How to Build a Culture of "I'm Wrong"

The only guarantee as a startup Founder is that we are going to be wrong — all the time. [View this email in your browser]( • [Forward to a Friend]( How to Build a Culture of "I'm Wrong" TL;DR: "I have no idea whether we're making good decisions! So much of this startup thing seems to involve making very certain decisions on things that no one could possibly know the answer to. Am I just missing the part of the 'Founder Manual' that explains this stuff or is everyone else full of shit too?" The only guarantee as a startup Founder is that we are going to be wrong — all the time. Like, really, really wrong. We're going to be wrong about who we hire, what product decisions we make... hell, our entire startup idea is going to be a steaming pile of dung. But guess what? That's OK. Where we blow this up for ourselves is thinking that we have to have the right answer for every aspect of our startup. Of course, we want to get to the right answer, but the likelihood that we're going to "know it" from scratch is pretty much zero. Even if we do, we just got lucky. Today’s Advice Sponsored by [Startups.com Accelerator]( The Business Idea is Wrong Somehow we've built this mythology that great Founders have these "stroke of genius" ideas right out of the gates, and all they do from there is just work on that idea into it's billion-dollar destiny. That couldn't possibly be more wrong. All startup ideas suck at first, and not because the Founders are awful (we may also find that out later too..) but because the only way to refine them is to actually get them into the world. Instead of asking "Is this a good idea?" we should be asking "What can I test next to make this the right idea?" We should be focused on the action of progress, not silly second guessing. The Hires are Wrong Established companies have tons of people that are there because over enough time someone has figured out who's reasonably competent enough to keep the job. We just started this thing 5 minutes ago — there's no possible way we're going to know who the perfect hires are. So we have to compress some time. We have to make lots and lots and lots of hires to quickly find out who the good ones are. Which of course means we also have to part company with a ton of people very quickly! We can sit around and try to pretend we know exactly who to hire or how they will perform, but it's not going to happen. We're building a product that has never existed, with a team that just got here with systems that we're making up as we go. There's zero chance we're going to know exactly who's a fit for this clustermuck. Marketing is Wrong We'd love to think we could kick off our marketing on exactly the right channels that will yield the perfect ROI. But how would we know what those are exactly? We don't. As a guy who watched clients burn through billions of dollars of ad spend in my first company (ad agency) I can tell you — it's shoot and pray. That's not because we're not trying to make informed decisions; it's because we need to test channels long enough to figure out what works. Not to mention most channels that could work actually don't work the first 10 times we try because we don't have all the pieces right yet (placement, offer, and product). Let's Build a "Culture of Wrong" A long time ago when I was forming Startups.com I finally stepped back and said "You know what, I'm going to do this one differently. I'm going to go into everything with "I'm probably wrong..." and be OK with that. It was the best decision I ever made for our culture. That's because we're not in the business of fortune telling, we're in the business of turning the future into the present through an unreasonable persistence of tiny edits. That mentality is something we need to not only bake into our own minds but into the entire fabric of our culture and everyone in it. When we all start off with "wrong," we're all aligned on getting to "right." [Read this Article Again Here]( Grow Your Startup Like Crazy Without Giving up a Penny of Equity We see you, Founder. Alone and lonely with a million tabs open on your computer, losing track of what needs to get done. You’re tired, stressed, and can’t possibly juggle it all. The startup clock is ticking and it’s only a matter of time before [you can’t keep up anymore](. Marketing? Forget about it, you don’t know how to write compelling copy that converts. Customer Acquisition — you don’t even know where to start, and your Facebook ads aren’t cutting it. Funding? Forget about it. Your pitch deck is a mess of flashy icons and even if an investor is interested, they’re going to want more than half of your company in equity anyway. But this is your idea, your dream. You don’t want to give it all away (or any of it for that matter). We know all this because we’ve done all of this, which is why we created [a platform built for Founders, by Founders](. No more guessing or going at it alone — the Startups.com Accelerator is a one-stop shop with everything you need to take your company from idea validation to successful startup. We create custom plans depending on where you are on your startup journey. You tell us what you want to achieve, we'll build a kick-ass plan to get it done fast. Not only that, but members also have exclusive access to: - Connect Directly with Experts - Curated Peer Groups - Funding Guidance - Interactive Courses - Workshops Taught by Founders - And Over $25k in Member Benefits “What Startups has built is a platform that can help you at every stage of growth.” — Nate Checketts, Founder (RAISED $50M+) We’ve already helped thousands of Founders just like you reach milestone after milestone, now it’s your turn. Give your startup the support it needs to bring your idea to total fruition — [get started with Startups.com today](. In Case You Missed It [How Do I Design My Startup Around My Life?]( There’s very little preventing us from designing our startups around our life goals. It starts with us being very clear about what we want to achieve and then taking clear, small steps toward those outcomes. [How Much Should I Be Working? (podcast)]( While there's truth to the assumption that more hours equal more growth, we'll explore how it benefits to think quality and not quantity when it comes to your weekly punch card. [Many Startups Shut Down a Few Times Before Succeeding]( Most startups are not overnight successes. In fact, many of them have to shut down (sometimes more than once) to build back up to the success they eventually achieve. Love this topic? Hate it? Let's chat on social media! Wil Schroter Founder & CEO @ Startups.com [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( Copyright © 2022 Startups.com, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined Startups.com. Our mailing address is: Startups.com 1201 Dublin RoadColumbus, OH 43215 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.