Getting from Zero to One in Your Startup (3) The Hidden Passage: A Succession of Firsts

This is part of my Series on Getting from Zero to One.

Take a look at that map of yours for a moment and let your eye roam around it clockwise: Mentor, Team, Technology/Product, Partnerships/Customers and Funding.  Yes they’re all inter-related, one affecting the other to a large extent- but you can’t worry about that now.  If you choose well and execute, success in one will often lead to success in another. You have mapped out the big picture, but now it's time for granularity. You will break your company down into its component parts and ask yourself these simple questions: Did I find my mentor yet? Who exactly do I need on my team at this juncture? What will it take me to get a beta version or prototype built? Where is my first partnership or customer? What is the minimum funding I need to get through this first stage? Can I provide it or will it need to come from someone else?

You’re after a succession of firsts all at once, nothing more and nothing less.

First mentor… First team member…. First version of the product…. First beta customer…. First money in….. Each is a major milestone and each should be thrilling to you. Individually these initial steps in each category may seem modest, but when executed in their totality, something absolutely magical happens to your startup. It is something I have marveled at time and time again when I see it occur and I consider it to be one of the great hidden forces at play in the realm of entrepreneurship. Suddenly, as if by some magic spell, the world begins looks at you and your company differently. What has happened here? 

From nothingness you have created Value.

And the delicate needle trembles, moving slowly away from “zero” and tantalizingly close to “one”.  The crowd begins to murmur now…. very softly, almost in a whisper…. “zero to one…. zero to one….. zero to one……”

For Part Four in this Series, click here.

Comments

[Kunal]

Thanks a lot for this series....

Wonderful wonderful guidance

Thanks a lot again...

[Dave Lerner]

glad you find it helpful Kunal. -dave

[Peter]

You're absolutely right about the succession of firsts. Adrenaline induced excitement!

But what about the first seemingly insurmountable obstacle that threatens (or even kills) the very core of your business? We all have overcome significant obstacles and even conquered the impossible...we are entrepreneurs!

But when do you know it's really over? What is your first indication that you're done?

If you pack it up too soon, you miss the opportunity. If you pack it in too late, you hurt several people around you.

[Dave Lerner]

This is a very heavy-duty issue and I will not pretend to have some generalized approach. Rather, I can only draw on my experience of having such events happen to me twice in startups. I will do a blog post about this issue. Nevertheless, I do think I can say that you must not overreact in the early stages of such an event. As crushing as this sort of news can be, try to stay as cool as possible and don't overreact and despair in the beginning. As dark as things may look, there may be a way through yet!

[Peter Ban]

Thanks, David. I very much look forward to your next post on the issue. "When in Hell...keep walking."

[Dave Lerner]

Thanks for that slogan... it's something to live by as an entrepreneur... this is why I love writing this blog- I'm always learning and exchanging ideas/thoughts/attitudes with great people...

[Sean Murphy]

First prospect, first customer, and first partner are what I would focus on as firsts. They represent real traction.

[Dave Lerner]

agree totally.... and when it's a first time entrepreneur, a mentor is very important as well in my opinion...

[Peter Ban]

Here is another important first: the first time you act upon the notion that there is a solution to every problem...and then actually find the solution. Once you accomplish that, you'll do it again and again.

David, thanks for your encouragement. We may have found "the way though" (as you say) toward a much stronger position.