Mike Cassidy gave the keynote at our last Startup2Startup event. Mike preached speed as an integral part in creating over three quarters of a billion dollars in value from the three startups he’s founded (Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation).
He highlighted four main benefits of speed: beating the competition to a product, increasing morale, generating buzz, and generating advantageous investing terms. Most of his companies started off bootstraped and prototyped within weeks, and expected to launch within 4 months. He spoke of locking down office space while picking up funding. His biggest hit, DirectHit, sold within 500 days of launching.
When Cassidy spoke about business deals and financing he also touched on flexibility. He suggested getting all the decision makers and following a strategy of if/then contracts that make deals a no brainer if both sides meet metrics. He also spoke about aiming your first deals at secondary players more willing to get in on something new. Don’t waste your time on clients that don’t have a history of dealing with startups. And put a time table on closing deals. The prospect of closing a deal declines drastically with each passing day.
A corollary to Mike’s push for speed, was experience. Mike highlighted how most of his startups consisted of employees he’d had experience with. For people he didn’t know, his companies would hold one day hirings, where they’d interview the candidate, huddle to talk over the prospect, and have an offer out by the end of the day. Also, when you have a new employee, make sure they’re prepared for their first day.
Mike tempered his push for speed with a pop quiz question to the crowd over whether launching soon and iterating was a better strategy than taking your time. Mike moved quickly in each case (3.5 months), but acknowledged not all startups have the ability to iterate on their products in the wild.
After the speech, the mix of entrepreneurs and venture capiltalists at the tables swapped stories and advice.
