The Startup CEO #2: The Perfect Product

There are people who's personalities are so powerful, so compelling, that they can bluff their way through almost anything.  This powerful personality is common among startup CEOs, and it is not uncommon for the Startup CEO to get confused between the actual prospects for his product and his own enthusiasm. This is a particular weakness for me, and sometimes when I get carried away, I'll just announce that "I'm a pathological optimist so you have to evaluate this yourself!"

Our Imperfect Fiber

I've talked about the decision at Innegrity to make a large capital investment in 2008, and how I would like to have done things differently.  The fact is, something had to be done.

We had built a pilot plant on a shoestring budget, and somehow made a product, and that product did some wonderful things like stop bullets and make carbon and glass composites light weight and tough as nails.  It had been made into things from surfboards to Formula 1 parts to ballistic shields.  Here is a video I love.

My team had talked with many customers and had, through the compelling vision of the product and the relationships they'd formed, convinced them to make production fabrics, coated fabrics and products.  It worked well in the applications but it had a flaw--it was tough to weave.  It could work, but it was an unpleasant hassle.

This feedback came from a number of different sources and we triangulated it through the value chain.  It is never as clear as in hindsight, but we determined that this could not be overcome with marketing, sales personalities or packaging, but was instead a real problem that had to have a real solution, fast.

We inspected our manufacturing process and corrected as much as we could.  We searched the value chain for help, both for our customers and to fix the problems with our product. I talked to people on every continent, and traveled all over the US and Europe looking for a solution.

We found a solution in the form of a new machine from Germany.  Over the course of 2008, they convinced us that they new machine would solve the problem, and by early 2009, we had bought a machine and formed a joint venture around another, and our product was pleasantly weavable.  Thus began the long, 22 month trek from one end-user to sixty which ended a little short of the finish line, with my termination from the company.

The Perfect Product

It's difficult to describe the soul searching that went on.  Everyone had an opinion, not just on the problem, but on the customers, their abilities, and the potential solutions. Some employees wanted to cut corners.  Some customers said it was okay.  Some end-users said they could force the weavers to do what they wanted.  Some markets didn't need it as badly.  In making the decision, I took all the facts and opinions and the sage advice from my management team to my office and closed my door and had a conversation with my Maker, and made the decision that the product could not be compromised.

If I had made a different decision, Innegrity would have been a technical success, but a marketing and financial failure.  At the end of my time, with 60 end users active and more signing up every month, it was a technical and marketing success, though still a financial failure. 

In Steve Jobs biography, he is described as being fanatic about the tiniest details of his products, often demanding entire redesigns at the last minute.  This happened with the Mac, with Pixar movies, the iPod and the iPhone and the iPad.  Bill Gates was the same, if perhaps a little less original. 

Perfect Product people change the world.  They make products that are so compelling that we flock to them--iPhones, Windows, the Model T, the light bulb, Sheetrock, the pneumatic tire...the list goes on.  They can be materials, too:  Teflon, Kevlar, Styrofoam.  Or they can be devices:  the transistor, integrated circuits, the laser.  So many people downplay the old cliche about the better mousetrap--a better mousetrap isn't worth a crap.  But a perfect mousetrap?  People, mice, cats, and the rest of the animal kingdom will beat the path to your door, as has been proven time and time again.

The Startup CEO cannot delegate this, and she cannot compromise it.  It is not the job of the CTO, or of the CMO.  Without a flagship product that nears perfection, the startup will fail.

The External Truth

The Perfect Product cannot be compromised, and no magnitude of a compelling personality can overcome a products flaws.  The product must stand on its own, and this is one of the primary roles of the Startup CEO.

I love this.  Seeking the Perfect Product is seeking an external truth, and in that way, it is worship for me.  "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light," said Jesus.  And so all the hard work to find the flaws, to understand the customer, to bend the technology--all of this is for me is seeking Truth, seeking Jesus.  He knows where my heart is in this, and that is enough.