A Simple Matter of Software

Your mission should you choose to accept it

How a great communicator defines a big audacious goal:

We will "put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade."
                                                                    - John F. Kennedy

How the typical business executive would define the same goal:

"Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives."

Thanks to Made to Stick for creating this example.

Too many software ventures have mission statements that sound like the latter.  Don't try to define your mission so it covers all the bases and supports every contingency.  Instead focus on defining your mission in terms that are simple, concrete, and emotionally compelling.

Saint-Exupery on Engineering Elegance

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
                                - Antoine Saint-Exupery

Traditional Management vs Venture Management

1000ventures.com has an interesting comparison of traditional management vs. venture management.  I don't agree with all their points, but it is worth a look.  Here are some of their main ideas (somewhat modified):

Building Business Around
    TM: Competence-driven idea
    VM: Opportunities: customer-driven idea or a new technology

Market Focus
    TM: Serving established customers
    VM: Entering emerging market that has yet to be recognized and exploited

Results
    TM: Quite predictable
    VM: Quite unpredictable

Time-to-Market
    TM: Willingness to sacrifice speed for thoroughness of analysis
    VM: Speed is critical, get ideas to market to test in real world

Success Measure
    TM: Earnings
    VM: Market capitalization

Market Research
    TM: Analysis, review, methodical consideration of facts.
    VM: "Living the data", agility, experimentation, adaptation, and rapid response

Management Attitude
    TM: Dedicated to delivering an operating plan
    VM: Dedicated to identifying and adapting to unmet, unserved customer needs

Risk Management
    TM: Reason, caution, predictability, avoiding failure at almost any cost
    VM: Experimenting, adapting, failing, and experimenting again

Financial Focus
    TM: Profit
    VM: Cash flow