Physics & Stuff: Building momentum in Q3
Team Letter | July 1, 2024
July 1, 2024
Happy Monday, Happy New Month, Happy New Quarter! (Plus, OMG it’s also new notebook day for me. I am so thrilled.)
There is something particularly satisfying about all of these new things starting on a Monday, right?! I love the newness of a week or a quarter or a new notebook, because it gives us the chance to start with a new intention. But you know what’s even better? A fresh start with a full pipeline. A new quarter with a new product. A clean slate with a growing team. And the reason is because when you’ve got a fresh new outlook, but you’ve built some value and some velocity behind your work, you’re not starting from zero. You’re starting with momentum.
In the past quarter, we’ve done some EXTRAORDINARY things:
We’ve added 12 new customers, more than any quarter in our history.
We’ve doubled our pipeline, from 25 deals at the beginning of Q2 to 51 as we walk into Q3. And they’re GREAT deals.
We’ve grown our audience larger than any other quarter – we grew 7,600 sessions that produced 180 contacts in Q1 to 12,000 sessions that produced 1,250 contacts in Q2. WHOA!
We’ve raised $1.1M to fuel our growth.
We’ve hired two absolute shining stars, who start this week.
We’ve build packs, resources, and data reports that are truly delivering value to our customers. Our 4,000 newsletter subscribers light up the resource downloads channel every single week.
I see a tremendously exciting Q3 ahead of us, and it’s all about MOMENTUM. So what is momentum actually? puts on glasses 🤓 Thanks for asking.
According to our friend Sir Isaac Newton (No! Don’t stop reading yet!!!), momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving object. Basically, how much “up and to the right” a thing is moving. The way we measure momentum is MASS x VELOCITY. So, how much mass a thing has, times how fast it’s going. That’s the physics definition. But actually, it applies rather well to companies, too.
So, in a little startup like ours, when we first start out, we have almost no “mass” to speak of. We don’t have money, customers, product, proof of concept, marketing that is proven out, etc etc etc. And if we build mass but it’s the wrong thing (like, say, a parent pay platform that has mass but does not create value), you can’t count it – you have to cut out that mass and build something else that DOES create value. So mass, in this sense, is value, really.
A survey platform and dashboard creates value – we can sell that software. A library of resources creates value – we can use those resources to bring Alpaca’s story to new audiences and bring them into our sales process. Happy customers who are willing to talk about Alpaca creates value – our reputation and brand sells our offerings better than any salesperson ever could (yep, including me!).
Okay, so in startup physics – “mass” = “created value.” Got it. Stick with me, loves. The Nerd’s got a point here.
The other side of the equation is velocity, or how fast something is moving. In our company, velocity is about how fast we’re GROWING. How quickly are we adding customers? How fast can we launch new product features? How streamlined can our sales process be? When we do one podcast episode and it yields us 20 sales demos in 2 weeks and 3 people on the team are ready, willing, and able to do those demos and immediately send a proposal, and it yields 5 new sales – that is VELOCITY for our company.
To summarize:
Physics: Mass x Velocity = Momentum
Startup: Value Created x Pace of Growth = Momentum
ISN'T PHYSICS FUN!?!?
I believe that the key to Q3 for this company is increasing momentum by applying pressure to the VALUE we create and the pace of GROWTH in our company. The coolest thing about this is that I bet you’ve already thought a bit about the work you do, and how it either a) creates new value or b) helps us grow faster (or both!). If you’re wondering how to prioritize anything you’re doing this quarter, simply ask yourself this:
Which things that I could do would make the biggest impact on VALUE CREATED or PACE OF GROWTH for Alpaca?
On Wednesday, we’ll kick off our All Hands meeting with some brainstorming about that very question, and then build our goals for the quarter that reflect what we can each bring to this equation.
My ask today: I hope you’ll think about what work you’re doing that you believe creates momentum, and which things maybe need to take a backseat while you choose higher-momentum activities.
Get ready – an object with momentum is a LOT of fun! If you don’t believe me, think of swinging on a swingset. You know that feeling of increasing speed that happens when you pick up speed at the bottom and then fly high in the air? That’s momentum. Let’s keep building THAT!
🤓♥️🤓, KB
PS: If you sciencey types would like to correct or improve my metaphor here, please feel free.