What does a week in our (early-stage) startup look like?

Forget investor pitches, this is an early-stage startup laid bare.

When we started, we had more than just an idea; we had a vision of how we wanted to work and grow together. We’ve talked a lot about our product, about us and our why so this is about our internal processes.

Transparency and discipline have been in our processes from day one - sounds like something that’s good on paper, but do we measure up to it?

Our story is one of building in public, giving the details of being an early-stage startup to those who keep up with us. So here’s EVERY detail about our internal processes.

PS: bookmark this tab because we’re keeping no secrets about where we're headed🤞

Morning and wrap-up syncs

The team knows the direction we’re going in and everyone decides the tasks and the deadline independently. For this to work well long term, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page!

We do this by having short morning and an evening sync every working day of the week.

The week starts on Monday by discussing how we spent our weekend. If we had spent some time studying or learning something new, we usually talk a bit about it. Similarly, if we did something enjoyable or fun, we'll share that too.

Our morning syncs look like this -

➡️ We talk about what we plan to accomplish for the day and check if that task has a dependence on anyone. If so, we’ll discuss what time we can get on a call and block off our calendar.

➡️ We see how our marketing is doing and sometimes check the analytics numbers to learn more. We're trying out different strategies to see what’s working the best for us. We do something similar with sales and product, where we discuss if there’s any particular conversation with any prospect that stood out.

➡️ We end the 15-minute call by talking if something is blocking someone. Following that, everyone else leaves, and only the individuals directly involved in resolving the matter stay to help unblock the person.

One consistent aspect of most of our meetings is that we frequently use the phrase, "Hey, I don't think you're needed in this call, you can drop off". This by no means is considered rude!

While in our evening wrap-up syncs, we usually discuss the following

➡️ Discussing the day’s completed/pending tasks We discuss what’s complete and everything that was supposed to be done but is pending. Asking 'why' for something incomplete, helps us figure if it's a resource issue, a prioritization misalignment, or something else.

➡️ Assessing the day’s performance We talk about what worked well and why, this could be improvements made on the product, success on our outreach efforts, new customer insights among other things. For example, if a team member used a new or a creative approach to solve a problem, they share this, so everyone learns.

➡️ Discussing roadblocks during specific tasks and solutions. We dedicate the last part of our meeting to open feedback. This could be related to the day's workflow or even interpersonal dynamics. Constructive criticism helps everyone prepare better for the next day.

Morning and wrap-up sync

3Ps framework on Slack

We live and breathe on Slack (is that a surprise now?) We’ve a Progress, Plan and Pending update system to keep tabs on individual tasks.

Progress: What have you accomplished so far?
Plan: What will you accomplish today?
Pending: What did you plan to accomplish but haven’t so far?

Discussing tasks is great but having them written down allows us to tell each other “hey, here’s my plan for the day, keep me accountable if I miss any of these.” Not to mention that in an asynchronous remote work environment, documenting things just makes it easier for people working at separate times!

No one ever wants to miss out on any task once it’s in the “plan” - so this has been a hack to have everyone performing their best!

Daily updates

Mix and Mingle (MnM)

MnMs are our end of the week celebration meetings. We wrap up an hour early on Fridays (at 6pm IST) and we celebrate with food and an honest review of the whole week.

What are we celebrating? Performing well at yet another week, everyone’s contributions and coordination (++ the belief that we’re building something great together).

Also, we’re technically a hybrid organization. Product development can’t be all-remote so our (me & engineering team’s) Fridays happen at the WeWork in Andheri.

Tracking plans in writing is important so we’ve got an MnM sheet! Here’s what that looks like:

Mix and Mingle

➡️ We list initiatives taken for the week: Celebrating wins, voicing challenges during the week, gathering feedback on our own performance.

➡️ Pending initiatives that’d be carried onto next week

➡️ Highlights and Lowlights of the week: This is everyone being transparent about ‘how was the week?’ Every once in a while one of us would go, "Hey, this week did not feel productive" (lowlight). Our highlight for the last week was, a product manager who's been in the space for 11 years said our UI and features surprised him with "how good they were for such an early stage".

➡️ Weekly ratings of the mood: These are way too important. Once the average of these starts consistently going down we know we’ve got some reflection to do.

We also do a brief preview of the next week’s priorities so that we’re all on the same page and ready to hit the ground running on Monday (we only do this the 75% of time we remember to - forgetfulness comes easy when you’re focusing on good food)

1:1s

You’d have guessed by the name- this is a 1 on 1 meet I do with every team member.

When we do 1:1s, we try to catch up on how people are really feeling, and discuss what tasks spark joy (and which ones need a rethink).

We discuss if the company’s goals align with everyone's individual goals.

As a company we want to grow, get clients, get product feedback but if someone in the team wants to learn something new, get better at a certain skill - those goals should be as much a priority of theirs as the company’s goals.

That’s it

That’s a week at Vesume and everything that happens here. We might take on different processes and responsibilities as the company grows, as we get customers, their feedback and new learnings, but this is it for now.