One Year after Co-founding Business
Its been 1 year and a half since i co-founded my business with the like-minded souls. We struggle, adapt, balance, and explore our own role in the company and what each of us can provide to this company. Apparently, the learning curve is steep, and the whole experience is even more dramatic than any telenovela existed. But after those grueling days, i can say that we’ve finally settled with our own roles within our own company. And its been 1 month since i decided to take the helm as Chief Operational Officer. This piece of writing is solely a reflection toward the past, so that i could move on with my own role. I would be glad if you could find useful insights amidst this rants and rave.
Co-founder dispute is inevitable. It exist in many kind of organizations; founder who exits after the startup scaled up to Unicorns, to founder who exits even before the startup start to create ripple amidst the market. Even at Aniqma, we need 1 year and a half to settle down with our differences. The four of us are constantly adapting to each other. But is it really need that long? Actually, there are several key point that i think could speed up the process.
- Selection matters. To start a company is a very deep commitment. Therefore, prior to this commitment, founders should be hundred percent sure that they are technical and cultural fit to each other. Only after that, co-founder can start to shape the culture and roles within the company and to reach Shared Vision.
- Experience speak louder than words. I’ve spent 10 years to work at several companies prior to join Aniqma. In my first endeavor, i spent 5 years for a taste on how to scale a shoestring budget business to profitable business. The rest is about working at some startup that yet to take off. Looking back, i wish that i had more experiences in a more relevant organizations. Don’t get me wrong. I am thankful to all of my superiors that shape me as who i am today. But i feel that i lack one key experience needed. I understand how to scale a business from minimum budget to a profitable business, but i’ve yet had to taste any experience on how to deliver startup to Series A, which apparently are the most crucial piece of necessity to Aniqma products. And no business should be more patient to wait for their leader to grow.
- Tools are now more important than ever. I think that business could grow only after the co-founder can find the common grounds between them. So, understanding of management framework such as OKR and KPI will definitely speed up the progress to reach this common ground. The establishment of OKR to C-level on our company helped us to divide our responsibilities toward a shared objective, and as such, helped us to create a separation of concern. Who are responsible to what.
Tools shall not be abused. Prior to Aniqma, i’ve tasted on many kind of burnout. Whether its on a shoestring-budget web hosting business, social startup, copywriting agency, to programmer course. I’ve tasted on how KPI provoke burnout, but at the different place, it can also raise productivity if utilized correctly. I’ve tasted on how OKR also perpetuate overwork at the hand of abusive authority. But i’ve also tasted on how no tools can be even more damaging. Tools is only a tools. The art of people management lies behind the utilization of these wonderful tool.
So that’s how it is. There are some lingering regrets and if i could turn back the clock to the beginning of this journey, i’d like to change my approach for the best results. But time should be progressive, not retrospective. So with our limitations, I am very proud of how each of us have come so far to build Aniqma, a Software Company where i envisioned to be a life assurance to the people threading life under our umbrella.
