Just finished the first meeting with a new group of advisors with the Chicago Innovation Mentors group. I was accepted into this group as a startup company to work with 5 incredibly experienced startup advisors over a 6-month period as a Board of Advisors.
The first meeting was tonight. I prepared as much as I could for the meeting. I spoke to each advisor before the meeting and organized an agenda to cover topics I needed help with. The meeting started without a hitch, it went very well according to the agenda. We introduced ourselves and got to know each other better than delve into the deep dive about the company. Understanding where we came from and where we are today. As you may have expected, we were bombarded with questions during this deep dive to help get the advisors up to speed on the company and what value we provide to the industry. It was very interesting to hear their thoughts on where we are today and their insights.
The biggest action item or conclusion that came out of this discussion was that we have a product with a lot of potential, but we need to focus on getting the right data out of the device. We should be heads down focused on proving out the device, that it works and provides the right value to the right people. Then and only then should we start to do business development, building relationships for corporate partners and start selling units. After we prove it out we can raise money much easier as well. But proving it out is step 1.
Not like this came as a shock, but sometimes hearing it from someone else is more helpful than internally our team talking about it. For the past few months, we have been distracted as a team. We have been focused on running the business and less on building the company. We have moved away from our core of a product, innovation, and technology company, to becoming overwhelmed with the details of running the business. Specifically, I mean spending all day on emails and on the phone, doing mostly business development (Even though, looking back, there is no business without a stellar product). Although there isn’t 1 person to blame for these past few months of being distracted, I think it comes from so many people giving advice to me about how I should run the business. From checking in with and talking to my advisors, reading business books, listening to podcasts, basically absorbing everything under the sun about running a startup, I failed to listen to my gut about what priorities I should be focusing on.
Running a startup is hard work and doing it alone as the CEO is even harder. Inside I know I can’t do it alone, so I have put together an outstanding team of advisors and business partners to help guide me. In reflection though, I think I have become unbalanced. This is a valuable lesson in my quest to building a startup. The challenge of soliciting feedback and advice from advisors, the internet, or wherever without compromising that of your gut and internal priorities. It’s a hard challenge, and I am not there yet, but I am glad that I have come to this realization. I believe there is some sort of balance between listening to others and listening to yourself, but not sure what that is and how to get to that point.