10B49*
* Entrepreneurial shorthand for getting things done.
If there’s one thing that entrepreneurs do not need, it’s more meetings. So why has Rev1 added not one, but two weekly “meetings” for our newest clients?
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 8:50 am, we ask all newly engaged companies to join us for a 10-minute conference call that’s structured as a group activity. We call it 10B49.
On a typical day, we’ll have up to twelve companies dial into the call guided by several Rev1 Advisors. These check-in meetings are a concept borrowed by agile project management.
The format is simple and totally transparent. Each company is asked to give a fast status update. We keep track of our progress on rolling a community whiteboard. We ask our companies to focus on these three things:
- What are the most important tasks that you are working on over the next couple of days?
- Is there anything causing you to be stuck and what needs to happen for you to get unstuck?
- How can Rev1 help?
Can 20 minutes a week really speed things up for our clients?
You bet and here’s how.
- A huge amount of information can be conveyed in two sentences or less. There’s a kind of verbal shorthand in entrepreneurship. Check out the quotes from my 10B49 notes from the last few weeks.
- 10B49 is tight, fluid communication that builds continuity and holds us all accountable. Entrepreneurs who complete Customer Learning Lab and become our clients sign up for a lot of work in a compressed time. We have to stay connected. What these 10 minutes do for us would be impossible over email. Things don’t fall through the cracks. Plus, we’re building community and relationships,
- 10B49 puts action items in context. Our objective is tactical. We’re not doing strategic planning here. The client companies are very early stage, many of them fresh out of Customer Learning Lab. Their planning horizon is three weeks, not three years. They’re figuring out how to prioritize their next few days. Staying focused is a big value-add. Doing a quick prioritization every couple of days with venture advisors and functional experts who have been there and done that helps entrepreneurs avoid potholes and worse.
- 10B49 helps get things unstuck. For as different as startup companies may be, the founders are working through the same challenges—prototyping, first customers, or due diligence for very early stage seed capital.
If we know that a milestone is moving slowly, chances are that we can help. For example, one of our clients was trying to close a big sale. It had been an open item for three weeks; remarks about it were getting repetitive. During the call we were able to make an immediate connection with an expert from our First Connect network who has 25+ years sales experience and happened to be nearby. In 30 seconds, he and the entrepreneur had scheduled post-10B49 time to work out a plan.
At Rev1, we’re serious when we say that we roll up our sleeves every day in every way to help our clients get out into the marketplace and do the right things faster.
We also believe in rewards.
On Thursdays, after 10B49, we serve waffles and cover This Week in Tech. This has attracted other entrepreneurs and staff members in a comfortable environment for people to get to know each other and ultimately begin collaborating.
We’d like to see you there.
