Your Company, Your Rules

“Just get the f*ing deal done, “ I screamed into the phone.

“Sheesh, you’re the sales guy. I’m paying you thousands of dollars just to make a phone call to finish negotiating this contract. Easy peasy”, I thought. But of course, it wasn’t easy and I couldn’t do it myself, that’s why I needed Gabe to close the deal for me.  

Years later, I don’t remember all the messy details or the rest of the conversation. But I just feel great shame recalling this incident. 

No, unfortunately, this is not your usual inspirational essay. I did not grow by pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I did not become better at relating to people. I did not, receive good coaching. Most of all, I did not grow to become a wise manager, loved by all. Alas, I’m still this nerdy, introverted, awkward founder who still has lots to learn about managing.

But I did learn, or maybe evolve is a better word, a different lesson.

When figuring out what kind of startup businesses to create, I now only consider ones that play to my strengths. And perhaps more importantly, drop ones which require doing things I am bad at.

The biggest change that Next Small Things made, compared to my previous ventures, was that we decided to focus entirely on creating businesses that didn’t require sales and marketing folks!

In my first two startups I helped found, the people I felt least connected to were the sales people - even though they were warm, friendly and gregarious, and made an effort to make me feel welcome. 

Salespeople loved to talk about American sports like baseball and football which I didn’t even know the rules of the game or the different player roles. Even when a conversation wasn’t about sports, there were these obscure sports metaphors that would creep into the discussion leaving me perplexed, if only subconsciously. Another favorite topic would be celebrities. My inability to keep up with their misbehaviors and drama left me often with nothing to say whenever the conversation led in that direction.

But as a geeky immigrant, I found it much easier to discuss issues and problems that were relatively independent of a cultural context. It was much easier to relate to colleagues when there were common, culturally neutral problems to solve. When computer geeks joke about O(log n) vs O(n²) efficiency, there aren’t many cultural cues you need to pick up on.

Feeling connected as a team mattered. Take, for example, a staff meeting from hell during the final months of my last venture-backed startup, ShoppingList. Half of the deals in our sales pipeline had fallen through, and sales was pointing fingers at product and engineering, claiming we were building the wrong product—one that retailers didn’t want. Meanwhile, business development was eager to close a half-million-dollar deal with AOL, promising a massive influx of traffic. But with sales projections plummeting, was that a wise move? Every department was screaming for attention, each fighting for its own agenda. Without strong rapport, how could I rise above the chaos and weave a coherent narrative and strategy? What would a great leader do?

I had no sales aptitude and couldn’t even assess who would make a good salesperson. After interviews, I’d wonder: how could I judge someone’s sales ability when I was so bad at it myself? This realization made me arrive at my one and only rule at Next Small Things: When figuring out what to build next, choose one that doesn’t require sales people. 

How do you run a tech product company without sales? Constraints are sometimes the mother of invention. When we decided to focus solely on products that didn’t require sales, they invariably led to consumer businesses. This led us to stumble upon the strategy of baking distribution into the product that I’ve talked about in previous pieces. Another huge factor was luck: Google Adsense emerged as a meaningful revenue stream for indie developers like us. 

This meant that as we created consumers services (like CoolChaser - our MySpace layout designer, or Gamers Unite, a tool that snagged bonuses for Facebook games) that grew to millions of users simply because users of the services themselves implicitly or explicitly helped spread the utility of our product. And then thanks to new services like Google Adsense, we could make money simply by having Google place ads on our web pages. Because we had lots of users using our services for free, these ads on web pages paid for our bills and then some.

Of course, you are likely not an immigrant or an awkward geek. And of course, my message is not to avoid sales people! Instead, my biggest realization is that when you start your own company, you get to write your own rules. That’s about the only advantage that a startup has over its mightier, established competitors. And if you introspect and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, perhaps you can create a company that plays to rules emphasizing your strengths and that makes your weaknesses irrelevant.

When you truly understand who you are and what you want, the universe unveils a unique path to success. I think this is an under-appreciated aspect of the adage: the journey is the reward.

I wished I had figured out all this much earlier. Perhaps, I wouldn’t have been so rude to Gabe and we might even have become friends—especially now that I’m a big Warriors fan and can glibly chat in sports metaphors.

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Thanks to

Louie Bacaj

,

Sandra Yvonne

,

Leo Ariel

,

dxh

, Wes Melville and John Cheong for the helpful feedback, encouragement and patience to help shape this piece. And

Rick Lewis

and

Kathy Ayers

for the early conversation that helped spark this piece.