About a year ago, when I was at my previous company where I held a bunch of roles from writing code, to selling, to customer success, & eventually leading the product organization (15 engineers & PMs),we got the engineering team to rate itself on multiple different categories.
On ownership & accountability, transparency, and effectiveness – the team gave itself between 8 & 9 points on a scale of 10. This was reassuring to me. Our lowest score was on celebration. The team rated itself a measly 4 out of 10 points.
At that time, I remember being confused why this was a bad thing. After all, this meant the team was aware that we have a mission ahead of us, and the job isn’t done, so why celebrate. The low score felt right in a strange way. I’d be pissed if the team felt we were celebrating a lot, because we had a lot to do, and accomplish.
But I was wrong, and I have since then thought more about this, and learnt some lessons which I now share.
Reality of a startup
There are some undeniable truths about startups. These aren’t laws of nature by any means, but they might as well be. That’s how prevalent they are.
You’re never growing fast enough
I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t subscribe to Paul Graham’s definition of a startup. It’s a business designed for growth (not sustenance), as defined by month over month revenue growth.
For an enterprise SaaS startup, at > $1MM ARR, you are expected to sustain a M/M growth rate of 10% (on the low side). The high side is defined by the likes of Slack & Zenefits which saw 30% M/M revenue growth for a year or more (after they hit $1M ARR). To put these numbers in context, at 10% M/M growth, you are tripling the business in a year, & at 30%, you are increasing revenue by 20x.
This level of growth is hard to sustain, if not statistically impossible. Yet, the DNA of an entrepreneurial team aspires to reach these numbers. You are always trying to find ways to grow faster.
We were sustaining mid teens in M/M growth from 7 figure base rates, but we were always trying to pull away. The next feature, the next speed improvement, the next performance improvement, the next widget we built would help us defy gravity.
We were shipping at a flattering pace, with multiple new product features (feature or performance related) going out in the product every week (sometimes every day) but it always felt like were too slow. There was no time to celebrate.
Something is always broken
Trying to sustain that level of growth automatically implies something is always broken. There were many nights where I was up with some of the team at 3 in the morning in New York, because our team in Australia was seeing slowness (FWIW, most common form of failure for growing companies). We fixed this fire, & at 6:30 or so, I’d go into work. We’d review the sales pipeline, & things were looking bleak because some deals evaporated. As I sat down to start work, I realized that there was a conflict about meeting rooms because they were overbooked. Open Zendesk, and there is a set of new issues, and often, we couldn’t afford to prioritize it. Open logentries & some error rate is spiking.
You get the idea. Something was always broken, and more importantly, we couldn’t fix most of it because it wasn’t important enough.Welcome to a startup. There was no time to celebrate when so much needs to be done, and so much is broken. Yes, the numbers went up but it rarely felt like it.
Every Startup has these problems
And before you think this is a problem for YOUR startup only, you’re wrong. Travis Kalanick of Uber has said that he is fearful that stress will kill him, Stewart Butterfield looks at his phone in the morning till he is physically sick of all the fires before he gets out of bed. I’ve since heard other leaders express this sentiment. The reality is that you are failing your way to success because you are pushing the boundaries, and this is independent of scale.
The Journey is never over (till its over)
When people say that startups are like a marathon, I disagree. A marathon ends but building a business is a never-ending race. All of SV aspires to be like Larry Page, or Zuck, or Elon Musk, and their companies are the work of their life. The reality is journey is never over. In fact, if you go into a startup thinking of exiting one day, you will likely never find enough courage to keep going.
So why celebrate? In an environment where everything is broken all the time, and the journey is long, why celebrate? I think that is exactly why you need to celebrate, because the journey is long & wins are hard to come by.
So why celebrate
Popular culture gives us mixed signals about celebration. The ethic of hard work & keeping your head down is the blue collar ethic. Celebration is considered opposite of this Celebration is perverse. e.g. athletes who celebrate excessively are flagged. And of course, we are told not to celebrate too early. And guess what, with startups, its always too early.
Importance of Celebration
Studies show (yes, based on my 30 minute Google Scholar lit survey) that celebration is important for human beings. Celebration gives us a sense of togetherness in a journey (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries). This creates creates favorable memories which we consume in times of hardship. With it, we build a sense of belonging, and a sense of orientation towards something we value. It gives us fulfillment, and in turn, gives us the courage to sustain the thing we celebrate & value.
In essence, it gives us the raw fuel to keep going in the face of adversity. And that’s what startups are all about. Overcoming adversity every single day, and celebration will not just make the journey easier, it will give you the courage to make the journey.
Some ways to celebrate
I’m definitely the wrong person for this type of advice but I’ve seen teams celebrate in some of the following ways
Celebrate (the right kind of) wins
We are surrounded by the drumbeat of media stories about all kinds of startups. Startups are getting hunt’d or crunch’d, and your startup is mostly never there. Even if you are, that’s not the right kind of win to celebrate IMO.
It is much more important to celebrate the unglamorous grunt work that goes into building the company. Celebrate outcomes that the external world will never talk about or see. Celebrate the hard fought wins in the trenches. This not only focusses the team on the right kind of wins, but it makes the team less vulnerable to externalities. It gives everyone a sense of agency.
Share Customer stories
All product teams know the list of things that are broken & requests is long. All product teams know that engagement & retention has room to grow. Surrounded by all of this, we sometimes forget that some people love the product. Share those stories with your team on a regular basis.
Bring customers to your office. Not only will they love meeting your team, they will give the team a shot of courage. This is especially important for engineers who rarely interact with customers.
Celebrate learning
Startups see a lot of failure. In fact, failure is a rite of passage for startups. If you wait for wins to celebrate, you likely won’t get many real chances.
Celebrate wins when you get them but more importantly, celebrate & share lessons. This will nourish your team when times are tough, and also create a culture where learning is considered to be valuable in its own right. Your team will be less traumatized by failure as well.
Create rituals
Rituals that teams share create a sense of normalcy in good times & bad times. Startups are a roller coaster, & you need to maintain a sense of normalcy even when the house is on fire. I encourage you to create rituals that your team shares every day. Eat lunch together every day, have a drink on Fridays, do a shot everytime you close a deal, send handwritten notes to your customers, create art collectively at the office once a month, design & wear T shirts & hoodies that reflect your culture. You get the point. Create rituals. Create a cult.
I wish I had learnt the importance of this a few years ago, & I think most startup leaders learn this too late. BUT, if you’re reading this, its never too late. Start celebrating because the journey is long. You will need to make time for it, but its worth it.
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