The Startup Process - Two Rabbits & Wa-Wa

I always hear people talk about how ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is king. While I don’t disagree, few people go so far to describe what good startup execution looks like.

A friend and I were talking about this very subject and the idea of Wa-Wa came up. As I
he and I were discussing my latest idea (more on that in a future post), his advice was clear: “What Are We About?”

In other words, define what’s at your core and use it to focus.

For example, at Terra Soft we recognized that our Wa-Wa included two things: Linux and PowerPC microprocessors.

Over the years, we faced a number of critical decisions that could have dramatically altered our business. In each case, we returned to “What Are We About” and asked ourselves if the decision aligned. If it didn’t, we had to decide whether it made strategic sense to alter course. For us, the hardest part was saying “No” to deals that didn’t align and wouldn’t have made us better even if it meant turning down cash flow.

In starting up, have a mechanism to ensure that you stay focused yet have a tool to help you identify your strategic alternatives. All startups have to course correct. The key is making the right corrections soon enough to make a difference.