,
What is the cure?

You are the cure, life is yours.
Life is a win-win if you see it in that way.

You don’t need a healer, a partner, a mystic. You are your cure, why are u seeking outside?

Behind the cloud

Marc Benioff is a philanthropist, billionaire, and founder of Salesforce. The company which transformed IT consumption by innovating the SaaS model of software consumption for the enterprise. He was the real disrupter, moving users from old systems like Sibel to simple easy software with pay as you go model.

Marc bought a lot of his learning from the early days of his work at Oracle. He considers Larry Elison as his friend/mentor, apart from being his early investor. Larry made 200X return of his investment. 😀

In the book, Marc openly talks about his playbooks or we can say principles. As a founder, it is extremely important to have a set of principles. Ray Dalio in his book Principles has written in detail about the same. 

The lesson he shares is similar to what every other successful founder shares in hiring, raising, competing above all keeping customers in the center.

Marc attributes a lot of Salesforce success to the community and listening to customer’s feedback. He mentions Amazon for its user interface and customer delight in the book. 

Some learning:

  • Hire right, trustworthy folks who believe in the vision of your organization. 
  • Have a set of principles and abide by it. Like a playbook (V2MOM)
  • Keep customers in the center of all the product development. 
  • Create your own rule. The marketing tactics the end of Software.

V2MOM

I have finished Marc Benioff, Behind the cloud (notes will come tomorrow). I loved the way Marc has narrated his Salesforce journey. I liked his leadership playbook of V2MOM.

V2MOM = Vision + Values + Methods + Obstacles + Measures

Vision: It helped Salesforce define what they wanted to do.
Values: It helped Salesforce by providing guiding principles to stay on their vision.
Methods: It defined the path to reach towards the vision Salesforce had established.
Obstacles: It identified the challenges and issues which needed to be taken care of to reach the vision.
Measures: The measurable which defined as a numerical outcome.

The playbook is simple, precise and clear. A good guide for keeping the entire organization on the same page and delivering successful outcomes.

Early 1999 V2MOM for Salesforce.

I am not an expert, I am sure every startup or organization has its own playbook. There is no one magic bullet to fit for all.

As Salesforce progressed in their journey, they altered their V2MOM

People

People will always tell you what you cannot do, your inefficiency. It is easy to blame, criticize and form an opinion on others.

Our existence and our purpose should matter most to us. People have their motives and bias in blaming you. We have to grow a thick skin and have an amplified bullshit meter.

We have to work towards getting better every day instead of dissecting criticism.

different

I have been part of this startup ecosystem for some time now in different personas: investor, employee, and founder. I am starting to see a new trend where many people have started schools to churn a startup.

The journey of starting a startup is different than getting an educational degree. I wonder why are we again thrown on a template of building a startup? Is it because we are selling the mantra: starting a startup is the best way to get rich quickly?

A lot many successful founders I have met personally told money/glory was the byproduct. Starting a startup was more of an itch to prove ourselves, solving a problem, working closely with friends and like-minded people.

No two founders are the same, nor are their journeys. Why do they all have to go through formal teaching of how to run their business?

Putting lipstick on a pig will be not of any help.

The untold Flipkart story

Mihir has written “The untold Flipkart story”. It seems like a plot of some Hollywood/Bollywood movies. It has every element from perseverance, treachery, power struggle to drama. Founders struggle to stay relevant, board the urge to hit all the numbers, and investors urge to get an exit. 

Running a startup is no different than running a country. It has many faces and personas. Each of these comes with their expertise, ego, and expectations. What plays is the incentive, the power dynamics. 

Sachin had a dream of building 100 billion company but execution at scale was not his forte. But does this make him less important? I don’t think so.

Every stage a company is a different beast and requires a different set of execution.  

The positive side of what Sachin/Binny created has left a long-lasting effect on our country. 

  • The belief that any middle class Indian can build a fortune for himself and the country.
  •  The attitude of Think Big
  • Perseverance, patience, and persistence 

Flipkart paved the way for creating a startup ecosystem that will have a lasting effect for centuries to come to India. The Flipkart mafia is no less than the PayPal mafia of the valley.

Positive Ego

There is a thing called positive Ego. It consists of self-belief, faith, and perseverance. Always keep it. It will take you ahead of dead mortals, naysayers and slaves.

We have to stay away from the noise and signals. What matters most to us is our consciousness. Since early adulthood, we have been told what we cannot do.

The lazy brain of ours likes continuity. As we grow up, the conditioning takes over. Our brain keeps telling us what we cannot do. This gets amplified by people, noise around us.

Positive ego ensures that we are willing to go against all the odds and ensures that our life is in our control, not others.