When you are running a startup, it seems that you can work all the hours of the day, and even that doesn’t feel like enough.
Doing tasks most of which won’t matter in the long run anyway because there won’t be a long run.
There are only 4 things that founders need to focus on and get right. The rest is noise.
Cash
Either from your founding round and / or revenue, this is your number 1 priority. As Google’s Eric Schmidt says ‘revenue solves all problems’. Unless you start generating revenue (and so prove the product-market fit), your biz is likely to be just an expensive hobby, an intellectual challenge, or an academic experiment.
People
Think about your journey as going on a roadtrip in a bus. You want to make sure you have the right people with you, sitting in the right seats. Some might get off and new ones come onboard. Some swap seats. And you all sign your favorite songs together.
Strategy
Building core tech is not enough. You need to build a product and then a business. What is your vision? Where does your revenue come from in 3 years time? In 10 years time? How will you get there? What are the things that matter and the ones you will say ‘no’ to?
Execution
Even the best strategy with enough cash in the bank and with the greatest team gets you nowhere unless you are able to execute your strategy. Changing priorities too often, having an ‘everything is urgent and important’ culture just screams lack of execution and even strategy.
Verne Harnish talks about these areas in his book ‘Scaling Up’, in case you are looking for some practical advice on each.