Nothing Beats Traction

An email from me to the entrepreneurs at muru-D with one month left to go in the six month program.

Hi all, It’s been great to be back from baby (and sick) leave and catch up on where the companies at. I thought it was a good time to do a quick reminder about why we are here.

My personal view is that the priority is to make all of you better entrepreneurs. All the businesses are very early in their lives, there is a long way to go and a number will not make it. We can’t guarantee business success, but we can guarantee making you wiser, better connected and more ambitious. Succeed or fail, I can also guarantee that this will not be your last business. This is why the team works so hard to provide opportunities for you to learn new things, meet new people and think in different ways.

Next most important is creating a successful business. Right now this is all about happy customers – paying definitely preferred. Showing yourselves, your spouses, your team, your advisors and your potential investors that you have customers who really want and use your product is the only priority of a tech startup. Once you have that, you have options.

We spent the first six weeks obsessing about sales and traction to lay the foundation of this focus. We then turned our attention to forming an advisory board and now the aim for many of you is to raise the capital you need to leave muru-D with 18 months run way to keep going (and going and going). An advisory board can help you get the traction to get the investors, but you can never relinquish your focus on happy customers.

So where are we now?

One of you said to me the other day that the amount of acceleration you get is based on the speed at which you come into muru-D. It’s also based on your determination, your team and some luck.

My heart says “Wow, you have all come a long, long way in 5 months. That is so impressive and something to be proud of.

My head says “It is always very very very very very hard to get traction and harder still to raise capital and if we get half of the companies sorted by October we are doing well.”

Yes, we are asking a lot of you:

• Spend time each week developing yourself.
• Build an advisory board around you to help you grow.
• Get a fantastic pitch ready.
• And spend every other waking (and sleeping) hour obsessing about making your customers happy.

That’s the job.

In the next few months speed and complexity will increase – if you can believe it. It is up to you to bring us your challenges and get help. We will try and look for ways but you are leading yourself and your business.

Thank you for everyone’s efforts and support.

What’s next?

Mick