Last week I was in San Francisco to participate in my second Owner Camp. For the uninitiated, Owner Camp is a fantastic few days spent with other software/design company owners discussing culture, finances, hiring, and anything else buzzing on our sometimes-antsy minds. It’s equal parts forum, conference, and retreat. And sometimes there are jello shots.
I was one of only a few folks present who has been through the motions of building a client-focused business (We Are Mammoth) alongside burgeoning product companies (like Kin, and DoneDone.com), and a few people pulled me aside to hear my experiences. I figured I’d share them here, sans jello shot daze.
The following thoughts are more for independent agency owners peering over the edge than they are advice on the business of building products. They’re also based on my own experiences building Kin and DoneDone and do not reflect the experiences of an A-List Billionaire Entrepreneur Who Flips Businesses Like Hot Cakes And Has Blog Posts About How To Most Efficiently Travel Between Tech Hubs.
1. Who’s it gonna be, me or her?
If you’re serious about building a business out of a product, THAT needs to be your full time job, and that of the employees you have working on it. Make a plan to transition your current day to day job to the consulting team, and use your oh-so-smooth leadership skills to get a fresh team galvanized and building a new product. It’s best to do this before starting. Be patient and accountable to your other, already-successful team – they need you more than you think.
2. Consultants aren’t (generally) product people.
It took us a while to recognize the need to hire specifically for the business model we were building. Consulting companies need people who like variety in clients, projects, and industries. Products (ours are SaaS) need people who see trees for the forest in a single product and who want to spend the next 3-4 years building that single brand.
3. Give it a minute, geez.
The world is full of ways to do things quickly. You can learn Ruby in the seven minutes between eating your Lunchable and getting back to your job as a masseuse. However, it takes time for products to find their way to a market fit. That means it takes time to find out if a product even can succeed. Time means different things to different people. As consultants, 6-8 months is a long time. That’s not that long in the product world except for a few, very fortunate entrepreneurs. Grow quality, not noise. Be patient.
4. Find perspective.
Building a product is a chance to do something for yourself again. Unless you’re a total psychopath though, you’re probably not gonna do this too many times. So, provided #1 above is taken care of, take the time to savor this new adventure – the rough edges, the huge questions, the financial risks. All of it. Extract a fulfilling learning experience and share as much of it as you can with anyone who’s making it possible (like the consulting team funding it!).
5. You’re not a dummy.
Entrepreneurial media and the human foghorns spewing it all over are a big business, and their business is to get your clicks. Most things the media will have you gnawing your nails about today will be trumped by something different tomorrow. That’s how they make the moneyz. Stay on top of trends and insights, sure, but don’t let it drive your business. Your product and your good sense are your most important assets. Not Fast Company.