StartRVA says: Don't be a zombie!

by: Todd Nuckols

If you are in startup land, especially if you have dreams of taking down Facebook or Google, then you need to read this post from Danielle Morrill (no, really, go read it and then come back!)

First, I love it when I see flat out practical advice and Danielle certainly dispenses some in this post.  During my own journey of starting my own company, we knew after 8 months in the garage out of site it was time to come out of the shadows (where zombies live) and attack the market.  Did it work out?  Well, not exactly - but I am proud to say it did not become a zombie startup either.  It's simple, in my mind anyway, "if you are not growing, then you are dying!"  Given most founders passion and belief they can soldier on waiting for that viral moment, new funding or big fish client forever.  But is that what you really want?

So if you are thinking about starting (or are in the midst of working on) a high-growth startup then heed the zombie list offered by Danielle:

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How do you know if you startup is falling into this trap? Here are some hints:

• > You don’t want to get out of bed in the morning
• > You don’t want to go out in public for fear you’ll have to explain what you do
• > You haven’t hit 10% week-over-week growth on any meaningful metric (revenue, active users, etc)
• > You’re working on the same idea after 12+ months and still haven’t launched
• > You’ve launched a consumer service and have less than 2% week-over-week growth in signups
• > You’ve launched an enterprise service and have less than 2% week-over-week growth in revenue pipeline
• > You are the CEO and hole yourself up in the offices so you don’t have to talk to employees and can read TechCrunch
• > You’ve hired consultants to figure out revenue, culture, or product in a company of less than 10 people
• > You’re at SXSW right now reading this post and trying not to cry

Update: I’m not saying you need to hit 10% growth every week, but you should have hit it at some point like launch or some other PR event.

Look, no harm in acknowledging your zombie-like status.  Normally it helps you get on with the next idea which will be the one that sets the market on fire and catapults you to super starter status!