Startup, COVID and “Hard things”
What’s a startup?
“A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”
-Eric Ries
The last two words are extremely important. Startups are always under “extreme uncertainty”.
Last few days, we have heard about a lot of backlash as startups are laying off so many people in tough times. People are comparing company X to Y and giving examples of how X did not layoff but Y even with VC money laid off many people.
But, honestly, do we hire people as an entrepreneur so that we can drag them down this path? Do we really hire people to fire them at a certain time?
No. I have been one myself and met a lot of others who are really successful and no one wants to set up any employee who joins them with trust and enthusiasm for failure.
Many people will think that VC money lets us do that. NO. Sorry my friend you don’t understand the business then.
Startups are fast-growing, sometimes brutally exhaustive and draining but it is the speed of growth, innovation, and market dominance.
Do you think if Swiggy would have concentrated only on Bangalore for 5 years, it would have been difficult for any of us to set up similar food delivery in our respective cities? It is the innovation, speed of growth, and market dominance coupled with great execution that made them the leaders in that space.
COVID is unpredictable. The only one who predicted it was Bill gates maybe in 2015 in a TED talk. Sadly, it exposed some of the downsides of working in a start-up vs a million upsides.
But, these companies and a lot more new entrepreneurs will rise and we will again hire in great numbers and all companies that laid off will hire aggressively in the future (fingers crossed).
Let us not use this opportunity as an entrepreneur bashing or start-up bashing. Let us help people find a new job, a source of earning, and get away with this negativity.
For people, who are joining or working in startups or are willing to work, I strongly recommend “The Hard Thing About Hard things”.
The piece by Ben Horowitz is sometimes described as a book entrepreneurs must go through but I feel all the employees working in a start-up should also read it. It will widely broaden our point of view wrt founders. The battles that they go through, the dilemma and pain of letting go of world-class talent, the situations which can’t be told to the world but have to be acted upon.
Then maybe as an employee, we will know the risk-reward equation and also that a startup is not ONLY about learning, high salary, fancy offices, and esops. It is an institution of “Extreme uncertainty” which has the capability to change a lot of things or maybe the world but you cannot be sure of falling into the right side every single time.
PS: Also, my last company completely shut down its operations in Bangalore with a team of 40 people at the start of 2019, so I know how it feels to be on the other side.
