Before the Cadence
All we have is an idea and lots of ambition.
Let's face it: most startups are a shitshow - David Sacks
Entrepreneurs are dreamers. Visionaries with a different view of the future. We have a deep urge to do something. Why else would we put ourselves through torture to build a company?
A funny thing happens when starting, though. It's not what you expect. All we have is an idea and lots of ambition. We jump in.
David Sacks' article "The Cadence" addresses the organizational chaos that often plagues venture-backed startups, particularly those in the Series A-C stage.
He introduces "The Cadence" as an operating philosophy designed to bring order to this chaos by synchronizing the significant functions of a SaaS startup—Sales, Finance, Product, and Marketing—on a quarterly cycle.
The Cadence aims to transition a startup from a disorganized state to a well-oiled machine capable of hitting milestones consistently. It emphasizes the importance of planning, launching, and closing activities in a structured manner, thereby creating a single operating cadence for the company.
The Cadence makes sense to bring some order. It helps develop the pace of how the organization gets things done. The Cadence is primarily about alignment.
After going through a few startups, I've always enjoyed what happens in the early days. Before you get to 50 employees, that's the good stuff.
What can we do to prepare for the next stage?
Regardless of the company size. Write stuff down. The habit of writing notes, project briefs, processes, etc., is tough to get into but invaluable.
Taking notes is a good practice and long-form content for things happening across the company.
People may complain writing is tedious. It is, yet the process of writing helps solidify my thinking. Ideas or features often materialize into code without reasoning whether it should be coded in the first place.
The push often, even when you do write out a brief, is no one wants to read it in detail. Regardless, writing things down clarifies our thinking. Writing helps me wrestle with ideas and synthesize my thoughts.
Chaos thrives in the endless Slack channels and the thousands of SaaS apps with thousands of notifications. I still haven’t wrapped my head around why there are so many project management tools.
Don’t bother moving from Asana to Monday. We need a system for getting things done, not another tool.
The goal is to build a system of getting things done across the organization. Most likely, it is a simple checklist and one place where things happen. Tools such as Notion help centralize writing and manage projects. Keep it simple.
Before any scale is achievable, establish a few operational basics. Build the foundation. Get finance in order. Build the habits now with the early employees. They'll be essential in spreading the message to new hires.
Little by little, you can implement a cadence with a strong foundation and some luck. The journey before the cadence is where the real magic happens. It's where you lay the groundwork for everything that follows, ensuring that when you reach the stage for a cadence, your startup is not just another chaotic mess but ready for sustainable growth.