{"id":924,"date":"2014-12-30T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.thinkapps.com\/?p=924"},"modified":"2016-03-31T17:04:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:04:04","slug":"how-start-startup-things-dont-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkapps.com\/blog\/post-launch\/how-start-startup-things-dont-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start a Startup: Doing Things That Don’t Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re starting a\u00a0startup, your big ideas can get in the way of taking those small, necessary steps in the beginning\u00a0and you can end up stumbling around, hoping that you fall into the right place. But it turns out those early baby steps are pivotal for finding product-market fit.<\/em><\/p>\n

As part of\u00a0Y Combinator<\/a>\u00a0President\u00a0Sam Altman\u2019s<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0series on How to Start a Startup<\/a>\u00a0at Stanford University<\/span><\/span>, founders talked<\/a> about those early steps and acting on what YC alumni call \u201cDoing Things That Don\u2019t Scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

(For more startup advice, check out\u00a0How to Start a Startup: The Book<\/a><\/em>. It’s\u00a0the ultimate reference guide to creating a successful tech startup.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meet the YC Alumni Founders<\/h2>\n

Stanley Tang<\/a> of DoorDash<\/a> set out to discover\u00a0how to make technology that could help solve problems for small businesses. Turns out, a big problem for small business is establishing a delivery infrastructure.<\/p>\n

So, Stanley and his would-be cofounders put together a super touch-and-go website with a few menus for people in Palo Alto to order food from a variety of local restaurants.<\/p>\n

The idea gained traction, and with only an hour of site-building and many conversations with local business owners, DoorDash was started just like that, with the founders as the delivery people and a super simple website.<\/p>\n

Walker Williams<\/a>, Teespring<\/a>\u00a0founder and CEO, also operated from\u00a0this school of thought. His company allows people to launch product and apparel brands without risk, cost or compromise.\u00a0In his early stages, he found that listening to customers was as\u00a0pivotal as acting quickly on the insights he gained.<\/p>\n

By abiding by the idea of \u201cdoing things that don\u2019t scale,\u201d these founders were able to harness the control and energy of a small startup team that (at the beginning<\/a>) doesn\u2019t need to have all of the answers. It\u2019s a process of using the resources you have to accomplish what you need right then and using those efficient solutions you build early on as a foundation for success.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the best way to see if something works, and to see if people will love it, is to just put it out there with the minimal resources you have. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Tang put it, \u201c<\/span>We just launched because at the beginning it’s all about testing the idea, trying to get this thing off the ground, and figuring out if this was something people even wanted. And it’s okay to hack things together at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some great approaches covered by Tang and Williams to guide you in doing things that don\u2019t scale.<\/p>\n

Treat Your Startup Like an Experiment<\/h2>\n

You\u2019re probably really attached to your big idea, and that\u2019s great. But, as with most ideas, when it leaves your head and gets some air you\u2019ll find that it may not ignite with everyone in the way that you were hoping. That\u2019s probably because not everyone is like\u00a0you, which is okay.<\/p>\n

In order to \u201croll with the punches,\u201d you\u2019ve got to stay flexible, nimble and open to potential changes you see for your company, so you can continue to learn and grow even if it\u2019s not in ways you were expecting.<\/p>\n

Williams of Teespring believes strongly in turning your users into champions with a memorable, delightful<\/a> experience. This is how you\u2019ll continue to test your hypothesis (aka your big idea).<\/p>\n

Even if someone has left your service with a negative experience, he says that you should always do everything you can to make it right. As many restaurants on Yelp<\/a> would attest, it only takes one dissatisfied user to taint your entire image online.<\/p>\n

Williams says that, no matter what goes wrong, \u201cYou just have to bite the bullet and make sure it’s right. And the customers who are originally the most frustrated tend to turn into the biggest champions and the longest-term users.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you make it clear in your head that nothing is set in stone, then when you\u2019re getting that invaluable feedback from your users \u2014 good or bad \u2014 you\u2019ll be able to hear it with a more open mind and you\u2019ll be amped to improve the experience for them and future users.<\/p>\n

