Why your startup is a duck

I once had a mentor and good friend tell me that most startups are like a duck in high current.

From the outside, it looks like the duck is gracefully floating above water, calmly making its way towards its destination.

But if you look underwater, the duck is frantically moving its webbed feet just to keep course.

At the time I was working for Cabin, and was employee number 8.

The metaphor resonated, but not nearly as much as it does now that I’m 1/3 of Tinybox’s entire team.

This time last week we were on our way to the Innovative Housing Showcase.

It’s an annual event that happens on the National Mall, in front of the Capitol.

Companies that get accepted show off their homes to the thousands of passers-by, government officials, and investors that attend the event.

It’s a big opportunity for any company, and was a massive opportunity for us.

With moments like this you need to make sure you’re ready to capture as many leads as possible. Yet, we had a dated website and no posters to send people to our digital funnel.

It was time to start kicking those webbed feet.

Our KFC-fuelled design sprint seemed to do the trick. We found messaging that resonated with people and got them to our website.

On top of seducing early adopters, we had a goal of becoming the White House.

Unfortunately the White House is a little more fenced off than I expected. The event coordinator told me we couldn’t get within 2 blocks of it if we tried. Something about how we could have bombs or whatever.

Thankfully, the Capitol was in perfect view.

The event was a huge success for us. Even just the moral boost made it worth the travel.

Here’s more photos from the trip—I mean just look at those vibes.

Im now writing posts for Backyard Architect every Thursday, entirely for free.

I would very much appreciate if you took a second to share it with a friend, colleague, or weird neighbour. Much thanks.