Plan Like Colin, Succeed Like Colin
Shortly after my friend Colin Campbell started his DotClub Domains company, he called me to ask for help with establishing a planning rhythm.
“Colin, I’d love to help you, but you’re actually too small for this process right now,” I told him.
“Why would we wait until we’re messed up before bringing in your process?” he pushed. “I want to start it right, and I want to start it now, so we can build on good habits and rhythms.” He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer!
What Colin said made a lot of sense. I realized that I had not recommended our process to Colin not because they were a small startup and did not need planning, but because of my mindset. I had encountered too many entrepreneurs who believed that planning was a waste of time—something that only mature companies should do. Colin and I both thought that way when we ran our first startups. But by the time he started DotClub Domains, Colin was not a new entrepreneur. He had already suffered the pain of not planning in previous startups, and he did not want to wait to hit his ceiling of complexity. His many startups allowed him to develop a new mindset that he maintains today: Establish the right habits and systemize early instead of waiting until things begin to break.
Startups do not need to plan in the exact same way as well-established companies, but they do need an appropriate planning process designed to help them optimize their resources and cash as they test ideas. They need a proven approach to accelerate their time-to-market success.
So, we started planning! Colin gathered his team every year to build their annual plan and every quarter to assess and improve the plan. As I facilitated their sessions, I saw how valuable it was for them to make adjustments using the Rhythm planning process. This approach gave them a consistent way to evaluate ideas and products. The opportunity to pause, discuss, debate, and decide helped them avoid burning money on bad ideas.
Many startups struggle discerning when to continue pushing on an idea and when to dump it to avoid draining resources. Famously, Paypal did not succeed with their Plan A, or their Plan B, or C…in fact, it took them a series of iterations to settle on the product that would launch them to success. Giving our teams the time and space to objectively analyze and prioritize ideas each quarter is invaluable.
This process also helped Colin and his team correct the kinks in their execution plans before the work began. Poor execution plans can cause us to think that an idea or winning move is inadequate, only to be proven wrong later when we see a competitor execute well on the very idea that we abandoned. All good ideas must be paired with good execution plans with clear action steps, owners, and deadlines in order to come to fruition—and good execution plans must be paired with good work habits to succeed. Regardless of size, we all need to get focused, get our people aligned, and work with accountability towards achieving the plan.
Systematize Startup Success!
Colin committed to a Rhythm of Work. He would think and work on the business for two days every quarter, then work the plan over the 13 weeks of the quarter. He used Rhythm’s Think Plan Do process. Every quarter, his team:
- Built clear execution plans (the “how” of getting from idea to result)
- Aligned their short-term goals to carefully-crafted winning move strategies
- Decided when to move on from what wasn’t working
In 2021, Colin sold DotClub Domains (to GoDaddy) for a premium, as he has done with multiple companies using this process. In our first engagement together, he was able to scale Hostopia and exit at 17X EBITDA, or 2.6X Hostopia’s public stock price! He has been so successful with his many startups that he has written a book sharing his process, Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat, and has launched the newsletter you are now reading!
Be like Colin. Use the same system and tools he used. Don’t wait until your startup is seriously messed up—get into a regular planning rhythm now. Every year and every quarter, give yourself the best chance to succeed. Take the time with your team to pause, evaluate, and make the right decisions that will accelerate your progress and actualize the dreams you have for your startup.