Local Minimums and Local Maximums

In high school I considered myself to be pretty good at math. I took single and multivariable calculus, even linear algebra. So freshman year in college was especially humbling when I met folks who were actually good at math – I think we all know the type.

These days, as a founder, the math I do mostly lives in excel, but my calculus has not totally deserted me. In fact, over time I have come to realize that the process of building a company can be well described as a series of local minimums and local maximums.

Each day spent going from zero to one presents a series of highs and lows. In the moment, these can feel tremendous: the best and worst moments, careening from one to the other. In this context, I think it’s also easier to focus on the lows and let them have an outsized impact despite equal wins.

Taken as a package, however, the sum of these parts might help us paint a different picture. From a 10,000 foot view, if we add up these local minimums and maximums and observe a positive number, the company in fact has upward velocity, our first derivative.

Optimizing for this delta can be a grind, but with an awareness we can focus on the short term wins that lead to acceleration, our second derivative. Put another way, if the local maximums are consistently outnumbering our local minimums, the trajectory of the company’s viability starts to track up and to the right – the Holy Grail for startups.

In startup land, I don’t believe in fairy tales and even the most wildly successful companies don’t exist in a pure up and to the right world. But, if your local maximums are outnumbering your local minimums, you might just be doing something right.