2. Intro: Carolynn Duncan
Founded Portland Ten to create 10 high-growth startups in the
state of Oregon, the first of which just reached $1M in revenue
(ShopIgniter).
Managed 30 Portland startups in the past 18 months, met with
& advised more than 300 startups in the tech, startup, &
angel/venture capital networks in Seattle, Portland, southeast
Idaho, and Salt Lake City region in the past 4 years.
Launched, co-launched, or assisted in 5 early stage venture
development projects: FundingUniverse Northwest, EPIC
Venture Fund-- a Draper Fischer Jurvetsen affiliate fund, Eastern
Idaho Entrepreneurial Center in partnership with Idaho National
Laboratory, Hundred Dollar Business, Provo Labs Seed Fund.
3. Intro: Portland Ten
Entrepreneur development organization with the mission to get 10 Portland
companies to $1MM within 18 months.
30 alumni, 5 cycles of 2 bootcamps (Portland Ten, Six Week Sprint), 25
Community Partners & Sponsors , 5 advisors, 5 staff, 10 volunteers, started
Feb 2009.
Profile client: ShopIgniter, $3MM of venture capital within 6 months of
graduating, $1MM in revenue within 12 months. Initial team of 3. now 18+
Partners with PDC, NedSpace, OEN, Voyager Capital, Willamette University,
Mercy Corps NW, Perkins & Company, Davis, Wright Tremaine, Silicon Valley
Bank, Startup Weekend, Civic Apps, FundingUniverse, and many more.
Grant by Portland Development Commission: $35,000, May 2010.
4. Intro: Today’s Meeting
Managing Time for Higher Performance
• Maximize the team's available time through
identifying your startup’s highest/lowest
priorities.
• Do a self-check to see if priorities are being
implemented across the team, and review
simple tactics that drive time efficiency.
5. Problem 1:
Starting from Zero
When you start out, nothing exists. The business is an
exclusive result of your team’s efforts.
• If you don’t make a sales call, sales don’t happen.
• If your dev team doesn’t write code, the product
doesn’t exist.
• If you can’t keep the team on board & moving forward,
it falls apart.
6. You quickly learn that effort= tangibility.
“We do a task, therefore something exists.”
So, your ambitious team starts doing a variety of tasks:
Telling the story. Working on the business model.
Developing the product. Holding team meetings. Talking
with investors. Going to networking events.
7. For a few months, life is great.
Maybe even that first year.
You’re living the dream! You’re an entrepreneur.
8. All of a sudden, something happens.
• Someone’s savings dry up.
• The sales cycle is much, much longer than expected.
• A cofounders’ spouse stops being willing to be the
“sugar mama”.
• Loan payments become due.
• Friends & family start hinting around at when they
might get repaid.
9. Problem 2:
The Survival Instinct Creates Urgency
You start to feel a sense of urgency. The mortality rate for
startups (50-90%) is the standard, not the exception.
What if you don’t make it? Things become very
straightforward: you have X months to get things
together, or you’re done. You need X dollars to get there,
and you currently have 1/X to do it. Or in some cases, -X.
You can see the writing on the wall: if you don’t secure
funding or generate revenue, it’s game over.
10. Problem 2:
Converting Chaos Into Survival
So, to bridge from where you are, to where survival
is, your job continues to be to manage low budgets,
go after critical developmental milestones, tell the
story, make sales, raise funds, make payroll, keep
burnout in check, and somehow keep stress levels
low enough to maximize your efficiency.
Except now, if you’re not effective and efficient,
your team will disintegrate, and you’re just another
statistic.
14. Focus, Execution, Priorities
• Fear of mortality creates a sense of urgency,
which results in focus.
• For possibly the first time, you’re now
completely focused on execution.
• You immediately begin deploying time &
resources into your key priority areas.
15. But wait— what are your priorities?
• Short term: don’t die.
• Long term: extend the runway as long as
possible.
16. Typical Startup Priorities
1. Fighting fires
2. Going after funding, telling “the story”
3. Adding warm bodies to the team
4. Getting the product developed
5. Working on marketing materials
6. Figuring out the value prop
7. Hanging your hopes on 1 or 2 major accounts
17. Successful Startup Priorities
1. Actively managing a sales pipeline
2. Generating high-profile and meaningful traction
3. Clarifying the value prop/marketing message
4. Developing and deploying the MVP
5. Making the team secure & effective
6. Utilizing all current assets & converting assets
into social capital & cash opportunities
7. Attracting funding & major stabilizing resources
18. Revenue Traction Biz Dev Prod Dev Team Resources
Runway/survival-generating formula:
Revenue Driven
(Sales as First Priority)
Resource Conservative
(Spending/Funding as Last Priority)
21. CEO Calendar
Get out your calendar from last week.
What % of time was dedicated to:
Priority 1?
Priority 2?
Priority 3?
Is the way you’re spending your time, aligning with
your top 3 priorities?
22. Blocking Out Time
Identify the # of hours that need to be allocated
for each priority— 1, 2, 3.
Schedule them (block them out) on your
calendar.
Track this for a week, see how it goes. How well
are managing the $16K worth of time inventory
you’re spending?
23. Some Time Mgmt Tactics
• Do priority 1-3 tasks first, then fit everything else in around.
• Whenever possible, have people adjust to your calendar–
give them some days/times during your available blocks of
time, near your location.
• Commit to spend less than 50 hours/week on work, and
block other times (weekends, evenings) as non-work zones.
• Do the time inventory/calendar activity with your staff as
well! How well is your team managing the company’s
inventory of human capital?
