Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1Do More Faster

David Cohen

David is the cofounder and Managing Partner of Techstars.

Startups do almost everything at a disadvantage. Initially, most startups have less money than their competitors. They have less credibility and fewer customers. They have fewer employees, which means there are fewer people focused on marketing, sales, and product development. Resources are scarce at a startup.

But, as in the martial arts, the best startups use the weight of their opponents to compete more effectively. Bureaucracy slows down larger companies. People do less in larger companies because making a mistake can be politically costly. Risk takers who are wrong get fired or lose power internally. The larger the company, the more likely it is to be slow and fraught with internal politics.

If there’s one competitive advantage that most startups have, it’s that they can do more faster. And because they can do more faster, they can learn more faster. Startups can immediately throw things away that don’t work, because no one cares, anyway. Nobody is trying to protect a brand that doesn’t exist, and there isn’t any reason to be afraid of small failures. Startups know that that’s just part of the process.

If you ask CEOs of major companies what they’re most worried about, one common answer is, “a couple of people in a garage somewhere.” Why would a major company be worried about that? Because their larger and more established competitors have too much to lose to try something radically ...