Peer Groups Are Key To Building A High Growth Startup

I’m listening to Elad Gil’s High Growth Handbook and came across a gem that needs to be written about now. It’s about joining peer groups and learning how to build a high-growth startup.

When I was a young engineer working in New Mexico, I was encouraged to join the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME). I wasn’t a military engineer but my managers said that non-military engineers were allowed to join it and it would be good for my career.

I found out later that they just wanted me to be a representative for their company and use it to get work in the future, which we did.

Here I was, a greenhorn Engineer, barely out of my pimple stage attending lunch meetings on Kirkland Airforce base in Albuquerque. I felt like a fish out of water sitting around a table with men and women in military and civilian clothing. The meeting would consist of a buffet lunch followed by a presentation.

I did this for about two years and met many wonderful people. I networked and listened to so many applications of civil engineering to the military and public realms that it stuck with me thirty years later.

It was the best bit of advice that my managers and mentor gave me and it started me on a life of service.

Over the years, I volunteered for many American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) positions. When I made my career switch from Engineering to the AI Startup world, I started a Big Data meetup group. I ran that group for several years until it closed down.

I presented at pizza meetup groups in and around New York City, Montreal, and Boston when I joined H2O.

No matter where I was and what group I was attending, I always left with a more robust network and an inspired mind.

This is what Elad highlights. Joining a peer group is a perfect way to turbocharge your startup. It gives you access to the movers and shakers in your industry and lets you network and exchange ideas. It’s synergistic in the sense it lets you get inspired AND bounce new ideas off people to see if they stick.

Build a high growth startup

I know that everyone wants to be that “lone wolf” that person that did it all themselves, but that’s a false idea. If you want to have an impactful Startup, you have to get out there in the public and test it. You have to gauge the reception of your idea and see if you even have a viable product.

Every startup founder wants to push a minimum viable product (MVP) out to the market but they never ask if it’s the right MVP. Product launches need to be thought out thoroughly because they make the first impression, and what better want to learn about the pitfalls than from a peer group?

That’s the key again, join a peer group and learn. If you want to build a high-growth startup you only have so much time to win the market. You can’t afford to make catastrophic mistakes! Learn from your peers and put together a strategy for winning.

Get Elad’s High Growth Handbook, it’s fantastic.

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