What are the measurable *behaviours* that are likely to predict startup success?
We all know the usual metrics such as MRR, headcount, money raised etc that are (rightly or wrongly) often associated with startup success.
But what are the behaviours in the early days that can be measured (assuming that they did that particular behaviour in the right way? For example, "number of customers spoken to", reading a particular blog/book and demonstrating understanding, speed of iteration etc etc.
“Not getting sidetracked” is one that came to mind, and it’s also one that trips up a lot of people. For a lot of founders, myself included, starting a SaaS is a side project. “I’ll work on it two days a week while I’ll freelance the other three so I can bootstrap it.”
Then a deadline isn’t met for a freelancing job, so they’ll spend five days freelancing “just this one week.” Then a client comes with a very lucrative offer in terms of money, but it takes fulltime work for two months. Too good to pass on.
In the end, their SaaS never gets off the ground because of temptations elsewhere. Do what you need to make money, but use it as fuel for buying time to work on your SaaS.
This is a great insight, and chimes with something I was chatting about with @jieyuchan just a few hours ago. Far too often I see startups do either what you mentioned above (which is absolutely valid if they actively want to pursue the freelancing thing), or they take on a large project that is kind of what their software does, because a large company has requested it of them.
And because they take their eyes off the target, and spend weeks/months doing this bespoke, unscalable work, for a corporate client, they move further away from a scalable opportunity. And, having done it myself, it's usually because you think that it's good to have revenue to show investors, or you are desperate to pay the wages. But it just takes you further away from your destination.
My co-founder and eye call them "squirrels". Distracting, and tempting to chase, but they rarely result in anything meaningful happening.
Exactly this!