Zombieland – Start-up Lesson Learned
This is a Guest Post by Chris Schmitt lead instigator at TEAMCAMP.
Here’s my fist post in this series. This one is is based on things I’ve learned in TeamCamp. Enjoy.
.
While watching Zombieland over the weekend I couldn’t help thinking how similar surviving a zombie attack is to becoming a successful startup. The film Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Together they take an extended road trip in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies, following a set of “rules” designed to keep them alive where others have failed, killing zombies in a variety of creative ways while trying to “enjoy the little things” in a ruined world. (source: Wikipedia)
A central plot theme throughout the film is the list of rules Columbus comes up with for surviving in the zombie-infested world. By the end of the film, his list has thirty-three rules; here’s how I think these rules aptly apply to the life of a startup:
1. “Cardio” – To be a successful startup you have to always be one-step ahead of your competition
2. “Double tap” – If you going to fail, fail fast. If you’ve developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and you get no takers, then kill it fast and move on to something else.
3. “Beware of bathrooms” – When the going get’s tough there’s no place to hide – face your challenges and get on with it.
4. “Wear seatbelts” – Being a startup isn’t the only thing in life – take time for family, friends and your health.
5. “Cast iron skillet” – You don’t have a business until you have paying customers. Concentrate on what value your product or service brings and figure out how to charge for your service.
6. “Travel light” – don’t hire until you have to; keep your team small; keep the number of founders to 3 or less; don’t incur any expenses you don’t have to.
7. “Get a kickass partner” – Don’t try to go it alone – ‘nough said.
8. “Bounty paper towels” – Keeping your ideas secret because you think someone will steel them is crap. Ask people for their input and ideas and soak them up. Collaborate.
9. “Bowling Ball” - Look for opportunities to disrupt your chosen market.
10. “Don’t Be a hero” – Yes, it’s be a hero: Be courageous, be a strong leader, be confident, be positive – even when times are tough. Having a kickass partner helps.
11. “Limber up” - Learn everything you can, read everything you can and tap into your local startup community. Never stop learning.
12. “Avoid strip clubs” – Meetups and events are a great places to meet people and network, and they can be enjoyable. But don’t bother going if all you’re going to do is watch. Participate.
13. “When in doubt, know your way out” – Make sure you have a backup plan. Don’t put your life savings into your startup. Keep your day job for a while if you have to.
14. “The buddy system” – Get a mentor. Find someone else that has “been there, done that”.
15. “Check the back seat” – Keep an eye on your competitors once in a while – but don’t dwell on it. Meet your customers’ needs and always keep driving forward.
16. “Enjoy the little things” – Celebrate successes: your first customer, your 100th customer, getting code released, getting good feedback from a customer, a mention in a blog or article – anything that smells like success – enjoy it, it’s the fuel that’ll keep your team going.
17. “Swiss army knife” – Build a versatile, multi-purpose team. When you’re just starting you have no room (or money) for specialists.
If you’re alert you may have noticed that’s not 33 rules; you’ll have to figure the rest for yourself.
So what are you waiting for? Go get started!
Rule #11 should read “Be a Hero”. Columbus’ original rule was “Don’t be a Hero”, but no one can deny that by the end of the movie he was a hero.