Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Part 3. EXECUTION

It's often said that startups are controlled chaos. There are so many things going on and so much to do. The best entrepreneurs are those who can manage the chaos, focus on what's important, and find a way to execute efficiently.

Efficiency of execution is so important to startups that we have deliberately designed processes to detect it as part of the TechStars application process. We look for concise and direct e-mails instead of endless phone calls. We're more impressed by founders who supplement their applications with quick and dirty videos that show the basics of what they're doing than with those who waste time on production value. While we can't give all of our application processing secrets away, there are dozens of other clues that help us determine if the team has one of the most important entrepreneurial traits—the ability to get stuff done and focus on results.

Some entrepreneurs, like Jeff Powers and Vikas Reddy of Occipital, are execution machines. You know that whenever they put their mind to something they'll grind it out and get it done. Others, like Andy Smith of DailyBurn, sneak up on you with their calm, quiet competence. Before you know it, they've created something beautiful and amazing that appeals to numerous people. Then there are entrepreneurs like Ari Newman and Tom Chikoore of Filtrbox, who study their data obsessively but can turn on a dime when they see that the path they are going down isn't working.

Execution doesn't mean blindly going ...