A new northstar

I recently went through an annual review of my businesses growth and came out feeling disappointed. Despite my best efforts, the business was not growing as fast as I wanted. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help feel the numbers were inadequate in comparison to many VC-backed benchmarks.

Over dinner with another bootstrapped founder, I asked him a similar question: how did his team do forecasting? His answer: they didn't. Instead, they just focused on making their customers happy and let the rest take care of itself. Today that company is profitable and doing several million dollars in annual recurring revenue, having compounded 1% monthly for the past 12 years.

I suspect the most alluring part of what he said to me is not that he didn't set benchmarks, sometimes that is helpful. The piece that resonated most was his resolute focus on making his customers’ happiness his north star, rather than some growth target.

For so long my only measure of value was how big something was and how fast it grew. This mindset, stuck into me from business school and time spent on boards as a VC, was not just confusing, but downright detrimental.

Truth be told, I have no real idea how fast my business will grow this year and that is ok. I have far fewer resources than venture-backed companies and the company is still very young. It will likely take time to figure out the right growth metrics, perhaps years.

Until then, I have a new north star: make my customers happy and let the numbers fall where they fall.