Running a single startup is already a juggling act, a whirlwind of decisions, pivots, and late nights. Imagine multiplying that challenge by steering the ships of managing multiple startups simultaneously. You’re handling fundraising, product development, and team building across different ventures. Each demands your focus, energy, and a little piece of your sanity.
Whether driven by ambitious diversification or simply wired to conquer multiple challenges, mastering this art demands structure, delegation, and unwavering self-awareness. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the rewards can be immense for those who thrive in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment of multiple businesses.
Table Of Contents:
- Secret Weapon for Managing Multiple Startups: The Maintenance and Expansion Framework
- Why Embracing Constraints Can Enhance Managing Multiple Startups
- The Power of Collaboration When Managing Multiple Startups
- Final Thoughts on Managing Multiple Startups
- Conclusion
Secret Weapon for Managing Multiple Startups: The Maintenance and Expansion Framework
Over the years of juggling startups, I’ve discovered the Maintenance and Expansion Framework system. It’s been instrumental in helping me keep all the balls in the air, and maybe it’ll work for you, too.
The basic idea for managing multiple businesses is simple: categorize everything pulling at your attention into two buckets: Maintenance and Expansion.
Maintenance: The Essentials
These are the non-negotiables, the recurring tasks crucial for keeping each startup afloat. These might look like:
- Monitoring the financial health of each venture.
- Staying on top of key metrics and making course corrections where needed.
- Nurturing vital relationships with investors, partners, and key team members.
These tasks are essential, but they can quickly bog you down. My advice? Streamline, automate, or delegate these as much as possible. This frees up mental bandwidth to manage multiple expansion opportunities.
Expansion: The Growth Drivers
This is where things get exciting. Expansion tasks are initiatives with the power to catapult your multiple companies to new heights.
Think about launching a new marketing campaign, exploring a potential acquisition, or carving out time for deep strategic thinking. Unlike maintenance tasks, which I minimize to avoid getting bogged down, I embrace expansion tasks. I can take on several of these multiple projects simultaneously as long as I know it will be over soon.
I thrive when tackling multiple growth-oriented projects. I hate being bogged down by maintenance, but I’ll gladly tackle a mountain of work if it means moving multiple projects forward.
Why Embracing Constraints Can Enhance Managing Multiple Startups
While it might seem counterintuitive, a packed schedule is not the enemy. When you clearly understand your maintenance essentials and actively seek ways to minimize or offload them, it creates a “positive constraint.” It forces you to be fiercely protective of your time and energy.
You’ll quickly learn the true value of time when managing multiple businesses. Every spare hour becomes an opportunity to scale an existing startup, launch a new one, or take a well-deserved break, which is sometimes just as important. This approach has been instrumental in building my portfolio, and I find this way of working energizing.
The Power of Collaboration When Managing Multiple Startups
Even with the best systems, managing multiple businesses effectively relies heavily on people. Surround yourself with brilliant minds with the right skill sets who share your drive and commitment to your successful startup vision.
For instance, our team at Evernomic has organically grown to more than 20 passionate individuals. A key to our success lies in building a ‘full-circle system’ for our projects, where each endeavor should ideally feed into and bolster others within our portfolio.
Let me elaborate with a real-world example. Imagine aiming to launch an ad network. You’d immediately hit the ‘chicken and egg’ hurdle—securing enough creators and advertisers.
Drawing inspiration from successful networks like Alphabet and Meta, we recognized the advantage of already establishing one side. For Meta, this meant a vast user base readily engaging with their free services before ads rolled out.
This lesson proved invaluable in our journey. When we launched an ad network, we took inspiration from Meta’s strategy. Due to an acquisition, we had a pre-existing, expansive network of newsletter creators, so now we’re tackling the advertiser side of the equation.
Final Thoughts on Managing Multiple Startups
Even with the Maintenance and Expansion Framework and the talent within our team, I’m no stranger to setbacks. Missed deadlines and unrealized plans are part of the journey, and sometimes, keeping up with everything feels impossible.
That being said, whenever I take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come, I’m pleasantly surprised by our progress in managing multiple businesses.
Conclusion
Managing multiple startups for serial entrepreneurs isn’t for everyone, and that’s perfectly fine. It requires multitasking, resilience, outsource work, and unwavering self-belief, even when things get tough. You need to be comfortable with uncertainty and understand that doing everything at once is impossible.
You need to become skilled at prioritizing tasks, delegating effectively, and learning as you go. However, this process can also be fulfilling, with every challenge overcome and every milestone achieved amplifying your skills and confidence.
If you want to supercharge your entrepreneurial journey and have the stomach for it, perhaps this approach is right for you.
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