Falling in love - again - with your mission
A newsletter by me, Kiko Homem de Mello, CEO of Qulture.Rocks
Howdie,
How are things on your end? All good over here đÂ
About a year and a half ago, while living in SF for YC W18, I listened to an episode of Reid Hoffman's Masters of Scale with Evan Williams, cofounder of Medium. In it, Hoffman says[1]:
⊠Ev launched his third venture: Medium, a one-stop shop for every thoughtful, medium-length article online. Medium is Evâs third attempt to reinvent the world of self-publishing in his long, but not so winding career. Make no mistake â while a career that twists and turns and nearly flies over a cliff is certainly fun to watch â itâs not necessarily the path you should follow. In fact, if youâre a thoughtful, reflective, mission driven entrepreneur, like Ev, you may find yourself chasing the same big idea. Again and again, you return to it, sometimes wittingly, sometimes unwittingly. - Ev Williams
If you don't know Williamsâ story, he's the cofounder of Medium, Twitter, and Blogger. All companies on a mission to help us broadcast our thoughts, albeit in different ways, shapes, and forms.
I've thought about this interview a lot.
Whenever I'm going through tough times, I - like 100% of other entrepreneurs - consider what life would look like if I wasn't running my startup. What if we sold the company? What would I do the next day?
What's really interesting - and comforting - is that these exercises invariably take me back to where I am.
Whenever I think about day 1 after an exit, I imagine maybe two weeks of vacation and then calling my teammates at Qulture.Rocks to build another SaaS company. And when I think of what type of SaaS it'd be (that's where Ev Williamsâ interview fits into this subject) I inevitably think we'd tackle the same problem we're tackling at Qulture.Rocks, which is to unlock people's and organizationsâ potentials.
I have been focused on essentially the same problem throughout most of my career. - Ev Williams
This single-mindedness about our mission got me thinking about what made me love it so much. What made me feel that it's my life's mission.
Falling in love - again - with our mission
What made me start Qulture.Rocks was the pain I felt as an individual contributor, but more importantly, as someone elseâs direct report. It had to do with leadership (or the lack of it); with not feeling I had leaders that were motivated and/or equipped to do their jobs. Some of these people didn't want to deal with people; some thought it was a less-than-noble job, compared to doing deals or handling customers.
Then I started Qulture.Rocks, and became a leader myself. And after almost 5 years in, I can tell you I'm even more thrilled to see this problem from the other side of the table. It's just amazing to appreciate such a tough challenge from all sides, as a leader, as a CEO, and as a shareholder. It's just so much more intricate than what it looked like back when I was an IC, focusing narrowly on my own problems and wants and needs.
⊠you shouldnât feel fatigued by the repetition. Instead, you should celebrate your single-mindedness, your focus. I believe you can never know the full reach of your first idea. It could span your entire career. - Reid Hoffman
Being a founder and CEO got me in love all over again with the problems we're solving at Qulture.Rocks, in a way that feels that this is my life's professional mission. And I think that's great. Knowing I'm right where I should be gives me staying power for the long run. Makes me really think this is Day 1 of my journey. And since I am convicted great things take long to mature, I'm also grateful for the amazing competitive advantage I have in making a dent on this space.
Recommended readings:
This article has some interesting points about why big companies become disconnected to customer needs. I don't agree with his line of reasoning, but it has interesting thoughts.
This one talks about âSuperhuman onboardingâ, a theme we've already discussed.
You probably already know about Farnam Street's blog, podcast, and newsletter. Did you know 3555 Farnam St, Blackstone, Omaha is Berkshire Hathaway's address? Now you have a cocktail bomb to drop.
Farnam Street talks a lot about Peter Bevelin. He's got some really interesting books!
Thatâs it for today. I hope this helps you unlock your potential đ
Cheers and have a good week,
Kiko
[1] Here's a transcript of the interview.