Startup skill: taking a bucket of cold water
After two months of leading my startup, it’s time for a short summary. I hope you can use those as hints and be wiser from my mistakes 
- First of all there’s the problem of leading a geographically distributed team. Some say that thanks to skype, other IM and project management websites it’s not a problem any more. Well, believie me it is a huge one. Of course this corelates to the fact that we all have our paid, day-to-day jobs. Apart from one member of the team, who constantly underperforms even though he has nothing else to do. Because of all that we don’t have that startup culture, where a few people work together and make each other work harder. Plus there are all those issues to sort out, which we would sort out in a matter of minutes with face-to-face meetings instead of a few hours trying to catch one another on skype. I wouldn’t start over with a team living some 300km away from me.
- Secondly, you need to have a team of motivated people. Fortunately we are motivated (apart from one member), otherwise we wouldn’t make it this far. Motivation and belief are crucial to success. However, thay also pose a threat. If you believe in something so much, you don’t see and you don’t want to see its drawbacks. I had an argument the other day with one freelancer, an experienced one, as to what we do wrong. At first I didn’t understand his hostility so I tried reasoning with him. Of course it didn’t work, because I was a believer and he wasn’t. It’s like trying to explain to a Christian that Jesus was wrong - it’s like throwing rocks against a wall.
Tough part: Finding and gathering a team in one location.
Tough part: Keeping your eyes and mind open.
Do you have any experience on startups you’d like to share?
