We can learn a lot from startups. Nimble and without long established hierarchies that can strangle innovation, startups move quickly to take advantage of new opportunities.
In this six-part series, Report on Small Business talks with Canadian startup founders and leaders to learn how they think about their businesses. The lessons are of interest to established small businesses, large companies, non-profits and government departments, as well as other startups. In this article, we look at their views on innovation.
Mallorie Brodie, co-founder of Bridgit, a platform for organizing construction projects
Since day one, we have never stopped learning from our customers. There is not a construction site I walk by that I do not stop to talk to someone outside. There is always something new you learn, and when those data points are all analyzed together, it often is what leads us to further develop our product road map or sales strategy. We also have a very iterative development process, where we try to experiment with our ideas in the least expensive way possible, before investing a heavy amount of resources into the project.
Mikael Cho, founder of creative talent site Crew
I don’t check the news or any websites regularly. Because technology moves so fast, it’s really easy to get caught up in the news and what’s happening. Instead, I prefer to follow a few industry leaders and people I look up to on Twitter and only check my Twitter feed a couple times a day. I also subscribe to a couple newsletters that are consistently good. This usually brings me enough to keep me updated on major things going on.
When it comes to balancing new and existing ideas, there’s a system I use called base hits and home runs. Base hits are short-term, smaller things you need to get done today or in the next couple days to keep the business running. Home runs are longer term things that could have a larger future impact on your business but they might not be as connected to what keeps the business running today. We aim to always be working toward at least one important thing that could disrupt our own business . But you need a balance between base hits and home runs.
Rachel Pautler, co-founder & CEO of Suncayr, a marker with ink that changes colour when you need to reapply sunscreen
We’re lucky enough to be working in the Velocity program at the University of Waterloo. We’re constantly informed about the latest technology in the form of innovative companies. The best way that we’ve found to keep up with our field is to keep up with the news and blogs. Being in the consumer space makes our lives a lot easier when it comes to figuring our what our competitors and potential partners are doing. We’ve also got a pretty broad potential market, so when it comes to deciding on features of the product, we’ll hit the streets and talk to the first 10 people that we see. However, we do make sure to focus on our target market of moms. When we’re making decisions about features of the product, or marketing, we always make sure to consider whether or not it’s something that they would want.
Jeff Booth, president and CEO of BuildDirect, an online seller of home renovation materials
Be an avid learner! You can learn something from everyone as long as you’re curious and open-minded. If you think you know all of the answers, you will never grow. I still read over 50 books a year on as many topics as I can. An informed and educated perspective will keep you at the forefront of your field.
Michael Litt, co-founder and CEO of video and marketing platform Vidyard
We have a core belief for product development and innovation fed by the Y Combinator mantra: “Make something people want.” For us, making something people want is predicated on the notion that people will ask for what they want, but might not actually know what they need. Vidyard’s success to date has been in our ability to cross the chasm between want and need, define the right requirements and then execute with unprecedented pace to beat others to market.
Denzil D’Sa, founding partner of cross-platform messaging platform PPLCONNECT
We make it everyone’s business at PPLCONNECT to be knowledgeable about what is happening in the industry. We closely follow feeds and trends about the mobile communications and Telecom space and share internally relevant articles through Yammer. We also keep an internal idea board, where new concepts can be written and shared with everyone on the team. When an idea starts getting enough of us excited, we typically tend to go directly to our users and ask them their thoughts on it. In many cases, the innovation ideas come from users themselves, who’ve written us directly.
The Think like a Startup series runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays in October on Report on Small Business.