What Happened to My Startup?

It is another late night in the office. You hang up the phone after closing a conversation with an aggravated customer. You look around the office and see that the co-workers that were complaining about the company at lunch today have left for the day. Things are not good here. Just two years ago, this company started up with an exciting vision and a small group of enthusiastic and optimistic employees that were ready to take on the world. Now it seems like you are surrounded by a group of employees that are mediocre in their talent and drive, and the customers are not knocking down your door for product/service the way you'd hoped they would.

What happened? What happened to this great little startup?

I have seen this situation before. See if this scenario strikes a familiar (minor) chord...

The driving forces behind this startup, the CEO or other leaders setting direction, have not been clear lately about what the vision is. Of course that is not so easy to do anymore. Competitors in your space have forced a feature-per-feature war and your sales force is demanding you match those competitors' every move. Since sales are down, and you have been a little desperate for customers, you have compromised some of the product's intended direction for some customer's (or customers') interests. But that is being flexible...right? And as far as top notch talent, well, like we said, times are tight and we cannot afford to bring in the skill sets and materials we need. We just need to find out how to work best with what we have...

First of all, take solace in the fact that you are not the first person or company to be in this situation. Furthermore, it might not be too late to address the problem and right the ship. In this article, I am going to share my insights on the chain reaction that will make or break the startup. Let us address each fundamental step in the equation and see how success is achieved for all of them.