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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

We Can't Grow by Saying "No"

Wil Schroter

We Can't Grow by Saying "No"

If we ever plan on growing our startup, we're going to have to start saying "Yes" to a whole bunch of stuff that terrifies us.

That's right. We're going to make bold commitments to customers, investors, and even our own staff regarding stuff we're not entirely sure we can pull off. I know, I know, it sounds scary.

Any rational Founder would be asking: "How can I tell an investor we're going to grow to $100 million if I can't possibly see how we'd get there today?" or "How can I tell a customer we can do the work if we don't have enough people available right now?"

It's called "figure it out," and it's been the growth strategy of every successful startup since the dawn of time. It takes some getting used to because it logically feels disingenuous to say we can do something when we don't know we can. But in the world of startups, it's pretty much a "figure it out as we go" type of business that we need to get used to.

Say Yes to Customers

When I was starting my first company, an interactive agency, I was in a client meeting when they asked me and my colleague "We will need to build an e-commerce component, can you do that?" Almost as if on cue we both replied "Yes" and "No" at the same time. I was the "Yes" and my colleague was the "No." It was incredibly embarrassing, but I did a little dance and made it work.

After the meeting, he asked me why I said "Yes" when we clearly didn't have that capability on staff (fun fact: it was 1995 and e-commerce had barely been invented yet). I told him, "How are we going to grow the agency if we don't say 'Yes' to things we don't do yet?" By definition, we're always selling ahead of our capability, so if we don't stretch ourselves to commit beyond what we have, we fundamentally can't set ourselves up for growth.

So what did we do? We figured it out. I immediately went through my (very limited) network hire what would become our first bona fide engineer. Within 3 years, there would be 50 of them, all because we said "Yes" to something that we'd have to figure out later.

Say Yes to Investors

If saying "Yes" to customers sounds stressful, saying "Yes" to investors is even more stressful. In our minds, when we're pitching investors, we often think that what we present absolutely has to come true, just like we said. A Founder would reasonably say "If I can't guarantee I can get to $50 million in revenue in Year 4, how could possibly tell an investor that's our projection?"

We figure it out. We set a goal, something that is big but not absurd, and we figure it out. There's absolutely no way we can know for certain that we will hit $50 million in 4 years — no one can. What we are saying is that is the target; that's what we're working toward, and that's what we'll figure out as we go.

Projections are guesses, plain and simple. We say "Yes" to them because we believe in ourselves and our team to figure out what it's going to take to move toward those goals, and statistically, we'll fall way short of them! That's OK. That's how startups work. But we can't associate uncertainty (which is all we deal with) with "No".

Say Yes to Staff

One of my favorite "Yes" categories is saying "Yes" to staff. This is what I call the "Good Will Hunting Theory," which is a dated movie reference. If you don't know the reference, it's about a kid who everyone thought was a dud, and it turns out he is a genius.

My theory goes that there are some exceptional staff members out there, and if someone would just say "Yes" to letting them tear loose beyond their age, pay grade, or previous experience, they would become geniuses. I make those bets all the time on people, and every now and again, I get a genius. That's because I said "Yes" and dealt with the upside or consequences later. We figured it out.

But the only way to find those diamonds in the rough is to take chances on other people, not just ourselves. We can't grow our startups or our people without giving us an opportunity to go beyond our present limits. When we get in the habit of "Yes" we unlock a whole new world of potential. And that's what this game is all about.

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In Case You Missed It

Am I a Fraud? (podcast) As a Founder, when was the last time you felt like you had no idea what you were doing? Today, we talk about why feeling like a fraud is actually a normal part of Founder life.

How Do I Design My Startup Around My Life? There’s very little preventing us from designing our startups around our life goals. It starts with us being very clear about what we want to achieve and then taking clear, small steps toward those outcomes.

Let's All Work On The Last Startup We'll Ever Do A long-term "final" focus not only builds better companies and products — it builds better Founders.

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