The Complex System: Story of an Entrepreneur

Remember the Alamo, er 37signals That Is

In 2004 when I started Leads360, there was a soon to be very well known software startup that was making a lot of noise with a downloadable eBook about the future of software development. In it, 37signals touted the keys to successful on-demand software. It was great timing because we were in the early stages of our 1^st development cycle on the Lead Manager and we really took to heart some of the concepts. The most significant was the idea of less is more. These guys said keep it simple, features make things worse, not better. Somewhere along the line we started to veer away from this thinking. I wouldn’t say we’re over the top bloated compare us with the CRM solution we use, Right Now Technologies, and you’ll see the spectrum of complexity is very large. Still we’ve learned a lot about what clients want, how to service them and how to run a lean organization. We recently re-tooled our entire product line and released products that were “less” than our flagship software.

So when I read a recent post on Harvard Business Blog (again, this blog is amazing) about 37signals I was reminded of the importance. The 37signals guys had a new spin on the idea that less is more, they said “less is less” and that’s what you want. I love that. Why does more always have to mean better. I’m as big of an offender as anyone on this subject. They go on to explain how they don’t just build software under this premise, they run their entire organization that way. Don’t hire more people to get more done, just do less. Don’t work more hours to grow faster, just grow slower. That isn’t to say they aren’t interested in making money, they just focus on profit rather than growth. It’s certainly refreshing to hear and rings an all too true bell for this guy.

Just the Facts

I love this post on VentureBlog about entrepreneurs using adjectives in lieu of facts. Smart investors want hard facts about what you will do or what you did. It’s easy to skip the facts and insert a bunch of intelligence adjectives to fill the void.

In business, gathering factual intelligence about the company is done via metrics tracking. Easier said than done of course, but it’s an ultra-critical aspect of business. I’ve got another board meeting next week and this is a big part of the prep. I’ve actually learned quite quickly what works and what doesn’t work in a board meeting. It’s about sticking to an agenda, showing facts not color, staying on schedule coming to the board with specific recommendations, not topics for debate. Interestingly, this is a big part of what inhibits our internal meetings from being effective which I’ve talked a fair amount about lately.

Do Less, Get More

There is a great Stephen Covey saying, “things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” Dr. Covey is essentially telling us to put the most important things first. Similarly I proposed to someone today “don’t let the pursuit of more deny the achievement of less.” In the constant pursuit to do everything, and to do it quickly, we often forget to do what we really need to. This has been a challenge for me because built to do just that. I push to make things better and faster sometimes at the expense of what’s really important. I’m reminded of the whole idea “less is more” and how important it is to put first things first; get the core needs addressed and take any extra time to do a little more.