23.07.2021
via Anchorman
Airbnb was four years old. Old enough to have figured out what business it was in, and what its ambitions should be. It had honed its model in the realities of the market over the past four years, and had gotten beyond the idealism and naivety of a raw start-up. But it was young enough to create the foundations on which everything would be built thereafter…and that would set it up to be good for a hundred years. And that’s exactly the time-frame on which the founders were operating...It was clear after this short time I’d met them that they were focused simultaneously on leading a hyper-growth unicorn, but with an eye on the legacy long-term.
– Douglas John Atkin in How AirBnB found its purpose
Unlike the 4-year-old AirBnB referenced above, we're pre-product, pre-revenue and pre-Series A. This startup phase is a lifecycle all its own. (And that will be a memo all its own.)
Pre-go-to-market as we are, we're well past the point of waiting to launch a product to focus on the foundations that this company is built upon. What we build and ship – from product to tweets – will be a function of the people and systems that make up Bettr. The more limited we are, the more limited Bettr is bound to be. The same goes for how our culture will evolve, and – in turn – how each of us will evolve. If it hasn't already, building something as demanding as Bettr will not leave any of us unchanged in some way, so we have every reason to be intentional about what systems of change we're putting into motion – as individuals and as a team.
Bettr is founded on the vision that we exist with exponential potential. We are building the tools, platforms and communities to enable everyone to become everything they know they can be.
This vision applies to us, the people of Bettr, too.
In order for us to realize and unlock our own worth, we've got to hold ourselves accountable to challenging ourselves, exploring more, and immersing ourselves in the contexts we're operating in more.
It's not linear, of course. It's exponential. It's complex. And we're going to champion it.
Right now, Bettr is on a path to stunting the growth of its people and its business unless is makes intentional moves to diversify its teams and its inputs into innovation (ideas, knowledge, human experience, collective history).