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My small garage startup company — Astrography has lived to see A.D. 2021
We live in times where everything has to be big, flashy, and colorful. What if we were to ask ourselves if there’s any other way? There are so many books that try to answer this question, but at the same time, our surrounding environment displays so few practical examples.
That’s why I’ve set this goal for myself some time ago — to try and “do it” in a different way. To build a company with foundations of diamond quality. With no hustling, no forced media appearances (especially if I have nothing to say), without any of that glitzy lifestyle. A company that is completely independent of external capital and the need to continuously lend it in exchange for invaluable shares (I prefer this word to “fundraising”). But what if slower didn’t necessarily mean worse? Wouldn’t that be a discovery?! — something like a “circle”, because that is how all typical companies around the world have been established since the dawn of time.
If you have children, you’ve certainly at least once heard the term “stress-free upbringing”. It’s probably one of the most misunderstood and underestimated phrases about upbringing. After all, a stress-free upbringing is a wise and conscious approach to the subjectivity of children, teaching them about rules, barriers, limitations, but also about self-determination, confidence and responsibility for themselves and the environment. Cortisol is a stress hormone and any excess of it disables that, which evolutionarily defines us as homo sapiens — our cognitive abilities. I think the same can be said about the business, that is after all a one big battlefield, where problems are solved in real-time. Stressed and busy CEO, who’s burdened with debts, thousands of obligations to partners and creditors, won’t be able to create a great living space for himself, his employees or his business partners. Especially in the case of the first stages of business incubation, when everything is on his mind and on his hands. Statistically, this has to end badly and it’s time to start measuring more than just business metrics. The mental health and hygiene of the founders (advice for VC) also have to be measured. I’m sorry to inform you that at this point that such metrics haven’t even become popular yet, or at least I don’t know anything about it.
