You're A Pirate - There Are No Rules...

Think creatively and don't follow the establishment- July 8th

Last week I wrote about a founder who was becoming blinkered to the opportunity he had created by fixating on scale. This adherence to a set of steps is one of the curiosities of start ups. Start up founders are by definition mavericks – swashbuckling pirates of the modern business world who don’t accept the status quo and play by the established rules. The very act of starting and founding a business is based on a need or desire to do things differently, to shake things up and not to play buy the rules. What's curious is that once this rebellious decision has been made lots of founders then inadvertently start playing by the rules.

 Don’t get me wrong- I think playbooks are essential and a fantastic tool for all founders. However unless you have an investor insisting you do certain things in a very specific and prescribed way then playbooks are more of a guide. This is even more so when bootstrapping when a lot of the investor led advice simply doesn’t work or have merit for your circumstances. What is essential for all founders is to think creatively,  to think outside the box, from left field, etc. To be always asking why do you do it like that and equally importantly why should you think about it that way.

 Another founder I was recently talking to was in a similar but slightly different situation to the one I wrote about last week. They had successfully started  a business.  They had landed a large corporate client who they had successfully developed a product for. It fixed a solution, the client paid well and they made a considerable margin. The client would need it refreshed each year. So far so good. However the solution they had built while profitable and renewable each year was only relevant for that specific client. It didn’t solve a problem for anyone else. The founder had an idea of where there was a common problem that might be where he could find product market fit but it wasn’t where this initial project was. He was not only disappointed but he was thinking of not continuing to work for this specific large client even though the amount of work was actual quite minimal as he felt it was a distraction.

He was surprised when I congratulated him, telling him he had achieved a huge milestone and one that would underpin his business. The issue was that he wasn’t thinking about the client correctly or in the right frame. He was fixed on finding product market fit with a solution that would underpin growth. This single client solution didn’t tick that box so he was dismissing it. When I pointed out that he now had a source of funding each year without giving up any equity the penny dropped. He now had almost guaranteed funding, which for any bootstrapper is gold, from which he could deploy his and his teams time to find product market fit.

 Once he stared thinking about it in that sense all the worry about how much time he was spending dealing with the client and responding to requests all dissipated, as he now viewed the client as his source of cash and wanted to treat them accordingly.

This happened to us at RFI. One of our first clients came from a sector we weren’t selling to and needed a product that was only vaguely related to what we were trying to do. We provided a bespoke solution for them each year for five years and that was effectively how we bankrolled starting our business. They took up a significant amount of our  time as founders but the margin they provided funded our business so we were happy to treat them in the same way we would treat investors – no request was too much.

 A large cornerstone client can also underpin growth as you start to expand. By being smart and looking at their product spread or geographic spread you can effectively map your product or market evolution to match. This means that with every new product or market launch you have a founder client ready in your pocket to go. If you’re doing a good job of providing great UX and fixing their problem in one area then its more than likely that they will be happy to work with you in other areas. Will they be hugely demanding? Probably.

 Once you start thinking about them as a source of funding for your start up I doubt you will hesitate go that extra mile and to wow and delight them. Whether it’s how you think about bespoke clients or product launches that fail or the need to scale as opposed to just fast growth, it's crucial you think outside the box.

As a start up founder you’re a maverick , a rebel and a modern day pirate. You're playing in the space where the usual laws don’t apply so embrace it.  Ignore the rules- there are none :)