How can you align your startup's purpose with its growth?

Set goals that are aligned with your purpose. Your goals should reflect the desired impact and outcomes that you want to achieve. Break down your goals into actionable steps and select tactics that are best suited for executing these objectives.

How to go about finding your purpose: Here's a framework you can try (this comes from Ogilvy): Your purpose lies at the intersection of the following two elements: - What's your best version (something about what you offer that is or can be so ridiculously good that you should be famous for it) X - What's the cultural tension (or what is it that the world/ society badly needs at this point) Your purpose will emerge from here. It will show that one thing that you can help solve, better than most others, outside of simply being a commercial success. Eg.1 - Sequoia Capital: We help the daring build legendary companies. Eg.2 - Disney: We exist to ensure people can relive their childhood, whenever they want.

Align your startup's purpose with growth by integrating your mission and values into decision-making, fostering a purpose-driven culture, and communicating your purpose consistently to stakeholders.

• Lead by example. Culture in particular is what sees a trickle-down effect more than any other aspect of running an organization. This is reflected in how you handle internal politics, how you react to adversity, how you maintain control over a surprise situation (a partner bailing, petty responses, etc). People mirror the actions of leadership, and it definitely trickles down. • It starts with leadership hires. Culture cannot be feigned. The first step is in making sure that the leadership team themselves are authentic to the culture.

"Culture is what people do when the leader isn't watching," Adam Grant. Having a document that defines culture is great. But the reality of culture in most organisations is often very different from the way it is defined. Culture is the behaviour on ground, every single day as they go about work. If that is filled with mediocrity, toxicity, bureaucracy and anarchy, no document is going to help. Culture is often defined by the actions of the founders and leaders in startups. It is defined by the key people they hire and the manner in which they approach work. If culture is broken at that level, there is little that others can do to rescue. As a founder, your role to improve culture is to remove bad actors at the earliest.

Building a strong team BOD at the beginning is really important to achieve a startup's purpose. Defining the core values and mission clearly so that we can hire suitable people for this team.

Purpose is what remains true about your business, even if all else changes. Strategy is how you do a select few coordinated things to achieve a clear outcomes. Plan shows the details about how you will execute those select few things to achieve your strategy. All three have their own place. An element of purpose is meant to manifest in every action that the startup does. It should be in service of that larger purpose in some way.

If you want values to register, keep repeating: As a leader, one of your primary roles is clear communication multiple times, at multiple levels. Jeff Bezos built Amazon with a clear set of values that he would painfully repeat from the time he started until he moved on: - Customer obsession - Long-term thinking - Eagerness to invent - Operational excellence Instead of a fresh bunch of values every single year, he had few that he ruthlessly believed in and continued to repeat and implement as a part of everyday processes. If you want values to register, you need to keep repeating them like a stuck record.

Define a clear purpose, communicate it widely, and integrate it into your strategy. Be customer-centric, prioritize sustainability, and measure your impact. Invest in engaged employees, adapt to changes, and seek purpose-aligned partnerships. Stay authentic, gather feedback, and celebrate achievements. This alignment fosters meaning, attracts customers, and motivates your team for long-term success and positive impact.

When aligning your startup's purpose with its growth, it's important to start by clearly defining your purpose and values. This will serve as your guiding light throughout your journey. Then, make sure that every step you take, every strategy you implement, and every decision you make is in line with that purpose. It's about staying true to your mission while still pursuing growth opportunities. Remember, it's not just about the numbers, but also about making a positive impact. 🌟💼