Every entrepreneur kind of knows they should focus on core. But what does ‘core’ mean? Over the last 3 months I’ve had a break from blogging, have also spent a lot less time reading blogs and have been paying particular attention to whether what I’ve been doing has been ‘core’. Other big distractions from core that I’ve been trying to minimise have been:
- Events
- Meetings
- Emails
that aren’t with users or advertisers. I found one of Venture Hacks co-founder Nivi’s recent tweets particularly thought-provoking:
“Email is a to-do list that other people get to write on.”
Perhaps you should ask yourself whose to-do list is more important next time you’re stuck answering emails in your inbox and sacrificing your own to-do list. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that many of the most successful entrepreneurs aren’t the best at answering their emails on time.
Marc Andreesen’s blog post The only thing that matters does a particularly good job of explaining what ‘core’ is and why it is core – the post concludes:
“The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.“
where product/market fit is defined as “being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market”. Andreesen contends that the reason a lot of startups fail is because they never get to product/market fit. He divides the life of any startup into two parts: before product/market fit (call this “BPMF”) and after product/market fit (call this “APMF”). And his advice is therefore:
“When you are BMPF, focus obsessively on getting to product/market fit. Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don’t want to, telling customers yes when you don’t want to, raising that fourth round of highly dilutive venture capital – whatever is required.
When you get right down to it, you can ignore almost everything else.
I’m not suggesting that you do ignore everything else – just that judging from what I’ve seen in successful startups, you can.“
Other thought-leading entrepreneurs express this in their own way:
“This is different than when another startup raises $5 million. We won’t rush out there and start hiring like mad. We just wanted to have the funding issue taken care of so we could focus on the product and users.”
— Paul Buchheit on closing FriendFeed’s Series A funding round
“Do whatever would make users love you so much that they spontaneously recommend you to their friends.”
— Paul Graham in response to a “How to prioritize” question on Hacker News
“Figure out what the important things are, and spend lots time on those and little on the rest. Lots of startups work very hard, but on the wrong things. They still die an untimely death.”
— Sam Altman as part of his Hacker News post More advice for new Y Combinator founders
In the discussion Sam went on to elaborate on what those important things were:
“Good:
-Things that will get you more revenue
-Things that will get you more users (and thus hopefully revenue)
-Things that will make your product better (and thus hopefully more users)
-Things that will get you great hires (and thus hopefully better products)
-Focusing on the right market
Bad:
-Going to events at business schools or ‘networking’ with the people that do”
Unfortunately following all this advice is much harder than it first appears in my experience. ‘Walking the path’ is different to ‘knowing the path’. Mahatma Gandhi said:
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
and I think you can apply this to startups. A startup is happiest (read: being optimally executed) when what the team members think, what the team members say to each other (and write in their operational/short-term [not necessarily the business] plan1), and what the team members do are in harmony.
I believe the key reason startup founders struggle to walk the path is that they’re not good enough at saying “no”2. Whether it’s “no” to features, “no” to events, “no” to meetings or “no” to checking and answering their emails, you have to be able to say “no” ruthlessly. Otherwise you get distracted from core. The most difficult and unnatural thing about this for a lot of entrepreneurs is that we’re optimists by nature. We’re open-minded and like having new and diverse experiences. We like saying “yes” to people and opportunities.
Now I’m certainly not saying you should work 24/7 — in fact the workaholism debate Jason Calcanis recently sparked deserves a whole post to itself. What I’m saying here applies whether you work 9-5 5 days/week or are an aspiring Uberman.
So, if your startup is BPMF, next time you’re wondering whether to say “yes” to something, ask yourself the question: “Will this get us closer to product/market fit?” and if the answer is no, focus on core.
Notes
1 I’m making the assumption here that startups rarely include non-core activities in their operational plans.
2 I also discussed the importance of being able to say “no” in Tricky Business back in February.
Posted by davidlanger 
On 19th April 2008 at the Kresge Auditorium, Stanford University, 11 of the key players in tech entrepreneurship shared their wisdom on startups at the 4th annual Startup School conference. Andy and I had the pleasure of attending along with 500 other aspiring hackers and entrepreneurs from around the world.
Freed from The Matrix 