Learning from “Las Start-ups”
Yes, that is an obtuse reference but I don’t care.
Indago wasn’t my first start-up by a long shot — -I’ve held all manner of positions from content intern to soft launch team member to the Head of Social Media — -but Indago was the first time where I was involved in all aspects of the business. Thinking back to the first days as a company, it sometimes seems downright surreal when I think of what my day-to-day looks like now.
Back in 2015, the most critical task was remembering to take all three of our mugs to the bathroom down the hall and wash them before I left so we could drink tea the next morning. Now, just a few years later, that has been replaced by administering a multimillion dollar cash management portfolio and overseeing hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly vendor payments. Like all start-ups, we had high points and we certainly had our low points (these are best shared over a beverage) but after going through it all, I still wouldn’t have given any of it up for the world. From the beginning as three friends sitting in an office barely big enough for two of us and growing to an ISO 13485 certified facility with more than a dozen employees, this was a crazy and wonderful journey.
Over the next few weeks, I will be writing a series of posts on key takeaways that I had from my five years as a cofounder and COO of a venture backed startup. I will admit it does seem awfully cliché for yet another startup founder to write yet another medium post on start-up experiences, but given the positive response I’ve received from clients and friends I’ve helped in the past, I thought I might as well write them up some of my lessons learned. It will probably be a bit of a mix ranging from more esoteric thoughts on what it takes to be a founder to a highly practical discussion of hiring pitfalls for new teams, but I will try to keep them interesting at the very least.
I will note that some of the names of people/investors/projects may be changed for confidentiality or privacy concerns. I am not interested in starting any flame wars or throwing anyone under the bus, I just hope to help others avoid some of the miscalculations I’ve made. Plus, if you disagree with any of my thoughts or had a different interpretation, I would love to hear from you — everyone’s lived experience is unique, so leave me some comments!
Thanks for reading.
For the sake of posterity/ease of reference, I will link the posts below (and update this post) as they are published.
Are there are any topics I haven’t covered yet that you are interested in reading my thoughts on? Please feel free to leave them in the comments below.
