The startups in our network are in various phases of the challenging and exciting journey to critical mass - and in B2B tech, that means big deals with enterprise customers. Their founders are following their wildest dreams and they’ve built platforms they believe in. As they join us for programs like the Fiterator, they validate their assumptions of how they fit into the plans for those big enterprise customers - in our case, the global video-broadband-wireless sectors. Piece of cake for a bunch of Type A entrepreneurs, right?
We all know the value of regularly evaluating our product offering, tweaking, and pivoting in places where needed. It’s a necessary part of building out a business and continually make sure that the product matches the actual needs of the customer. As startups begin the journey to join our industry with the Fiterator, they are addressing the specific pain points our 60 global members have, which means iterating and tweaking their totally incredible brilliant technology and messaging to find the fit. It's not for the faint of heart.
It’s also something that we do on our end as well. We are constantly reworking our programs to make sure that we are addressing the needs of our startups - pivoting in areas necessary to make sure we deliver on our goal of getting them deals in the industry. Again, piece of cake for a bunch of Type A entrepreneurs!
Just like the startups we work with, we have investors to answer to too, being backed by those 60 global operators that are part of the CableLabs consortium. We build-measure-learn-iterate-pivot to make sure that we’re providing what both the startups and our industry need: deals and innovation, respectively.
We’re entrepreneurs working for entrepreneurs. Even though we’re housed within a larger organization, we operate like a startup. We are small, but mighty! We understand the pains of simultaneously building product, gaining traction, and answering to a wide range of investors and stakeholders - all the while following the path our dreams lead us down because we are out for transformative magic. And, we also understand that a having a big piece of humble pie is just as important as the confidence it takes to forge a new path.
Since the official program portion of the Fiterator came to a close right before the holidays, like everyone else on the planet, we’ve been spending our days analyzing and strategizing for 2018, daydreaming about all of the cool technology we’re going to discover, and prepping for a global scouting mission for the startups that are going to turn the connectivity industry on its head, including trips to CES, Mobile World Congress, 4YFN, and stops in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Brussels.
And now, as we begin 2018, we’re telling you - our friends in the startup world - that we are right there with you. We thrash, we test, we fail, we dig in, we disagree, we screw up - and all at lightning speed - but above all, we learn. Then we shift. And as you go through the challenges of doing that, we are right there with you, focusing on the most important next steps, fighting our lizard brains, and striving to create artful & meaningful work out of every connection, opportunity, and deal for our startups and our members.
No easy task, but being remarkable doesn't come without a few scars. We embrace the journey.
We hope you’ve had a reflective and empowering start to 2018. Let us know how we can help.
Here’s to you!