It seems inevitable that every startup hits an inflection point; a “make or break moment”. There is no path to success that doesn’t include these moments. You have to go through them; they are not optional.
The catalysts that create make or break moments vary. Sometimes the catalyst is external; perhaps the market meeting your product, an acquisition by one of your potential partner’s competitors. Sometimes the catalyst is internal; a great new product release, a partner deliverable. We all know what these moments look like; we’ve all described a moment in time as “make or break”.
The notion of “making” a business in a singular moment is alluring. But entrepreneurs rarely think about the execution risks they will face after they’ve “made the business”; and the fact that there are likely to be future “make or break” moments where they will also have to avoid breaking. For me, ”make or break” is a fallacy. You can absolutely break a business in a singular moment, but rarely can you make a business that way. The only way to truly “make” a business is to exit it, in which case, future execution risk and future “make or break” moments become irrelevant.
Perhaps we should rename ”make or break”. Lets call it a “don’t break” moment. ”Don’t break” moments comes with the recognition that by not breaking, you create opportunity to execute well in the future so that you can see future “make or break” moments where you must also “not break”. If you make it through the gauntlet of multiple “don’t break” moments, you might just have the opportunity to exit the business for a monumental value at some point in the future.
How would you rename the “make or break” moment?
Filed under: Lessons Learned, Venture Capital, execution risk, fallacy, make or break
