Fight or flight
Losing focus
Photo by William Martin
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Introduction
Bob leads.
Alice meets Yasmin.
We meet a new anti-design pattern: Losing Focus
Bob and Mark make a new friend on the park bench in Santa Monica.
Giganet
Giganet collects work hours from gig-worker smart watches and produces all the reports for California state and Federal reporting. As Barry likes to say, "Giganet Fast-Tracks Your Gig Payroll”.
On Friday, Bob calls a meeting with Iris and Barry for early Sunday morning. Just the 3 of us.
Sunday at 7:00. Iris after a surfing session off Venice Beach with her husband Eric Bob after a 10K run. Both after showers in shorts and Giganet-logo DriFit t-shirts. Barry after his morning cigar - Tony Soprano look, lime polo shirt, khaki slacks, casual sneakers.
The 3 of them sitting around the table in the studio living room. Bob looks at Barry and Iris. Barry seems to have put on some weight. Iris looks happy and relaxed. Bob is quiet. He’s about to have some constructive confrontation with the 2 of them.
Bob turns to Iris, “Boss, I’m raising a red flag”.
Bob gets up from the table, stretches to his full 6’ and walks over to the white-board and turns to Iris and Barry. His body language radiates confidence and assertion, shoulders back, lats down. Bob looks straight at Iris and Barry.
Bob, “What I’m about to say is from a place of deep commitment to the 2 of you, to the mission and to the team.
2 months ago, Iris led us into war. The team is motivated. We cut compensation by 10%. We need to increase sales by 50% this year.
In the past 2 months we moved the needle but not enough”.
Iris protests, “Subscriptions were up 2.5% last month and our meetings with EY went well. You were there”.
Barry, “Madison and I built a program to accelerate adoption in San Jose. It should take off next month”.
Bob, “Guys, I know all this”.
Let me write down the 4 mission objectives that Iris gave us.
Get a lot more out of our existing customers by getting more of their gig workers on the platform.
Generate opportunities in construction, healthcare and hospitality.
Build partnerships with the specialty tax accounting companies that service Uber and Lyft.
Develop the partnership with EY.
As you know, our billing is based on activity. This is what I see from the activity usage of the system the past 2 weeks. Bob writes down 3 numbers on the whiteboard:
LA County - down by 9
Sunnyvale - down by 3
San Jose - up by 2
Iris looks up at Bob. Her pupils dilate, “So next month’s billing will be down by 10%?”
Bob looks closely at Iris’s face. He knows that pupils dilate in response to fear, anger, or stress. This is part of the "fight-or-flight" response, where adrenaline is released and causes physiological changes like pupil dilation
Iris is visibly concerned. She raises her voice, “How do you explain this?”
Bob, “First of all there is seasonality in Gig worker usage. We’ve had a series of holidays - Ramadan, Easter and Passover. During holidays, people are on vacation. This is not necessarily a good predictor for the summer but it means we need to be very alert to seasonal changes in usage”.
Bob continues, “That’s not all. The engineering team is bored. At our daily stand-up meetings, they all check-in but I hear snide remarks about EY, and the new competing Salesforce solution being lame.
And, Justin and Yasmin are doing a midnight project for payment and back office services for the beauty industry”.
Barry, “Wait a second. Like I told him it was a good idea but that he needed to validate it with his mother’s Korean nail artist friends. He told me that he was intimidated by those tough Korean women. I didn’t think he would actually take action”.
Bob, “Well Barry, he took action. Not only that, he convinced Yasmin to go along with him. The 2 musketeers developed a prototype over the weekend. Last week, Yasmin’s real-estate boyfriend Amir drove them up and down Beverly Hills. The 2 of them interviewed 100 nail artists, showed them the prototype and wrote up a report. They are convinced that we have product-market fit out of the gate. Amir called me up yesterday. He wants to invest in Giganet. The beauty market is massive. He invested in a Web3 startup and he thinks DeFi for beauty will be huge”.
Bob, “ I’m also happy to report that Lena came back from Tomsk. Her mother is stabilized. Sergei and his co-founder sold their cooling technology to Nvidia. I spoke with the two of them yesterday. Went over to their place. I don’t know if Sergei is happier with having Lena back or from the exit. They’re spending this week in Hawaii and Lena wants to hit the ground running with the team next Monday. That’ll give us more firepower. Izzy finished his PhD and he wants to work full-time. I told Izzy at our weekly 1:1’s that he needs to get up on time and work with the team”.
Iris, “So what are you saying Bob?”
Bob, “I’m saying that we need to get the engineering team out of boredom and put them into revenue generation. I’m saying that we must revise our 4 objectives and focus on 2”.
Bob updates the whiteboard:
Get a lot more out of our existing customers by getting more of their gig workers on the platform.
Release a beauty industry app.
Generate opportunities in construction, healthcare and hospitality.Build partnerships with the specialty tax accounting companies that service Uber and Lyft.Develop the partnership with EY.
Iris still has dilated pupils, “Bob, You understand that this is a strategic shift to us from the enterprise to end users?”
Bob, “I understand. Barry, what do you think?”
Barry, “I like the beauty industry, it’s massive and it takes us way beyond the California gig worker market. Beauty is based on word-of-mouth and social media influencers. It doesn’t require partnerships but it’s also a strategic move downstream from the enterprise into end-users. Iris, what do you think?”
Iris, “We’re already serving about 10,000 end-users so it’s not a shift in our original vision - using watches to generate payments and reporting. We can start locally with the Koreans and QC the solution and then move fast”.
Bob, “I’d like to suggest that Yasmin and Justin write up a business plan and present it to us by Tuesday. If Amir wants to invest, Iris can consider that option. I’ll lead the engineering work. What do you think?”
