Olson’s Observations

While watching the Tour the other day I starting noticing things that transfer from cycling to the world of start-ups. There were three things that really left out to me so I thought I would share them with you. Hey, any way to talk cycling and business, right? Enjoy!

1. The team makes the difference.

Why was Lance Armstrong able to win for seven straight year while his rivals struggled to keep up? The answer, his team. Sure, Lance was more fit than his rivals most of those years, trained hard and had some natural gifts geared toward cycling but it was his team that kept him out of trouble and led him to the finish time after time while other teams could not do the same for their stars. Another point to his credit, Lance was smart enough to realize the importance of a team in his bid to win the Tour. By all accounts he looked for cyclists that could help lead him to victory and helped with recruiting great members to the team. He also coached, mentored and trained his men and made sure they all believed in the overall mission: a Tour de France win for him.

Just as teams are important in cycling they are important in start-ups. The people make the company and start-up founders need to remember this as they begin the hiring process. Some entrepreneurs may be tempted to rapidly staff up if they are going through a growth spurt but people are a long term commitment that can really harm a company if not chosen wisely. The founders would be better served by waiting a little longer and shouldering more work in order to find the right candidate that believes in the mission, is willing to work hard and fits the culture. Hiring the wrong candidate can slowly kill an organization from the inside.

2. Even the mighty can fall.

In cycling everyone can and will fall at some point in time. In 2003, Lance took a terrible spill while climbing a mountain. A fan had inadvertently caught Lance’s handlebars in a bag strap (yup, wasn’t even his fault). Lance had only a small margin over Jan Ullrich at the time so this was a very grave situation. What did Lance do? He got up, got back on the bike and kept pushing all the while keeping a cool head. Keeping cool allowed him to remember the basics, concentrate on climbing and he eventually won the Tour. Getting frustrated and mad at the spectator who got in the way would only have hindered his bid for a 5th Tour victory.

In a start-up there will be inevitable ups and downs as the business progresses forward. It is how a company deals with the down turns that really show its true colors. Like Lance, companies need to keep their cool so they can tweak the business strategy to meet new market demands. Sometimes a company may even have a great product but may not know how to make any money with it. Take Google for example. Back in the early 00s Google was proving to be a top force in the search space. People loved their product but they hadn’t really figured out how to make money with it yet! So, they remained calm and eventually figured out the AdSense contextual ad network which was actually a borrowed idea from on of Bill Gross’ IdeaLab creations called GoTo.com/Overture. As they say, the rest is history.

3. Passion is priceless.

As one of my old Tour t-shirts says: The Tour is “3,360 kilometers de enfer, et de passion.” Or for you English speakers in the audience: The Tour is over 2,000 miles of hell and of passion. The Tour de France is a “sufferfest” in every sense of the word. Riders are constantly battling to suppress immense pain while continuing to push their bodies to the limit day after day. What gets them through is their passion for the sport. They love it and they wouldn’t trade it for the world. Lance lived and breathed cycling and it showed at the end of seven straight Julys. His passion also inspired his team to fight for him day in and day out which allowed for his success.

Start-up companies, the good ones anyway, are built on passion as well. Honestly, why would anyone leave a nice safe cushy job for a start-up? Well, some may say the sense of adventure and the want to create something along with other reasons (stock options and money) but what it really comes down to is passion for an idea. The idea grips the entrepreneur (and his/her future employees) and consumes him or her until there is nothing left to do but go for it. The great thing about passion is that it keeps people going during the inevitable rough patches, unites people to focus on a common goal and creates a business that stands for something and that will hopefully change the world for the better. Randy Komisar captured the idea of passion very well in his book The Monk and the Riddle. Basically, the book shows that there is no business without passion. Entrepreneurs need to be excited and passionate about their ideas because, if they aren’t, others won’t be either.

I hope all of you will take these Tour lessons back to your ideas and businesses and that they will serve you well. I also urge you all to check out the Tour on OLN as cycling is a fantastic sport. Yes, I know Lance is not in the Tour anyone but there are still some great cyclists in there like Floyd Landis that I’m sure will put on quite a show in the upcoming mountain stages!