The truth is, no one is going to help you get back on your feet. You need to be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving.
Starting a business is no joke. There are so many skills involved in being able to launch a functional business, that it's almost insulting how it can all be summed up by one word: entrepreneur.
1. It's a lonely journey
When we first launched SnapEx in 2018, we were faced with all kinds of hurdles as a crypto startup. Determined and wide-eyed, we'd initially planned to acquire and activate users through our networks and friend circles by word of mouth. It didn't go well, to say the least.
At the time, we were still working on the beta version of the app, which wasn't even on any of the major app stores. I remember mashing away at my laptop on the ride to meet our first client, desperately attempting to produce a presentation deck in time. Some people even accused us of running a Ponzi scheme because of how terrible the website looked.
When everyone's losing their minds and doubting business decisions, entrepreneurs need to be able to stay calm. It takes a still mind to break down a problem and solve it.
The truth is, no one is going to help you get back on your feet. You need to be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving. Entrepreneurs, by nature, take risks. Sometimes you need to throw a lot of things at the wall before something sticks. Because entrepreneurship might make you want to jump off a building, but it teaches you not to do it unless you plan to hit the ground running.
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; … Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son!
— Rudyard Kipling, If
2. The world isn't blue and white
Before SnapEx, I'd been working as a project manager at the family office. We provided a construction service for purpose-built factories, and I mostly handled blue-collar workers. At any given point, there were around 120 workers on site, and you could smell the discipline in the air.
Blue-collar workers are clear about rules; they'd line up in rows at 7:25 AM sharp every day for roll calls — no matter what. Their primary consideration was safety, their primary motivation was money, and they wouldn't risk anything that could negatively affect that.
White-collar workers, however, are not the same. In my experience, they're looking for a challenge. They seek tasks that reward them by providing a sense of achievement or produce tangible, quantifiable results.
Understanding the motivations that set these groups apart is a vital part of running a business. Being able to incentivize any kind of workforce in the right way can do wonders for how well the business functions.
3. Perfectionism is imperfect
Nothing is perfect, and no matter how hard you try to ensure that your product is without flaws, they will inevitably crop up. The strength of an entrepreneur lies not in being a perfectionist, but in being a realist with perfectionist ideals.
Especially in the early stages of a startup, a perfect product doesn't always equate to success. While it can be tempting to wait until the product is perfect before rolling out to market, the delay can sometimes cripple the product's market performance.
In late-2019, we were able to penetrate the Vietnamese market with ease, simply because of the speed at which we deployed our product. It was far from perfect, but we decided to take a positive approach to customer feedback.
We were able to capture the market with our first-mover advantage, and quickly became the fastest-growing crypto margin platform in Southeast Asia. I learned that even though your product might not be perfect right now, it can't be made perfect if it never reaches the market.
Startups should focus on the 'Build-Measure-Learn Cycle', and be able to adapt to constantly changing situations. As the 2001 'Manifesto for Agile Software Development' says, businesses should 'welcome changing requirements, even late in development.'
4. Put the 'pro' in product
Customers have no hard obligations to continue using your product if it doesn't meet their demands. Your customers interact with the product, not the company, so it's essential to make sure it's always the forefront emphasis of your business.
Invest in understanding what your customers want, and see if your product's core offering solves the market demand. Customers aren't stupid, and they have unfettered access to products from competing businesses that may have better value to them.
In Vietnam, our product team was slow to innovate and was unable to compete with the ever-growing market demand. The number of new bugs that kept emerging frustrated our users and led to the loss of several partners and clients along the way.
A product doesn't need to have every fancy feature. If it can meet customer requirements with competitive value, the market will appreciate it. Understand what they want and what they consider valuable before trying to improve your product.
5. Communication is vital for a hybrid team
With offices all over the world, each bearing different functions, it's a challenging task to maintain steady communication streams between teams working from different locations. Slack, Trello, Monday — you name it, we've tested it.
Miscommunication can create situations that you might not have anticipated. It creates delays, fosters negative sentiments, and is detrimental to the company as a whole. To avoid this, we even encouraged daily standup meetings for individual team members, and weekly wrap-up conference calls.
Communication keeps your team members aware of the critical business goals and aligns their efforts to best suit the company. It also helps visualize the end-goal, which keeps the focus where it needs to be.
Instead of being side-tracked by trying to implement unnecessary features, your teams can work on actionable and quantifiable goals that are mutually beneficial.
A thousand miles away
Startups have taught me so many valuable lessons. The hardships and disappointments we went through made the pursuit of our goals, both challenging and rewarding. Businesses are complicated systems, and not every variable can be tuned to meet specific demands.
It can be hard to come to a consensus on things, and the weight of choosing a company's forward direction can be crushing when results don't match the efforts. It takes willpower to get through these situations.
While understanding your market is crucial, understanding your workforce can be equally crucial for the smooth functioning of a business. Think about what your employees want, and give them relevant incentives to encourage and accelerate performance.
Your product is how you present yourself to your consumers. Focus your resources on improving things that are relevant to your customer's needs. Customers want functional products at a great value.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and entrepreneurship requires continually being able to break-down and rebuild yourself to adapt to specific environments. The road ahead may be extended and treacherous, but even a journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step.
