Smoky Tri Triping
Woot back yard BBQ in Jan!
Woot back yard BBQ in Jan!
For the first time in 53 years the Giants won a World Series Championship on Nov 1, 2010. Since moving from NY to SF the beloved San Francisco baseball team have not won a title. Over the course of three months the team was able to scratch and claw their way into the playoffs and then beat three very strong teams that most people expected them to loose to.
While a baseball team that has played in this city for more than 50 years and in New York for a long time before can hardly be considered a startup, this years team, this years team displayed many characteristics of a scrappy startup. It's the journey of the startup, creating a team, and changing the world that inspires so many people to willfully assume great risk and keep fighting against great odds.
Besides their core pitching duo of Matt Cain and Tim Lincicum, very few of the players on the World Series roster were even on the team on opening day. No one thought they would make the playoffs much less win it all. And while the whole city burst into collective jubilation when they won, most of the fans you saw packing the stadiums and bars, and partying in the streets were not life long baseball fans with sworn allegiance to the SF Giants.
Like a hot new company none of that mattered to anyone. What did matter is that they swept the city off its feet, and won their fans over with selflessness, hard work, and eclectic personality. This Giants team was something special, they truly moved mountains and brought a region together in the process. As entrepreneurs and perennial underdogs there are a few things we can learn from their achievement.
Hire for skill and fit
The Giants signed a lot of new players throughout the season and their opening day lineup looked nothing like their playoff roster. While they added a lot of players, none were superstars. Instead they signed a bunch of role players who were experienced hitters and played excellent defensive. Most importantly each player fit well with the team.
Pick Each Other Up
Invariably everyone gets hot and cold over the course of a month, quarter, or season. When people are connected to shared culture or community they respond to a team mates down performance by putting it on themselves to close the gap. If you picked me up I'm going to pick you up, no words exchanged just a shared drive to win together. It's powerful stuff.
Team managers and founders can make the mistake of mercenary style teams where each member is focused on individual performance, rather than a collective goal. While each person should also be measured and recognized as an individual; a real team is way stronger than a group of individual experts or stars. I cannot count how many times random players up and down the line up came through with an incredible play and credited thier teammates past performance as inspiration for them to step up.
Be Yourself
No doubt the Giants had some unique characters on the team, almost everyone was a bit different then the prototypical MLB player. But the unique ability to use that "wierdness" as a competitive advantage is rare. I know Zappos actually has "a little weirdness" as part of thier Core Values. Encouraging people to be themselves and celebrating the differences is an amazing team building strategy. Who would every want to go elsewhere when they feel comfortable? How could a forced "culture" ever compete with authenticity?
Play on Passion
Best for last. The Giants beat some great teams with more "talent" purely becuase they recognized something special was happening. Both internally and collectively as a team and a city. The passion was thick, players cared more about each other than themselves. The fans were rabid with passion, it built upon itself and created a tidal wave. No way they could loose. Each improbable win fueled a fire within a city that was so hungry for the goal yet so inspired by the journey. It all felt a bit like Pres Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign, except there was no singular celebrity figure, and electing a black President is a bit more important than Baseball.
While most startup geeks are not huge sports fans - that team was a startup that changed the world, inspired a city, and won it all. They competed, struggled and triumphed as a team. They were misfits, mocked by fans from hardcore sports towns, and each time they won they gave props to their teammates and fans. Everyone was included and strived to make an impact everyday. No doubt your startup will struggle and the journey is long but when it's fun, and thier is a shared bond of men and women pushing forward as a team there is no loosing, only lessons learned, new days, and next season to look forward to.
(sorry for any typos, I kinda suck at grammar and wrote this on my iPhone)
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One of the highlights of coming is playing pool in my grandfather's den which is filled with amazing New England Patriots memorabilia, spanning 50 years. Bubba worked for the Pats for many years and both him and my Grammy were big fans.
Next few days will be tough but being here is amazing. Check out a few cool (instagram enhanced pics) of the Patriots Pub.
For me its all about having resources and support, Jason is quite fortunate because he is wealthy and can afford all the extras like nanny's, night nurses, etc, so the load on his spouse is much more manageable.
On the flip side if your not wealthy its going to be much harder and puts you in the position that you need to take a decent salary if your going to go full time on your startup, which means you need traction and funding or a profitable business.
Parenting is a fabulous example of bootstrapping - you get much craftier, less wasteful, and in fact may have more time on your hands because your at home more. Once the kids go to sleep - start hacking away at your projects.
I would also say that when you have kids you appreciate some of the perks of a normal job more like vacation time, steady income, and health care benefits etc.
We've been bootstrapping our company for 2 years now and I have 2 kids (4 and 2 yrs) and it has somehow worked but not without a lot of extra challenges. I'm hoping that at this point we have enough traction to take it to an Angel/VC and get some funding so I can digg in 150%.
Just trying the new Posterous iPhone app.
First fail was no landscape mode but it's V1 so no worries.
I really like getting the website features and controls in the same place where I'm composing a post (via the app rather then via email).
Two thumbs up so far.
UPDATE - After a great intial experince I have found a critical missing feature of the new app. You can't (yet) edit a post via the app. You can create a new post or delete a post but cannot edit?? This seems like a big deal to me and after getting a fast response to my question from the Posterous support team I suggested the feature. Hopefully they respond with an update quickly.
Saw these amazing Shelby Cobras in front of the Sheraton Hotelz this morning. There was about 20 cars, all cobras and all very clean. The group was doing a drive to the coast then going to Infineon Raceway for a bunch of events this weekend.
Cool event this weekend on the Petaluma river. There was great music, tasty food and drink and lots of fun people and art to check out. Talked to a friend that runs a mobile wood fired pizza oven who said they sold out of everything a few hours into the event, and was really surprised by the big crowd.
