Page 101 - INC Magazine-November 2018

thomas goetz b launchpadhomas goetz b
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When Do You Stop hen Do You Stop hen Do You Stop
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Being a Startup?eing a Startup?eing a Startup?
B B
You’ve succeeded in keeping all those
balls in the air for a couple of years. Now
it’s time for your next trick.

enough that I inspire every person on my team at every
opportunity, as I did that first day?
If you’re a semi-successful startup, you may be able to throw
money at the problem, offering swell perks and extra options.
But those aren’t real solutions. Those are largely extrinsic moti-
vations, not intrinsic ones: They depend on external factors
n the early days of starting a company, every like wealth and status to keep people engaged. They don’t tap
i
entrepreneur is full of confidence and ignorance into the core motivations that most humans, particularly those nto the core motivations that most humans, particularly those
in equal measure. We’re all whistling in the of us drawn to startups, bring to work every day—things like
dark, unsure of what’s ahead and feeling very purpose, meaning, mission. We want to be part of something
lonely. And as we search for some signal in the important. We want to be part of a company that is going places.
silence, we all end up at the same place: Quora. That’s why we went this startup route in the first place.hat’s why we went this startup route in the first place.
T
Quora was made for, and by, entrepreneurs. So what now?
We were fortunate that Iodine was acquired by GoodRx, e were fortunate that Iodine was acquired by GoodRx,
Sure, “Data Visualization,” the first category on W
my home page, offers about 14,000 followers. about three and a half years in. That event reset our clock
But go to “Startups” and there are 3.5 million. and work and expectations. It recalibrated our team to be part
“Entrepreneurship”? You’ll find 4.5 million seekers of wisdom. of something bigger. For us, the acquisition was the perfect
And 27 million curious folks follow “Business”—and so on. wake-up call at the perfect moment. My sense is that every
Quora, it seems, is where we entrepreneurs all go to ask: startup, to be successful, must at some point go through a
Where am I? And what should I do? similar recalibration. After all, the game plan in year 7 or 8 is
This thirst for guidance, for something to measure against, almost never the same as the one on the first day. And if you’re
to know what the heck other people in my shoes did, is what lucky enough to get there, your hard-won wisdom will almost
c
I remember most about my own early days, when I started certainly be more valuable and useful than those early dreams. ertainly be more valuable and useful than those early dreams.
Iodine five years ago. I went to Quora for wisdom on corporate That’s the stuff that people really want to know from Quora.
structure (C corporation or B Corporation or LLC?), fair equity By the way: For the founders of startups, Quora isn’t just
grants, and 83(b) elections, and for advice on how to turn a reference source of knowledge; it’s a model in and of itself.
contract workers into full-timers and—once or twice—how to Quora kicked off in 2009. Nearly 10 years later, it’s still a startup,
let someone go. Pretty much any question I had someone on whatever that means. The company hasn’t had that big exit
Quora had had before. And if the answers didn’t always put me that allows the team to breathe and the founders to rest on their
on autopilot, they usually helped me spot the guardrails. laurels. Here’s hoping it pulls something off soon—and is
Those days were filled with exuberance and novelty. I was willing to tell that story to entrepreneurs.
fueled by a fire to get this thing going. I was eager to build a
new company, and Quora was going to fill in the blanks in my
experience. The energy was everything.
But five years is a long time. Given today’s typical career
trajectory, five years could be one or two jobs. And if you’re
leading a startup, five years is a curious, in-between place.
You’ve survived a purge or two; you could not have made it
this far without some amount of success.
Thomas Goetz
Still, you’re not there yet. So you sit, trying, as ever, to (@tgoetz) is a
make this business a real one. And you’re far enough along co-founder of
that the early enthusiasms have waned and wandered. You’re Iodine, a digital
in a weird place. And now your questions are a bit more exis- health startup
based in San
tential than those covered in Quora. They’re more like: How Francisco.
do I keep my team motivated and inspired? How do I revive
my mission when the dream I sold my team five years ago is, Shayan aSgharnia
well, five years old? And how do I keep myself confident

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