How not to become a zombie

Years ago, I read Paul Graham’s masterpiece essay on “How not to die.” For those who haven’t yet read it (but will, I trust you), the essay suggests that the best way for Y Combinator’s founders to become successful and rich is to keep showing up and reporting, maintaining themselves under constant peer pressure. According to Paul, if entrepreneurs are around other equally talented founders for long enough, they’ll eventually stumble upon something that sticks and then run with it.

However, not dying doesn’t guarantee automatic success.

We’ve all seen early-stage startups that refuse to die for years but fail to succeed. This is especially true in Latam where capital is scarce, and failure is not as well-regarded as in the US. Thus, it’s common to see Zombie Startups, which aren’t dead but far from successful.

For the purpose of this essay, success means building a company that materially grows in revenue and margins. These successful companies create intrinsic value for their customers, founders and investors, many times providing the opportunity for a financial exit to the founders and investors.

Some steps to avoid becoming a Zombie:

• Follow Paul Graham’s advice and report consistently, even if the news is bad. Reporting (not just to investors, but also to all collaborators) helps with discipline, organization and getting more done.
• Act fast. Study, plan, align, execute, and measure, but do it quickly. You’ll likely make many mistakes before you find success, so the faster you iterate, the more shots you’ll have with your runway and mental stamina. Taking too long to do things feels like a prudent move, but more often than not it’s a waste of oxygen.
• Surround yourself with people who are better and more intelligent than you, and who freely disagree with you.
  • Some founders seek reassurance and can’t tolerate disagreement (but this is not adequate founder material).
  • Convincing “better than you” people to give you their time is hard and requires hustle.
  • Listen to your trusted advisors, but trust your gut. If I hear something like “my advisor told me to do this and that’s why the company failed,” it’s an instant red flag. It indicates a lack of accountability when things go wrong and a tendency to follow other people’s orders when feeling insecure in order to maintain the optionality of delegating failure to someone else if it happens.