Garrett Smallwood, VP of Product at Wag, explains why startups need to move fast. Start with 100 customers and add 10 per week. Study what Amazon and other incumbents do well, then copy it.
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I think there's one thing I've learned in Silicon Valley, working with a lot of really smart people, it's that all that matters is speed, like moving really, really, really fast. And so speed comes down to context. You don't know how fast you can go until you see someone move really quickly. So context for me is making sure that you guys understand how quick you can move and what it allows you to do. So Amazon, just for context, has about 140 people spending 8 hours a day on conversion rate optimization. It's like CRO. Everyone knows what CRO is? Your startup has like one person doing it part-time. Like, you're never gonna be as good as Amazon. So like, just take what they're doing, right? Like, they're spending a lot more time making one thing better. If you're gonna build a product, copy what they're doing. I would say we have a really like, we feel really prideful in Silicon Valley not to copy, but does anyone remember Like, all the pre-Ubers, like the Flywheels and such. There was like 10 Ubers before Uber, and Uber literally copied like the interface, but they executed better. So, like, don't feel bad copying. Like, everyone in Silicon Valley is copying. Like, we all know Snapchat and Instagram, right? It's like, anybody feel bad about that? Does anybody own Facebook stock? Like, pretty happy. So, I think, realize that like it's okay to copy, and we'll talk a little bit about that. And then it really comes down to kind of like what context actually enables you to move fast. So, the known, right? Like, who's done exactly what you're doing or something similar to it? Like, can you name the companies that are similar? It's my favorite first VC question. It's like, hey, I've talked to these 2 companies, have you? And you're like, shit, I didn't even know they existed, right? So, who's already doing this? What happened? Like, did they sell? Did they fail? Why did they fail? Did they raise money? Did they not raise money? Did they hire? Did they not hire? Like, you need to know everything about the competitive environment for where you are, because like, Odds are someone's done exactly what you're doing. Let's just be honest. There's no original ideas. If you have an original idea, please let me know. I'd love to invest, but you probably don't. So I think just realize that LinkedIn's a great tool, so is Crunchbase. Check out what people are doing. Example, in the first 30 days I started a company, and I called a CEO of a similar company who had sold, and I actually took their VP of marketing and got their whole performance marketing initiative and everything that worked and didn't work. over the last 6 years. Cost me, I think, $5,000 for an approaching the market deck, and then when I went out to raise money, people asked me about this same exact company, I literally said, their CEO's an advisor, and I know exactly what worked and what didn't work. Pretty powerful, right? 30 days in. You really have to know, like, kind of what didn't work. So, I'm sure people here are working on companies that have derivatives of other companies. Like, why are those other companies not doing it, right? So, like, if you're starting a workspace for millennials in Germany, Like, WeWork has probably thought about that. Like, why isn't WeWork doing it? Okay, if you can't answer that, that's tough. So, I'll gloss over this, but like, before you go out and try to raise money, you really need to understand the environment. Like, who did what, what'd they do, when they did it. Okay, that's the key takeaway here. So like, why move fast? Who likes saving time? Yeah, okay, not a lot of people. That's fine. So like, what if you could flesh out an idea in like 3 months versus 4 years with the same outcome? Like, what if you're gonna make $1 million, but you can make $1 million in 3 months versus 4 years, which one would you pick? It's pretty obvious, right? Like, I'd definitely pick 3 months. If you pick 4 years, like, don't be an entrepreneur. Like, 4 years is a really long time. Like, you should really spend your time wisely, and you should value your own time. Everybody here know compound growth? Warren Buffett called it the 8th wonder of the world. So compound growth is basically, if you get a customer every week versus a customer every month, You're gonna go like 50x. Like, it's unbelievable. So you— I tell everyone, start with 100 customers. That's like kind of a minimum viable product for a, for a company. Add 10 customers a week and you have 2 million customers in 2 years. This is literally like— this is Stripe. Does everybody know Stripe? Everybody likes Stripe? Yeah. If you add one customer, you can have 200,000 customers. Like, a huge difference, right? Like, order of magnitude. And it also allows you to make more money. Like, moving really quick means that you have a bigger and better outcome. You just do. Like, you have a better outcome because you're growing faster, you're hiring smarter people, you're executing faster, and you're building a better product. This is actually my favorite question. Would you rather raise a Series A after 3 years? Anybody? Would they rather raise a Series A after 3 years? No one? Okay. What about Series D after 3 years? A few people would rather raise a Series D. And how many people would rather just sell it in 3 years? But no one asked about ownership. What's the cap table? How much do you own? How do you know? This is a trick question. You don't know. What if selling the company in 3 years, you get negative return? What if you owe money on your taxes? It happens. What if raising an A, you still have 90% ownership? What about Series D, you have 10% ownership? Changes things drastically. So, I would think a lot about how quickly you can move because it's directly correlated to your financial outcome and the outcome of the company and all the people that are working there. Like, literally, you owe it to your shareholders and yourself. And honestly, it's just, like, way more fun. Like, anybody ever, like, driven a race car or Tesla? It's just, like, way more fun to go fast. It just is. Like, moving fast is really, really delightful.
