7 Things We Got Right Before Winding Down My Startup

The wind-down of Meenta wasn’t all poopoo platter. We did many things right that I am personally very proud of. Things that I would repeat and do even more of!?

It’s often much easier to see the mistakes we make. We even discount what we are actually very good at because that’s in the past. However, these strengths are the cornerstones upon which to build even greater success in the future.

I am sharing the 7 things we actually got right!?

1st Strength: We built a strong team anchored by a “hustle test”. ?We didn't hire an entire squad of "A" players because we realized the importance of this a little late. However, we made up for it by implementing a data-driven screening process that minimized our own biases. Here's how it worked;

• Crafted an unconventional and fun job description, firmly rooted in our WHY.
• Asked candidates to take our "Hustle Test."
• If they passed, they got to pitch their results to our leadership team.
• A "culture" team, excluding executives, gauged their fit within our organization.
• We scored candidates based on nine factors inspired by Daniel Kahneman's work, averaged the scores, and extended the offer.

Trust me, whenever we deviated from hiring the top scorers, regret soon followed - especially when we compromised on high EQ and low ego.

2nd Strength: We were capital efficient. We were experts at stretching every dollar. We mastered the art of negotiating with vendors, squeezing out every last cent from each subscription. See, I wasn't the best at raising mountains of money, so we tailored our financial model to our team's strengths rather than the other way around. Our mantra? Prioritize the team over the model. We aimed for upfront payments to mitigate risk and arranged customer payments over several months to ensure smoother revenue flow.

3rd Strength: We knew how to attract and close deals. We were doers, not just dreamers. As a Hungarian, I've always appreciated grounded team members with their feet firmly planted. Remarkably, we closed a seven-figure deal without even having a product, securing a 25% upfront payment.

4th Strength: We didn’t do business with people who didn't fit our culture. We turned down money from investors, customers, and partners who didn't share our values. Trust me, I learned the hard way, regretting deals that had to be terminated too late in the sales cycle. We even embraced Reed Hastings'/Netflix "No Rules Rule" philosophy, which we made mandatory reading during new employee onboarding. In fact, we had a concise one-pager summarizing our values for new hires:

#GiveFirst

#ThickSkinKindHeart

#OwnIt

#BeTheCustomer

#SeekBalance

5th Strength: We were data-driven and knew our revenue formula and levers. We worshipped data and wielded our revenue formula and levers with precision. Our OKR (Objectives and Key Results) process became a religious practice. We stuck with it until it felt like second nature. Special thanks to Christian Magel and Brian Denenberg at Venture Lane | Startup Hub for enlightening us. Our OKRs allowed us to create crystal-clear Key Results linked to KPIs that seamlessly flowed into our financials. We painstakingly constructed a KPI dashboard that ultimately unveiled our revenue formula: site visits x conversions x AOV = revenue. Kudos to Mert Hilmi Iseri (Math Ventures) and ?? Clement Cazalot (Machinery Partners) for nudging me in this direction. Here is an older version of the dashboard before we put everything into Klipfolio;

6th Strength: We built the company around “THE WHY”.? I asked every single person in the company to start with our WHY when talking to customers, new employees, or investors. All of our business proposals are stated very clearly with our WHY. Yes, we had a document that explained the WHY to all new employees.? Our WHY was;

“We believe in changing how diagnosis are made.? We believe in labs without borders. So that every organization, provider & individual has ACCESS.”??

We then supported this with the WHATS and HOWS. Most importantly we PRACTICED these, our values and the No Rules principles as we interacted as a team. I thank Mark Achler at Math Ventures for asking me to consider this.

7th Strength: We built a rock-solid customer success and product launch process. In an industry that is fragmented and outdated making “Happy Customers” our #1 OKR forced us to develop KRs that focused on the “what” and “how” to make them happy. We learned that both the pre-purchase and post-purchase experience was key to our high customer retention which also drove our >30% referral rate!? Our test onboarding process was painful to get in place, but once rolling resulted in 20 new tests on the site each month.

This Is The Way!