VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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Continuing with weathering the storm, after you’ve accepted reality it’s time to take a hard look at your “priorities.”
I’m reading “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown right now, it’s phenomenal and I highly recommend it. Early on in the book, he points out that the word priority was singular since its inception. It was only during the late industrial revolution that the plural priorities came into use. Priority literally means that there is nothing prior.
Therefore you cannot have more than one priority.
When you’re fighting to keep your company afloat, your priority is the survival of your business. Examine every product, every initiative, every hire, every fire, every meeting, with the singular “priority” in mind. Anything you’re hanging on to, for any reason, other than immediately contributing to the success of your business is a sacred cow.
What are the things that you’re making excuses for? Those are your sacred cows. Those are the first things that need to go.
What is the thing that you are so desperately clinging to? Is it relevant? And is it going to help your business get through these next few turbulent weeks and then through the next trying months? Find those sacred cows and banish them. All that matters is that you’re building a product that customers love and will pay you for. Nothing else matters.
If you’re in the eye of the storm, accept reality, banish sacred cows, and focus on the priority. When you have customers beating a path to your door, the fundraising will follow.
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