“You’ve got to let go”: Lessons from a startup founder who just raised millions
Gary Zurnamer is the co-founder and CEO of Vouch, a video testimonial startup. Here are the lessons he’s learnt after a year in business.
We recently celebrated our milestone first year in business at Vouch. It’s been an incredible, challenging, eye-opening ride, but one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced so far took me by surprise. Because it wasn’t the global pandemic, ‘Great Resignation’ or impending global economic downturn we all read so much about.
It was learning the simple lesson that sometimes, you’ve just got to let go. When it feels unnatural, you’ve got to relinquish control. And before you feel ready, you have to delegate responsibility so you can focus on driving the business forward.
Take customer calls for example: having a close connection with our customers has always been an obsession of mine.
At Vouch, we’re a product-led business so knowing how our users interact with the product, what they like and what they don’t, is integral to our success.
At the start, when we had just a handful of users, this was easy. I could drive every conversation and understand every inch of their experience. But as our user base grew, it became impossible to scale. Not only were those calls taking up most of my day, but as our customer base quickly extended outside of Australia, most of my night too.
Narrowing focus
I can’t say I learned this lesson straight away. There were some interesting feats of scheduling attempted over the past year! As any founder or co-founder will know, you pour passion into a startup. It’s not easy to step away from elements of the business you were once so involved in. You feel inherently attached to the build.
But to keep driving the business forward, it’s crucial to narrow your focus down to the highest value work. Spreading yourself too thin and trying to be everywhere at once is counterproductive and helps no one in the long run. As co-founder and CEO, there are certain things that only I can do, and it makes good business sense for me to focus on them.
I miss speaking to every customer, and feel just as passionate about every interaction, but I know I just can’t be across every conversation, design decision and marketing campaign, and nor should I be.
Three ways I learnt to let go
Hire exceptional people
The best you can find. The kind of people that share your passion for understanding your customer’s experience or your sky high brand standards.. Then empower them to own that function.
We recently made a wonderful hire who is now leading a lot of the customer conversations at Vouch. He’s able to fully focus on supporting them in a way I would have never had time for, and gaining their valuable insights. This has not only allowed me to step away but it has strengthened our customer-centric approach.
I know for early stage startups this might be a luxury you can’t yet afford (we’ve been there!) but when you can, hold on for the kind of people you can trust and don’t underestimate what a transformative effect they’ll have on your business, and your role within it.
Align on overarching goals
Scaling your impact across a business is easier than scaling your interactions. To do this, you need strong communication and alignment. Your team needs to understand your vision and how the work they do contributes. Once you’re on the same page, you’ll start to see your priorities come to life through their work and eventually, your vision.
This is an ongoing effort for me and my co-founder David. We’re currently planning Vouch’s first offsite to bring our team, many of whom are new hires, together to align on our vision so everyone understands their important contribution.
Keep across the detail
Letting go shouldn’t mean losing touch. While I communicate out to my team, I ensure that it’s a two way street. It’s crucial to retain that deep understanding of the customer, even if I can’t be on every customer call. Without staying close to the voice of the customer, we wouldn’t be able to stay ahead and evolve.
The challenge is finding the level of detail and the regularity of updates you can manage, while cracking on with everything else you need to do. I’ve found video and other asynchronous communication tools help a lot. I practise what I preach and use Vouch to ask my team for a lot of the updates I need. It saves me time in meetings and helps me get the information I really need.
Of course all of this remains a work in progress. Letting go can still spark a fear of letting things slide, but Vouch sprints into its second year, with a team of incredible people, I am committed to using these lessons and continue to ask myself if I’m being effective or simply involved.
