It’s easy to get wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of the current markets and political environment. Just this week we felt the thrash of massive swings in the market fueled by tariffs and tweets by the POTUS. Reactions to “unprecedented events” can vary from worry to panic, but it’s important to anchor yourself. As the saying goes, control what you can control.
During times like these, founders look to their capital partners for advice, mentorship and playbooks on navigating the rough waters. Fortunately, as capital partners, we’ve faced plenty of unexpected circumstances, and our surviving to tell the tales can make for valuable lessons for everyone.
Facing unprecedented events with action
We don’t have to reach too far back in the memory bank to find examples with the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, I was an operator facing pressing questions, like: what’s next? How will we survive? What’s the message to our clients? My current partner, Justin, was the captain of that ship, and despite never having faced a global pandemic before, he navigated the COVID waters about as well as one could. Why? It came down to him figuring out what was within our control, and keeping focus there.
During that time, Justin made frequent use of the words opportunity and pivot. I’ve always loved the lens of opportunity. It’s positive and shifts you to a solution-oriented mindset. Keep in mind, COVID or some other seismic shift, uncertainty can feel overwhelming, especially when employees start to waiver, worry or even panic. This is the opportunity for founders: the chance to captain the ship, especially if it’s in choppy waters.
Back in 2020, Justin took the opportunity to lead by having transparent conversations with the team about pivots we needed to make as a company. Change can be hard, but pivots can be necessary. He pointed out things we needed to do, which ended up also highlighting similar situations our clients were in. By leading with clear eyes and empathy, we opted to overserve our existing customers, knowing our new customer acquisition efforts would likely suffer.
But what happened was remarkable. By overserving our existing base, expansion revenues grew at a rate outpacing prior years. Additionally, our overserved customer base felt taken care of and secure, and rewarded us by referring new business prospects at a rate we’d never seen in the past, catapulting our new business numbers almost to the point of the initial forecasts.
Move forward with knowledge, Captain.
We recently recorded an episode of the Cheat Code + Friends podcast with entrepreneur Gregg Scoresby and spent 45 minutes discussing the traits we look for when investing in a founder. Leadership came up frequently in our discussion, and the consensus was that while leadership may not always come naturally, one thing that always stands out is the ability for leaders to understand the business at every level, down to the weakest link. That matters because when sh*t hits the fan, action is needed. But there’s a difference between someone who acts fast and screws things up versus someone who acts fast but charts a course with knowledge, intention and a plan.
In short, prepare to take on the “unprecedented.” Captain your ship. But make damn sure you have enough knowledge and insight to steer it in the right direction.
