Manufacturing a Win -- What's Your Playbook?

So, how do you win? How do you you get to a place where you feel like you are coming out of startup mode? That you feel like you are getting the attention from customers that you deserve?

I get asked this a lot. When will I feel all of the above? The answer depends on a lot including a great team, a great leader and maybe most importantly a great product.

But without the following, its hard to succeed. I think. And its amazing to me how many entrepreneurs don't ask themselves or keep asking themselves these questions about their company. Here are a few boxes I believe you need to check.

 1. Does you company solve a problem. Great entrepreneurs start by solving a problem—not by thinking that they need to start a company. 

When I was creating hint, I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, I can’t wait to start a beverage company.” But I did feel, and see, that the big titans of the beverage world—Coca-Cola and Pepsi—didn’t have my back as a consumer, at least as it related to health. All they wanted was to sell me more stuff. More sugar and sweetened stuff. They didn’t care what sweeteners were doing to me.

SO that's the problem I was solving for consumers. Solving a problem that the big guys couldn't focus on.

Background. When I recognized what sweeteners were doing to me—causing a laundry list of health issues, from weight gain to energy loss to adult acne—I knew I had two choices. “I can become a lobbyist and try to fight the FDA tooth and nail on sweeteners,” I thought, “OR, I can develop hint and give consumers like me a delicious and healthy product without sweeteners.” For me, the latter seemed like the only feasible way to solve my problem.

Other entrepreneurs. Do you think Steve Jobs wanted to start a company? No. He wanted to build a better computer. Mark Zuckerberg? He wanted a better community. Sarah Blakely? Better pantyhose.

Lesson. Solve problems and the sales will come. So long as you have a great product of course.

2. Understand how your competitors think. Great entrepreneurs search for the “why” in their competition—and sometimes find out how they think.

In the early days of hint, I was struggling with figuring out how to create a shelf-stable product and get it into mass distribution. A friend gave me the name of an exec at Coke who offered to speak with me. As I shared my challenges, he quickly pointed out how consumers “want sweet” and that they were focused on calories and not words like “real” and “natural.” (He also thought that Whole Foods was a “fad,” and that San Francisco was not for “real people”—boy is John Mackey laughing now.)

The conversation was valuable because what it taught me was that he was thinking differently. I was going down one river and he another. Instead of convincing him that I was right and he was wrong, I thought, “I just learned a ton about how he has been taught to think. How can I use that to my advantage?” I took that and began to focus on how I could poke holes in his theory and product. I had confidence that a problem existed and that I could solve it; I didn’t need to spend time trying to convince him I was onto something.

Lesson. Network and you never know what you may find out. Even from naysayers and doubters. And from competitors, maybe you get a glimpse into their strategy too.

3. Find strength in your (small) size. Great entrepreneurs realize that the larger the company is, the tougher it is for them to turn the ship.

As your small company grows, the incumbents will watch you. They will become your biggest naysayers. Don’t listen. If you’re trying to solve a real problem, they can rarely cut you down. Or they can cut you down but the customer will eventually be only them if you are solving a real need.

What you have going for you is your small size. For a global corporation or a big national brand, being progressive and innovative is pretty well just plain hard. They have too much at stake. You and your nimble startup, however, have all the opportunity in the world to solve the problems that are risks for everyone else.

 Lesson. So, identify the problem. Keep it simple, focus, and execute. Don't be caught up in what the big guy is doing.

4. Hire differently. Great entrepreneurs recognize that PASSION trumps experience. 

When I was launching hint, a lot of my advisors and friends told me: “Since you don’t have beverage experience, hire people in the industry.” They couldn’t have been more off-base. Over the past 12 years, I’ve found that passion nearly always trumps experience.

Find people who believe in your mission. People who recognize there’s a problem and want to solve it. One of my biggest mistakes early on was hiring people with beverage experience. Why? Because I ended up having to train them to think differently and to see things my way—to unlearn what they’d learned from selling someone else’s product. And in our case, working under someone else's playbook.

Lesson. Hire people who “get it” and who are simply excited to find a solution to your problem, via whatever channels it takes. Who work hard. Who aren't clock punchers. Who want to better your company and truly believe they can.

What lessons are in your playbook? I’d love to hear.

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Kara Goldin is founder and CEO of Hint, the fastest-growing flavored water in the United States. Kara started Hint when she couldn't find a healthy flavored water that tasted great without questionable additives like sweeteners and preservatives. Hint Water has 0 sugar and 0 diet sweeteners, and can be purchased in stores as well as online, in a variety of flavors including blackberry and watermelon, in still and sparkling, as well as caffeinated. Hint recently made its foray into beauty with a new naturally scented sunscreen spray with no oxybenzone or parabens. 

Also, check out Kara's newest endeavor The Kara Network for stories of entrepreneurs and founders.