What’s your mission?

I recently spoke to a startup founder about their business. In doing so, I put them in a box by categorizing their product. Even though it may seem like they’re competing with other companies in a space. They see what they’re doing differently and have a much broader mission, which drives them and are making steps toward.

This isn’t possible if you’re Airbnb for X, rather than trying to change X industry.

You often need to start small and focus on a niche to get into a market. I’ve realized that every company should have a mission. An idea of why they’re doing what they’re doing. Otherwise how do you define the good times and how do you get through the bad times.

A mission is different to a vague values statement or a dream-like scenario (what if we IPO’d with our chrome extension).

Facebook succeeded early on by going after the college market. If they didn’t have an inkling that this could have broader implications they would’ve sold to Yahoo when they had the chance.

I’ve seen companies get stuck in a place where they are doing fine but they aren’t thinking about what they want from the company. When traffic starts to flatline or when investors get impatient they start optimizing their current product with no idea where to take it next.