Choosing Your Battles as a Startup

Founders face a Thousand Battles at their startup every month. A thousand. From small ones like tiny bugs in their code to large ones like “How do I make money?”

Almost every single battle will demand founders’ attention. But you have a limited time and limited energy. What do you do? How do you fight all of them and get everything done?

The single answer: you don’t. You have to choose your battles.

Constraints are Boons #

You are lucky to have constraints on time, attention, resources. It forces you to have focus, and choose your battles.

That sets you up for more wins, since you’re able to concentrate more on a few good battles rather than spread yourself thin across many.

Every startup starts with many ideas on what features to build, what value to add to customers. But having constraints forces them to choose the most promising feature, and build only on that.

The same happens with individuals. As a founder, you have to choose the one north star that has the most impact on the company and focus your efforts only on that. You take up tasks and battles that drive the north star. Everything else can be given to someone else.

The important / urgent matrix #

Here’s a simple way to decide which battles to fight. If it’s important and it’s urgent, you better fight it. Everything else either gets delegated or gets put in “I don’t care if I lose it” purgatory. And the importance of the battle? It’s about which one drives you toward your northstar.

Pick and choose your battles, you’ve only got a few lives.

I’m excited to work with startups who’re using AI and Video marketing to grow. Reach out to me at startups at vatsalkanakiya dot com.

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