Jim Panttaja

Guy Kawasaki published a book called “The Art of the Start” (which I highly recommend to anyone starting anything – but especially starting a company). We are in the process of starting a new company – and over the last five days have built the heart of that company.

Mary and I spent the last five days with two other people ‘starting’ a new company. The other two had been formulating the core ideas for perhaps the last five month – and Mary and I first discussed it with them about two months ago. We began in earnest over the last five days in Jackson, Wyoming.

We have worked with both of the principals before. That was helpful in the process – but I don’t think it was essential.

What was essential was four people coming in to the process ready to discuss – ready to figure things out – ready to let the others figure things out. The fifth day found the process accelerating – as we took an initial architecture and found ways to simplify it.

The result is going to be amazing (of course there is a lot of work from here). But the process was brilliant. Any of us could have tried to impose a structure – but we didn’t. Each day (perhaps twice a day) someone would outline the next things we should discuss – but we were all comfortable as that list of things would be ignored – and another topic took control of the proceedings. Sometimes two or more of us weren’t up to speed on the topic at hand (occasionally none of the four of us) – but those who didn’t understand participated, those who did were patient, and the convergence of perspectives was brilliant.

We have all been through this early stage before. We knew that we were establishing the culture of the company. But you can’t sit down and create the culture on flip-chart paper. You create it in these kind of work sessions – and the coffee breaks, mojitos, meals, hikes and bicycle rides (Mary and I aren’t quite up to single track riding – but we climbed some good hills, and managed off-road riding at 6700 feet). In fact the bicycle rides are a great metaphor for how we worked together. The four of us approach bicycle riding from different skill sets, experience (an understatement), and degrees of being in shape (not to mention age). But we could ride together – pick different paths – but still feel that it was a group encounter.

We can’t tell you what we are doing yet – but I think the first project will be named Snowking – after the ski area down the street from where we met (and the site of a hike and a bike ride).

After I wrote this post, I came across a post on Guy Kawasaki’s blog. It is a response to a blog entry that Guy wrote about how some people create web sites with little effort - and lot’s of results: No Plan, No Capital, No Model…No Problem. This is a guest posting by Glenn Kelman of Redfin: On the Other Hand: The Flip Side of Entrepreneurship by Glenn Kelman. He provides a view of how hard it is to start - and run - a startup. And how that is part of the point. He provides a top-ten list that shows “the ways a startup can feel deeply screwed up without really being that screwed up at all”.