Something you hear a lot in the startup community is the concept of pivoting – how from the idea of the initial business model to the one that actually turns into a business there can be lots of twists and turns and changes.
At our last StartupSac Happy Hour AMA featuring John Bissell, this question came up from one of the audience members, who asked whether that had been true for Origin Materials, how they came through that, and the takeaways from that experience.
John Bissell explains how the idea maze concept helped his startup
John’s responded:
“So we have a concept that I stole from Marc Andreessen that is called the idea maze and we find that incredibly helpful to think about sort of the process of evolving a business model and a technology and applications and customers and all that sort of thing. What does your team look like? What are your core principles and whatnot? The concept of the idea maze is that you enter from one end and at various points you may be going completely in the opposite direction from where you end up and that’s okay because that was the only way to negotiate your way through the logic of the maze.”
“So for us there were two changes in technology that we were focused on but there were an enormous number of changes in business model. Is it a licensing model? Is it a build own operate model? Is it a build own don’t operate model for our manufacturing facilities? Should we be involved in the downstream development of applications? What should the point of sale or that the article of commerce be for all of these different things?”
“So there were lots of changes and there continue to be. Now we’re a little bit better at earmarking that that’s a decision we have to make as opposed to trying to make the decision early and then flipping later. But it’s absolutely something that that we’ve spent a lot of time doing and that comment that I was making earlier is that anybody that makes it look like it was a really straightforward path from start to finish is probably either not critically evaluating their business and their technology and their process or they’re lying to you or to themselves. Right? Because it’s never that straightforward over the course of a half decade or a decade.”
As a follow-up question, John was asked, “When you’re in it, it can be discouraging. How do you manage that?”
“So the idea maze concept was helpful for us because it made it less discouraging. Understanding that you have to navigate your way through this process was incredibly important. Before that it’s like everybody says, ‘I have a fundamental insight and then I execute on that insight,’ and that’s bullshit and until you realize that that’s bullshit you’re holding yourself to that standard and that’s incredibly anxiety inducing.”
“But that was why the idea maze concept was useful for us or for me because it makes it okay, and in fact a natural part of the process to be flipping around every once in awhile and really not know where you’re going as you navigate your way through it.”
This is just one of the many nuggets of wisdom John shared with the audience. Our AMAs with veteran entrepreneurs are always full of insights and knowledge that other founders can take away and incorporate into their own startups. Make sure you don’t miss out. Catch the next StartupSac Happy Hour.
