Creating a Vision for a Tech Startup Future

When feeling the urgent pressure of new technologies, disruptive change and fast-moving markets, inspirational leaders focus on a surprising question: why does our organization even exist? It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the latest tech or what the competition is doing, but deeply understanding your core purpose can cut away distractions, focus you on what matters and create a vision for what’s next. 1/ Start by looking at the very nature of your organization and strip away the packaging, pricing and delivery. Ask yourself: what unique role does this organization play in the world? Why do we exist, and what about that has remained consistent across our past and our present, and should inevitably drive our future? 2/ Craft a vision for the future that is disrupted by change but grounded in purpose, envisioning how the world will continue to rely on our existence, as needs are timeless. Resist picking specific technologies, products, packages or solutions that this value is embedded in, because these are not timeless. 3/ Engage your organization in using this purpose to inspire what might be next. Ask yourselves, what are other ways that we may fulfill our purpose beyond what we’re doing today? What are the different shapes, business models, packages or delivery vehicles that might look different but magnify our purpose? Which of these might help us not just survive, but thrive in a future shaped by disruption and new technologies? Look closely at organizations that have thrived through previous disruptions to recognize how this successful pattern of returning to their purpose has fueled success. Take Disney - an organization that has embedded magical family experiences through immersive storytelling into everything it does (its purpose), whether it’s hand drawn animation, theme parks or CGI. The core idea here is to resist simply reacting to markets or chasing trends, but rather to follow purpose-driven innovation: getting inspiration from how we reimagine ourselves to reinforce our reason for existing, not distract from it. #LIPostingDayMay

Here’s one of the most popular and least effective management methods: a strategy template that starts with a company’s Vision and Mission, then cascades down to Strategies and Objectives. It has all kinds of problems, such as containing no reference to customers’ priorities or your competitive strengths (these should be foundational!). It often produces vague, generic results that avoid making difficult choices. But let’s focus here just on the Vision aspect. Vision can actually be quite useful, if framed properly. Vision provides guidance for company priorities through context and specificity. It should not be like the one from the restaurant chain Chipotle: “We believe that food has the power to change the world.” Nice, but meaningless. A vision should be of how the world will look in the somewhat long-term future and what your company’s place could be in it. See, for example, this short video that United Rentals, a $14 billion equipment-rental company, produced. It inspires, but it is also quite tangible and relatable to what the company does. You may not have the resources UR had to create such a slick video (although, with AI-generated video, the cost and skill barriers are tumbling fast). But you can lay out in words (perhaps complemented by AI-generated images) how the world will look in 10 years in ways that are relevant to your industry, and what role your firm can play in that time period. A useful vision can sketch the future competitive context and why you will have a commanding position. Certainly it can have public spirit (a future vision based on customer exploitation is neither inspiring nor sustainable!). However, it’s perfectly fine to show why your shareholders should be delighted with these outcomes. Such a vision then guides nearer-term strategic choices, including the creation of new capabilities, relationships, or business models. In the fray of constantly changing industry and competitive dynamics, it provides a North Star to guide where your efforts head. It also ensures that you invest in long-term projects alongside the shorter-term imperatives which typically dominate day-to-day thinking. Your vision doesn’t need to change the world. But it will likely alter your industry and company. Clear and specific visions show the direction of the road even while you give most of your attention to the traffic that surrounds you.

Just having a “vision statement” won’t cut it. If you want your team to actually give a sh*t about your vision, try this: As a visionary founder you have everything pretty clear in your mind, but it’s so difficult to get ALL the team absolutely aligned, throughout the whole year. But it all comes down to having a blueprint. Building and scaling a company is like building a house – you need to map out EVERY detail. For a company, I like using 2 crucial tools: 1) The V/TO (Vision-Traction Organizer) from EOS to map out the crucial areas of the Vision: - Core Values (I recommend the Mission to Mars exercise to discover them) - Core Focus/ Purpose (what are you looking to achieve with what you’re doing?) - 10 Year Vision (usually known as BHAG, Big Hairy Audaciouos Goal) - Marketing Strategy (who’s your target user, your promise and your guarantee) And the Traction part to get the 3-year, 1-year, Q’s and monthly KPIS set, in order to organize the execution within the teams. 2) Vivid Vision document (from my colleague Cameron Herold), a 3 or 5-page pdf describing the the desired future state for the company as a whole in 3 years. • How many clients • How many employees • How much revenue by x date • Describing every part of the company as if it was today in 3 years (be as graphic as possible) These tools give everyone a very specific “picture” for your vision, BUT the key here is: → Refer back to it and integrate it into EVERYTHING. At clickOn we brought the end of year vision up all the time. Every meeting, every process – we asked, “Is this getting us closer to our vivid vision?” Because we saw what can happen when you don’t ask that. Back in 2014 we were doing about $10MM year and operating in 12 different states in Argentina. So we decided to diversify – but that decision wasn’t very aligned with our company vision. It was a couple of years before we learned about these 2 crucial tools I just shared. We started losing a lot of focus on our successful products (that still had potential to 10x). New projects we did were done halfway. And after 2 years, we cut them to focus on ONE goal: → Being the best daily deals company. Because that was consistent with the vision that we developed. Think about it: An architect doesn't draw up the blueprint and then stick it in a drawer and forget it. They use it as a guide through the entire process. But too many founders just write their vision statement like a core values statement. Instead you have to live and breathe it. Bring it up in every meeting and decision you make. Even put it on the screensavers and email signatures. You should be able to ask ANY employee who’s just come out of the shower what your goals are. Remember: Your team can’t read your mind… If you want them on board, SHOW them exactly where you’re leading them. — Enjoyed this? Repost ♻️ to share to your network, and follow Ignacio Carcavallo for more like this!