Sucking in your Entrepreneurial Gut
I’m right there with you. We all do it – well, except those genetic freaks who basically started doing crunches at birth to get their fourteen packs. But for the rest of us… we stand in front of the mirror and suck it in.
It’s human nature. My guess is if lions or tigers or gorillas had guts, they’d probably suck theirs in. Turns out animals in the wild with guts get eaten by some other animal without a gut. So guts aren’t really a thing in the wild I’m guessing (or that’s my logic anyways).
Your (Entrepreneurial) Gut
We all have our own sort of gut. It’s that thing that you wish wasn’t there or didn’t exist or could be better, but you just don’t quite have it nailed. So you suck it in. And this is true for entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs – but today, I’m looking at all the other entrepreneurs out there.
- It’s probably the fact that your users aren’t monetizing well – but traction, yeah, you’ve got lots of users.
- Or maybe its the fact that you’ve got a retention issue. They come and some stay, but a lot don’t.
- How about the classic, “Is this a feature or a company” question? Maybe that’s the gut.
- What about the “we outsourced all the development to India” gut? That’s a good one.
There are no perfect startups, yours included. Every startup is by its very nature flawed. I think of startups a lot like one of those squeeze balls where whenever you squeeze on one side, another bit squirts out through the gap in your thumb and forefinger.
That’s startups. Sure, don’t pose for your photoshoot on TechCrunch or VentureBeat (sounds like TigerBeat, eh?) with your gut hanging out. But they know… you aren’t “crushing it” and there are some airbrushed abs at play.
Find a place to let it out
Of course you are honest with your team (or hopefully at least your senior team/cofounders). Great, glad to see you letting your gut out while you are on the couch watching the NFL.
But I’d urge every entrepreneur to find a place to let it out. It’s that steam room at the gym where dudes with HUGE guts have been letting theirs hang out for years. Go find those dudes… or find other entrepreneurs like you… or find an advisor or investor you trust.
- Share that your fundraising isn’t going well.
- Talk about how you may need to take a job to pay the bills and your spouse is pissed at you.
- Open up about your latest hire being a douche.
- You aren’t the first startup to struggle with the TC dip.
- And yup, user acquisition, retention and monetization… those are all f-ing hard.
The biggest point of growth for me as an entrepreneur was when I stopped sucking it in around the circle of trust (you know who you are) and started opening up to real feedback and guidance. Turns out you aren’t the first entrepreneur to suck at many things – you are just the first today.
And the funny thing is that the entrepreneurs who know the realities of starting a company are already judging you behind your back when you say you are “crushing it.” They know the realities and know the challenges – and if you come to them with questions, honesty and your gut hanging out, you’ll find a friendly person who can tell you it’s okay and how they handled it.
So find a place to be yourself, to let your gut hang out and heck, do the truffle shuffle.