Shifting Gears in Startup Culture
If there’s one common denominator that unites the culture within many startups, it’s the grueling hours. While there are exceptions to that rule, the speed at which opportunities arise and disappear in the startup landscape often justify putting in more hours per week than you would at an established company. But as a startup matures and grows – and with studies suggesting that productivity falters after 50 hours per week – when is it time to dial it all back?
Writing for Inc. Magazine, Brian Hamilton, Chairman of financial analysis company Sageworks, argues that startup culture is not sustainable. He compares launching a new venture to flying an airplane: in the beginning, a plane requires a lot of speed and energy to take off, but once it’s flying safely, you can switch on cruise control.
“The role of the entrepreneur is to assess where the company is in its progression and to apply the right amount of energy to keep it on the correct trajectory,” he writes.
If there’s a specific point young companies need to reach before they can start to ease up on the intensity of the workplace, Hamilton says it’s in direct proportion to cash flow and overall goals.
“If a business is cash flow positive, there is inherently less pressure on an organization; they’re not forced to drive as hard,” he advises. “Yet, if the goals of the company remain aggressive, the culture will still be demanding.”
Still, another important factor is evaluating the mindset of your employees. Hamilton cautions, “The truth is that you can only go full-tilt so long before you start dealing with burnout and disillusionment.”
But, it isn’t only burnout and the frustration of employees who have been working hard at the company from the beginning; it’s the understanding that the type of employee who signs up to work for a startup in its earliest stages often looks very different from one who comes on once the startup is in expansion mode. While first employees are frequently of the entrepreneurial mindset and may be prone to taking professional risks – Fast Company once described early staffers as “the same types of people who would join a political revolt or new church or new club” – later hires may be, for lack of a better word, more “normal,” according to Hamilton.
“When I say “normal,” that’s not a pejorative or condescending term,” he explains in Inc. “The majority of people in the world want to have an average work load and a healthy work-life balance.”
The key to it all may simply be to exploit one of the factors that most differentiates startup culture from the workplace environment at older companies: the inherent ability to be nimble and dynamic.
“Don’t fall into the trap of self-deception that you’ll be able to duplicate the same level of intensity through your growth years,” Hamilton writes. “Be flexible and adaptable. The plane is in the air; you need finesse, not brute force, to get it to its destination.”