Barry, “I’m in”.
Iris, “I’m in but I want Bob to lead the engineering and the market development work as well, Bob?”
Bob, “I’m in”.
Losing focus anti-pattern
Losing focus
It's common for startups to lose focus from the original vision as they progress towards finding product-market fit (PMF) and beyond. Here are 3 reasons why this happens:
Learning from Feedback: Startups get feedback from customers as they iterate on their product or service. This feedback helps align with market needs and create opportunities.
Evolution of Strategy: As startups learn more about their target market and competitive landscape, they can refine their strategic approach, as Giganet learned with the beauty market.
Market Dynamics: Market conditions can change rapidly, requiring startups to adapt their vision to stay competitive.
As a startup becomes unfocused, boredom often sets in. When boredom sets in, the startup often goes into cycles of revising plans, strategies, tag lines and presentations.
This is ALWAYS a bad sign.
Where does boredom come from?
Teams who are feeling uncertain or insecure about their progress often resort to criticizing or bad-mouthing competing companies. This behavior stems from 3 factors:
Frustration and Defensiveness: Founders may feel frustrated or defensive if they perceive competing startups as threats to their own success. Insecurity about their own startup's performance or positioning can exacerbate these feelings.
Desire for Validation: Criticizing competing startups may be a way for founders to seek validation for their own ideas or approaches. By pointing out perceived flaws in others, they may hope to reinforce the superiority of their own startup's vision or strategy.
Lack of Confidence: Founders who lack confidence in their own startup's ability to succeed may resort to undermining the credibility of competing startups as a way to bolster their own perceived value in the market.
How to solve loss of focus?
It's important for founders to build a strong, differentiated value proposition for their own startup rather than wasting energy on negative tactics aimed at undermining others.
Additionally, building bridges and a culture of respect and collaboration within the startup community can lead to more positive outcomes for all involved.
By staying true to your vision and navigating the challenges of the journey with determination, you'll emerge stronger, more resilient, and better equipped to realize your entrepreneurial aspirations.
Outside the gym in Venice
Alice is rushing to her 700 am yoga class with Sol. Running late.
She sees Bob standing with a tall, slim and very beautiful woman wearing running shorts, pink Mizuno Wave Riders, a running top and a long black pony-tail coming out of a ratty red San Jose State baseball cap. Standing next to Bob, the 2 of them are about the same height. The woman has long, well manicured purple nails.
Their body language is relaxed and friendly. They don’t seem to be flirting.
Alice is jealous. Alice is 5’ 5” and this woman’s legs don’t seem to end. It’s not fair.
Alice walks over and waves her hand at Bob, “Hey Bob, who is your friend?”
Bob, “Yasmin is one of my engineers at Giganet. She worked for my buddy Mark at Google in the network infrastructure group and I hired her into the startup team. She ran track at San Jose State. She’s helping me train for the San Diego half ironman.
Yasmin, this is my friend Alice”.
Yasmin goes over to Alice and smiles, her voice a warm soprano, “Alice, It’s a pleasure”.
Alice smiles back at Yasmin.
Bob, “Yasmin, give us a moment”.
Bob leads Alice by the hand and walks her to the entrance of the gym, away from the sidewalk and street noise.
They stand by each other for a moment. Alice tilts her head, gazing at Bob.
Her shampoo—a blend of jasmine and vanilla stirs a warmth in him. She gets up on her tippy-toes and leans into him. She feels the warmth of his body and strength of his hard shoulders. Bob kisses her lightly on the lips, a sense of intimacy and hunger. In that moment, she softens and releases all her tension from work. She is feminine, not a female FBI lawyer.
Bob, “I have to go. But, I’ll call you. We’ll make plans”.
"Yes, please do," Alice replies, her throaty alto voice filled with anticipation.
On a park bench in Venice CA
Bob and Mark sitting on the park bench.
The tall bald man remained silent as they sat on the park bench.
In front of them there was the green calm of the park in front of the Venice boardwalk.
A man hungry for answers, must stock up on patience.
A man in possession of analytical skills needs to listen.
That is why Mark remained silent.
Mark listened carefully to Bob.
Mark, “How is Giganet?, How is Alice?”.
Bob, “Giganet is good, we’re going through some challenges right now with execution. I’m helping the team solve the Losing Focus anti-pattern. Alice is good. We had a moment on Tuesday”.
Mark, “Don’t push her. Go slow and don’t break things”.
A very attractive 30-something woman with short blond hair, is sitting on the park bench next to them.
She waves at Mark and Bob, “ I overheard your conversation guys. Do you mind me jumping in?”
Bob and Mark get up and walk over the Shelli’s park bench and sit down next to her. Intrigued.
Bob, “I’m Bob, this is my friend Mark”.
Shelli, “I’m Shelli”.
Shelli, “Bob, your friend Mark is giving you bad advice about Alice.
Alice is a woman with a strong masculine part but underneath that masculine thing, she is very feminine and she needs that very much. She wants Bob to take firm charge of the moment, to lead her. She wants to feel dominated and not have to deal with a guy who’s unsure of himself and needy. She wants adventure. Bob needs to stay grounded, assertive but not aggressive”.
The conversation with Shelli continues for another hour, Bob and Mark listening carefully, curious, asking questions and making mental notes.
Shelli says, “I can tell that you are tech guys. I’ll Slack you the meeting summary”.
Women are fantastic at mirroring their men. Their reflexes are built for emotional response first, and logic second. Which is the exact opposite of men.
If she feels neglected, she will mirror that.
If she feels seen/cared for, she will mirror that.
If she feels judged, she will mirror that.
If she feels admired, she will mirror that.
If she feels unappreciated, she will mirror that
If she feels appreciated, she will mirror that”.