Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13Avoid Tunnel Vision

Bijan Sabet

Bijan is a general partner at Spark Capital in Boston. He is one of the founding investors in Techstars Boston and has been a Techstars mentor since 2009.

In the world of startups, big ideas are one thing, but execution is everything. The best entrepreneurs I know execute well by doing several things. They show up with an idea that they’re passionate about and a vision for the problem they’re trying to solve. They understand what they need to do to make that vision become a reality. And they make things happen, either through sheer will, determination, or focus. Successful entrepreneurs have a great sense of urgency and they’ll move mountains to get things done.

There is another quality that the successful entrepreneur has, but it is one that took me a while to understand: They have the perspective that things rarely go as planned, and they are comfortable with that uncertainty. I think passion, understanding of what needs to get done, and determination are straightforward, but the last one, the idea that things rarely go as planned, can be incredibly challenging.

When I’m mentoring companies during Techstars, entrepreneurs often nail the first three items on the list, as these are the raw materials of a typical Techstars company. The difficulty is making sure that they recognize that having tunnel vision can be deadly.

Let me share a specific example—it’s dated now, but at the time was a cool company. Even so, the example is timeless. ...