As a startup, we run into the issue where we have more ideas than resources, and we have more business prospects than execution ability.  This is tough because when a (paying) customer says ‘we want you to do this’, it is difficult to say no.  Money?  Money!

Last week, in talking about an idea that I had been bugging my cofounder about for weeks, I finally decided to put it on ice indefinitely.  Not because it’s not a good idea, but because making this idea real will take a lot of time, energy, and effort.  Most importantly, chasing this other idea is guaranteed to scatter our focus.  Scattered focus is bad for most anyone, but it is DEADLY for a startup.  We have to own the niche before we can branch out, and having a bunch of little twigs as a foundation is not as nice as having a big thick trunk.  We want a trunk.  Because its easier to branch from a trunk than it is to try to branch as a green sapling.

So just like pruning a tree, we starve the weak.  By weak I don’t mean it was a weak idea, but our ability to execute on it was weak.  Our ability to execute on it was weak because our attentions would be spread between this new thing plus the other stuff we are working on, and the other stuff we are working on is currently half baked as well.  So the moral of the story is don’t branch out until you have a strong trunk.