Williams adds, \u201cThe quicker you talk to users and learn what they actually need, the faster you can get to [scale].\u201d<\/p>\n

Short-Term Solutions Lead to Long-Term Solutions<\/h2>\n

DoorDash’s\u00a0small startup team pieced together tools they already knew how to use to assemble a makeshift system that worked for them in those early stages: Square<\/a> to receive payments, a Google Doc<\/a> to track orders and Apple\u2019s Find My Friends<\/a> to keep track of where their drivers were. In the beginning, that\u2019s all okay.<\/p>\n

With a small team, small mistakes are just that, but with a big team and a lot of man power, small mistakes have a bigger impact. So it\u2019s good\u00a0to weed out as many mistakes as possible in the beginning to find solutions that really work best.<\/p>\n

Even as you continue to build on these short-term solutions and begin turning them into more permanent systems, scaling shouldn\u2019t be your ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

Williams explains, \u201cThe lesson that I’ve been learning lately is that you want to do things that don’t scale as long as possible\u2026[It\u2019s] one of your biggest advantages as a company, and the moment you give it up, you’re giving your competitors that are smaller and can still do these things that advantage over you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Become an Expert in Every Aspect of Your Business<\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re the founder\/customer support team\/operations department, you really get to see how the ins and outs of your business flow \u2026 or don\u2019t flow. With a strong base and a complete understanding of your customers, you can gradually make solutions for your company that are more intentional and less experimental.<\/p>\n

While launching Teespring, Williams found that it was invaluable for\u00a0the founders to do whatever it took to bring in users themselves. This means putting in a lot of extra time with those early customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not expect to spend an hour and return thousands of dollars,” he says. “For most of us, those first two users are going to take a lot of handholding, a lot of personal love, and that’s okay \u2014\u00a0that’s essential for building a company.”<\/p>\n

It’s important to note that just because you\u2019re taking small steps doesn\u2019t mean that you’re moving slowly. In fact, quite the opposite. As you continue to learn more and more about your business and get a system in place, it\u2019s important that you move fast because the market is moving fast. If you get stuck and dwell on one thing, the market won\u2019t wait for you.<\/p>\n

Finding Product-Market Fit<\/h2>\n

The biggest perk\u00a0of doing things that don\u2019t scale is that you can continue morphing and adapting until you find the perfect little niche<\/a>\u00a0\u2014the little hole that your company has been built to fill.<\/p>\n

So, especially in the early days of your business, Walker says it\u2019s important to keep in mind that \u201cthe product you launch with will almost certainly not be the product that takes you to scale. So your job in those early days of a startup is to progress and iterate as fast as possible to reach that product that does have market fit<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smaller and more nimble you are, the faster you\u2019ll be able to get closer to that next point of scale and eventually finding your market fit. To keep your eyes on what\u2019s attainable, Williams says to \u201conly worry about the next order of magnitude \u2026 [S]o when you have your tenth user, you shouldn’t be wondering how you are going to serve one million users.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you look at these short-term goals as breadcrumbs, they\u2019ll lead you right where you need to be.<\/p>\n

Take-Home Message<\/h2>\n

The biggest takeaway of\u00a0these startups’ early success stories is to start small, hit the ground running,\u00a0and don\u2019t slow down until you\u2019re truly prepared to scale.<\/p>\n

Like any startup venture, this process will test your tenacity, your patience and even your dedication. But if you stay light on your feet, listen to your users, and don\u2019t stop\u00a0until they\u2019re satisfied, you\u2019ll have the foundation of a sustainable business model and the experience to keep growing with confidence.<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n

You can read a full transcript of Tang and Williams’s lecture here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, if you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out\u00a0How to Start a Startup: The Book<\/a><\/em>. It’s\u00a0the ultimate reference guide to creating a successful tech startup.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

Featured image of Walker Williams was taken from the video of this lecture<\/a>\u00a0at Stanford University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When starting a startup, you’ve got to stay nimble and adaptable until you find product-market fit. Learn how from Y Combinator alumni.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[91,46,90,107,95],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Start a Startup: Doing Things That Don't Scale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When starting a startup, you've got to stay nimble and adaptable until you find product-market fit. 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