CBD popcorn, Pet wearables, enterprise marketplace - A start-up is a start up!

"Do you only work with tech start-ups"? "We work with all entrepreneurs, a start-up is a start-up! In fact non-tech start-ups can be just as dynamic, often facing more rigorous hard data challenges. Tech is what we have been doing for 20+ years and it tends to come with a set of founder expectations that are known to young tech entrepreneurs. We love the digital space, but along that journey we've met and worked with plenty of non-tech founders from medical marijuana/CBD products, gluten free bakeries, a secure dog collar start-up, 2 day/20,000 attendee annual save the ocean benefit, to my favorite, "the gravy couch". I'll leave that story for another time, so funny! Let us also say thanks to everyone whom we've spoken to about Refresh, your support has been enthusiastic and encouraging, right back at you! Be adaptive, stay resilient, stay healthy both in mind and body, and address the challenges we face with COVID-19 head on.

At the end of the day living with a start-up is HARD enough even when times feel good! So, whether it's a cool CBD product, GPS dog collar, or a delicious cookie that you make and sell out of your basement; the same dreams, ideas, assumptions, mistakes, frustration, conflicts, success, failures (and now pandemic) are relentlessly baked in.

The path from MVP-market-traction-scale (for any start-up) is about team, process, mechanics, learning, outcomes/results, then rinse/repeat. The effort, learning, persistence, fear and anxiety are pretty much the same. What we've learned, believe (and endorse) is that communication, discipline, focus, shared respect, are critical behavior dynamics, at least as important as code, especially when stress is at an all-time high with a pandemic. The real challenges that I try to tease out of co-founders and their teams is "how does your team operate under pressure"? Whether its in your basement making CBD tinctures or a retro fitted factory with bean bag chairs and standing desks, you are only as good as your worst day as a start-up team. I tend to imagine my worst days as an exercise to make me stronger, but since COVID-19 is not an exercise now is a great time to put that exercise to good use. This period in history will pass.

Talk with your partners and team, reinforce your commitment to each other, remember the "possibilities" and why you got really excited and took control. Inspire yourself to confidence and remind yourselves that this is a part of your everyday world where most others simply have a job. You are tougher, more focused, determined and now is your time to show your team, investors, customers, what it's truly like to be an entrepreneur. Get back to the simplicity of building, adapting and surviving; it's what we do everyday! We are now sheltering in our houses, WELL, it all started in your house, your basement, your garage! Show your strength and remind the world that this is what we do. Dare yourself to push on, help others and believe in your work. So, eat your CBD popcorn, strap on that dog collar and take your dog for a walk, keep coding your wireframes, and just my personal suggestion - watch some Peewee Herman!