The Startup Vision: Shock and Inspire

A vision is the critical lynchpin for any world-changing startup. It will serve as the most powerful means of attracting talented people, money, and the other resources needed to survive the ups and downs of launching a new business. Your vision must be “worth it” for you to spend the next decade of your life working and sacrificing to achieve the end goal.

A great company vision does two things, “Shock and Inspire”.

Shock

If your vision of the future is accepted by most people you present it to, you aren’t thinking boldly enough. Look beyond the next 2-3 years and think about how your work will change the world in 20 years. You don’t have all the pieces in place to realize that new world today, but the key is that you spend the time imagining what it will look like.

When we began building Vaxess Technologies , pharma companies, regulatory experts, and other experts in the space thought we were crazy to talk about home-based vaccines. Nearly a decade and one pandemic later, the idea is beginning to seem “obvious”. Still, the concept was bold enough to get nearly everyone we shared it with to sit up, pay attention, and debate us. That pushback forced us to think realistically about the challenges we would face. We realized through this process that we couldn’t be “just a device company”, but rather had to think about the full user experience, integrating other systems and technologies to ensure that Vaxess’s home-based patches could be shipped, administered, and disposed of safely. Most of our competitors simply suggested that they would offer a pain-free alternative in the clinic. They didn’t attract the kind of interest that they needed to drive investment and partnerships. Our vision led to spirited debates and attracted just enough people, and money, who thought is was worth a shot.

Your goal in building this vision should be to create an idea so exciting that people talk about your vision with their friends.

Investors on golf courses with their peers.

Employees at home with their families.

Government agencies at conferences.

This kind of “virality” won’t happen with an idea that is obvious and achievable today. Think bigger, even if you aren’t yet sure how you’ll achieve it. If you end up with nine out of ten people shaking their heads, saying “it will never happen, but would be awesome if it did”, you’re probably going down the right road

Inspire

The Inspirational side of the vision is key to attracting the right kinds of partners throughout the journey.? You need to translate the “shock” factor into a clear vision of how your work over the next few decades will improve people’s lives. If Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos had simply said “we can run the same tests as today, but with far less blood”, no one would have been inspired to hop on board. Instead, she pitched the ambitious goal "to facilitate the early detection and prevention of disease and empower people everywhere to live their best possible lives.” While it turned out to be smoke and mirrors (and lies, lots and lots of lies), many people sacrificed a lot of time, money, and other resources to enable it. She inspired people to sacrifice money, time, and other resources, to help her pursue her vision. To this day, as she sits in jail, some people are still arguing that she was simply misunderstood. That is Inspiration!

Employees who choose roles for the potential impact, not the money, are more likely to lead you to success in an enduring venture. External partners and collaborators who are inspired by your vision are more likely to offer you slightly more favorable terms, simply to have a seat at the table. Investors who are inspired by your vision will be less inclined to push for a quick exit if they can see that even better potential exists in the long run. Inspired partners simply do things to move the business forward that the average partner won’t. Starting an indestructible business is challenging, and you will need inspired partners willing to get in the trenches and work through these challenges.

If you are considering embarking on the entrepreneurial journey, you are making a choice to sacrifice your time, your financial upside (believe me, it is NOT a good financial choice for the majority of people), your flexibility (you will be thinking about your startup on nights and weekends), and in some cases, your opportunity to pursue a more normal life. If the vision isn’t inspirational, it is going to be really tough to convince yourself to do it for more than a few years. More importantly, it is going to be even tougher to inspire people around you to join you on the journey in lieu of other opportunities.