Detexian

Spent most of the day tapping into Gareth Kennedy, PhD's vast knowledge on #artficialintelligence and #machinelearning today. As always, trying to find more ways to help Detexian's clients gain more insight into their #saas data to identify #security #misconfiguration and #risks.

I mentioned yesterday that a #startup's runway can be too long because it leads to bloat and complacency. At Detexian we have kept our #team pretty small for a long time and have built an exciting product that way. However, a very large team can often be the result of an excessively long #runway. Here is what I think is lost over that: ?? Low team management #overhead. When everyone talks to everyone, a lot of things just work automatically. There is a lot less need to formalise every minor goal. Instead, team management can be focused on what matters to the team and the product. ?? More #engagement with the #product. When everyone is separated from any part of the product by no more than one degree, a sense of ownership usually forms naturally. Everyone works for the product and knows what it is. ?? Small number of concurrent #goals. When there aren't many people to do the work, #prioritisation is crucial. To achieve any goal, the goals need to be realistic and there can't be too many different ones being worked towards at any given time. That forces focus which helps the product.

I've noticed that while founders and investors often share opinions about #startups, early #employees hardly ever do. So, I've decided to share a few thoughts on #runway from the perspective from someone who was in charge of execution in multiple start-ups now without ever having been a founder. ??Runway can be too long. This is the counter-intuitive one at first glance. But, imagine a pilot in a runway that is 10 times as long as his plane would need. The likely outcome is that you'll start treating it as a never ending road and when the end of the runway eventually comes, you are surprised by it. So, when you have the runway you need, focus on #execution. ??The runway has to fit the product. If you only have a short runway, you might need to take off in a Cessna rather than an A380. Better to be airborne in a small plane than skid off the end of the runway. Plan your product according to the runway you have. ?? Don't build runway just a few meters ahead. If your plane is always just a few meters from the end of the runway, you'll be too busy building runway to focus on taking off. Build runway, then focus on your product, rinse and repeat but keep the cycles as long as you can. #startuplife (Photo by Simon Hurry on Unsplash)