We love creating content. After all, we produce high quality videos daily to make youth sports and physical education more accessible.
But more than that, we pride ourselves on our blog, and we want to create content and posts that are valuable to you! It’s also our way of helping you get to know us better, and with that we’re thrilled to introduce a new quarterly series that will be authored by our very own, Paul Suhr. This behind the scenes look at Hiveclass will come from a founder’s lens and welcome you further into our Hive by sharing insight into where we’re at as a company, learning curves in startup land and more! Feel free to reach out to us on social media if you have any specific questions you’d like Paul to answer in our next BeeHind the Biz! And with that…we’ll pass it over to Paul.
There are many sayings in the world of startups. Here’s a secret for anyone interested in ever taking on this crazy adventure for themselves some day – each of these sayings are 100% true.
Building a startup is very much like building a plane while you’re flying it. It is absolutely true that ideas are easy – implementation is hard and we almost make it our daily rally cry to fail fast, stay hungry, learn early, and try our best not to have shiny object syndrome.
Beyond these quick quips, from my personal experience as one of the founders of Hiveclass, I would add the following insights that may offer our community a glimpse of what the past three years have been like. Aaaand perhaps one day one of these sayings will be added to the proverbial list of startup sayings.
1. “Start with your team and then figure out where you’re going.”
Lots of startups will talk about the need to hit product market fit, (what problem you’re solving and if you identified a market that will pay for the solution). This is easier said than done and is likely the reason why supposedly 90% of startups don’t survive past year 5. Having a smart (and diverse!) group of people is crucial to help identify the problem, the market, and the solution.
2. Imposter syndrome is inevitable
Wearing many different hats is a must for startup teams and no amount of degrees will save you from feeling ill-experienced at times for the task at hand. We have a saying in our videos – “Get 1% better every day” and this type of growth mentality and grit is a huge motivator for us during the inevitable times where we are diving feet first into uncharted waters.
3. Surf the highs and lows
There’s a concept of a flywheel that is often used to describe the eventual effects of cumulative effort over time. Think of it as the compounding effect in investment but applied not to money but time/energy. What this depiction often misses is the frequency at which startups experience highs and lows. Big opportunities will present themselves right alongside stressful challenges multiple times in the same day. Having a diverse set of personalities to weather these highs and lows has been our saving grace.
I am not sure if working at a startup is something I would recommend for anyone. What I will say with confidence, however, is that the lessons learned, the soul and brain calisthenics involved, and the pride in being able to say “we saw a problem and we did our best to do something about it,” is something very few opportunities can offer.
I personally have always been a creative at heart that enjoys working in a team environment so perhaps being in a startup was in my DNA. Having the opportunity to work alongside an incredible team and co-found this venture with my best friend from 2nd grade gives me a lot to feel grateful for as we look to make 2023 an incredible year.