Solid startups are both fast and strong

There is a key difference between a startup and an established business:  startups move quickly.

Sure, that’s obvious, but the reasons for it aren’t.  Necessity plays a large part:  companies that don’t get funded fast, get customers fast, and displace their competitors fast can at least be fast in finding the Deadpool.  Beyond that, though, there is an equally important reason startups can move quickly:  startups have no history.

Or at least not a lot of history.  This is a big deal.  While the big companies lumber along under the burden of entrenched cultures, enshrined processes, existing product lines, deep politics, established workforce dimensions, and a host of other legacy attributes, the startup can create and change.  It is the one environment in which change is not only possible, but necessary.

In early 2009 I started Joseph Logan Global Advisors with two strong beliefs:

1. Startups are more fun.
2. Startups can do more to become as internally solid as they are externally attractive.

I’ve worked with businesses, governments, non-profits, and academic institutions for two decades and on five continents.  I managed the IT enterprise for a top pharma company across nine European countries.  I’ve taught strategy, IT, project management, communication, and team development at American University and Boston University, among others.  Most important, I have studied how organizations of all sizes and shapes behave, and specifically how innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship work.

Big companies are strong but not necessarily fast.  Startups are fast, but they are often deceptively fragile.  Starting a company is roughly akin to painting a Boeing 747 in full flight.  Everything happens all at once, and time and money are always against you.  As a result, a few patterns tend to show up:

• You make bad hiring decisions.
• You chase too many opportunities.
• You waste precious operating capital.
• You invent processes from scratch each time you do them.
• You get surprised by a business that grows too quickly.
• You get surprised by a business that grows too slowly.
• You pick the wrong co-founders.
• You pick the wrong investors.
• You pick the wrong advisors.
• You pick the wrong customers.
• You run out of cash.
• You run out of hope.

Experience tells me these things don’t have to happen, or if they do, they don’t have to tank your company.  I have worked for startups, advised startups, and–most revealing–I have been the buyer for many millions of dollars in business to startups and larger players.  I have seen a lot of startups make the same mistakes, and I have seen a few rise above them and realize meteoric growth.  I know there are choices that make a startup more solid.

Much of what comes out of the startup community generally and tech entrepreneurship specifically has a lot of brain but often lacks heart.  Much of what comes out of consulting and advisory circles has lots of heart but could use a little more brain.  I hope this blog can be a middle ground, one that discusses subjects like business savvy and self-awareness with equal respect and import.  Ultimately, I am most interested in what it takes to build companies right the first time–what makes them both fast and strong.  What makes them win again and again.

What makes them Solid Startups.