I’ve started five companies before FarBridge. And I’ve been involved early with at least another five. And while no two companies were exactly the same, even when many of the same people were involved, there are definitely some patterns that repeat themselves. Being able to recognize these patterns has helped me not lose my mind when they come up again. And thinking about them as a pattern gives me extra perspective on the various ways that we tried to solve them, how we succeeded, or how we failed miserably.

Here are some of the most common problems that I’ve encountered with companies I’ve started:

Every company I’ve started, started out doing something else

While it’s pretty simple to start a studio, keeping it in business for more than a year or two is a real trick. Often the first year is full of experiments until you figure out what “the real business” is. Sometimes it’s been a drastic change, like when our FMV videogame studio morphed into a web design company (we couldn’t afford enough hard drive space to store the unedited video), and sometimes less drastic, like the pivot from E-rated platformers to M-rated brawlers (because that’s what publishers were paying for at the time).

There’s nothing wrong with having a strong vision and sticking to it. But if that strong vision means you’re going out of business, a tweak to your vision that lets you stay in business is probably worth compromising for. That’s my advice after having ridden a vision as hard as I could all the way to shutting down the business.

Every company I’ve started has had to change its name

I don’t know what it is with me and company names. Most of my companies have changed our name at least once. The three companies that I started that got acquired each went through at least three different names, sometimes because it was a pivot, and other times for less fun reasons.

Our full-motion video game was called “Hardwire”, as was our studio. We turned to web design and development as a means of funding the game, under the name “NeuroSys”. But there was another company in town with that name (ah the 90s), so we settled on the obscure “Zero Factor Interactive”, or ZFI for short. To think, we even had the domain name “zfi.com” back then.

I few years later I decided to pursue videogames full time. I started a new project, an IMDB-like website of videogame information, but was quickly talked into using that codebase as the foundation for an online education site and company called “eSchool”. We launched that company under the codename “NotHarvard”, to hint at our promise of free online education for everyone (hey, it was 1999). That company pivoted to doing online training for businesses (and barely survived the dot-com bust), under its new name “Powered”.

And more recently I started a new game studio in Austin, TX. The founders and I had good chemistry, and wanted to bottle and sell our knowledge as “Secret Sauce Studios”. A trademark search revealed another company a little too close for comfort, so we became “Fun Machine.” While that name wasn’t a direct trademark conflict, OMG there are a bunch of companies with the word “fun” in their name! When we pivoted to sell our software to other game and app developers we rebranded as “Tsugi”, the Japanese word for “next”.

The lesson here is to do a thorough trademark search before you launch your company, and to not get too attached to any one name. Chances are you’ll have change it along the way!

Every company I’ve started took a year before I got paid

There’s a secret to getting a job at a startup: be willing to work for free. While I’m really against having unpaid workers or interns at my companies now, back when I was super-focused on getting into the game industry, or on starting my own company, I did tons of work for free. And most of the time it took a year or longer before I ever got a paycheck.

This is a difficult trick, even when you’re young and have few responsibilities and commitments. I pulled it off by doing odd jobs on the side, working from home or in coffeeshops, bartering for everything imaginable (Internet access, office space, booth space at conferences, you name it), crashing with family and friends, borrowing cars, and traveling on borrowed frequent flyer miles.

While all that hustle certainly made the first paycheck that much sweeter, the fact that I was able to endure without a paycheck is in and of itself a privilege I was lucky to have. I’m glad to see that these days there are more programs to help give first-time founders this opportunity.

Every company I’ve started had a breakup between founders

Oh man, founder breakups are really, really painful. When you work with people you care about, it’s even worse. But it’s common, and I’ve been through my share. There are lots of reasons that founders decide to part ways. Sometimes it’s for a happy reason — one founder I worked with had a surprise influx of cash when a previous venture paid off, and he decided that a new startup wasn’t in the cards for him. And sometimes it’s for a perfectly logical reason, like a founder running out of savings and needing to make a change.

Often it’s really more like a relationship breakup, where the founders decide that they don’t like each other anymore, and start fighting over the company. I’ve had the misfortune to be smack dab in the middle of situations like these a couple times. I’d do anything in my power to go back and do things differently, and I’ve worked really, really hard to avoid that type of thing since. I believe that most interpersonal problems can be solved civilly. Even if that leads to someone no longer working at the company, there’s a way to do it with compassion and humanity.

Every company I’ve started, I never knew what I was doing

Ok look, don’t tell anyone I told you this, but I never entirely feel like I know what I’m doing. It may just be my perpetual state of mind, as I’m always trying to learn new things, and always trying to do things that involve new technology and are right at the cusp of my expertise.

I can’t look back and tell you “oh yeah, this is exactly how I started my company and the exact right moves I made that lead to a successful exit.” I’m willing to tell you what I did and how I think it may have been smart or dumb at the time. But I was never “ready” to start a company. I don’t know that you can be. Your first company will likely be the wildest ride of your life, and each subsequent startup I’ve been involved with has been a bucking bronco of its own. You can’t be ready. You just have to jump on and ride for as long as you can.

Every company I’ve started has come to an end

It’s an odd realization that all of my companies have ended. Some of the companies we shut down. Some of them got acquired. These acquired companies have “ended” as the people and teams melted into the larger companies. Sometimes the ending was a relief. Sometimes the ending was a gut-wrenching disaster. A couple times the ending was celebrated with champagne and barbecue. But you eventually get used to the simple fact that companies end.

This realization is powerful. It’s made me appreciate my time at amazing companies and with amazing teams even more. It’s made me savor the little things — the team lunches, the impromptu in-office dance parties, the calm moments between founders before important pitches, and the short-but-sweet emails carrying good news. I don’t try to live every day like it’s my last… but I try to recognize when good things are happening, and give out hugs and high-fives to everyone around.

Having been through the company lifecycle a few times, I know about many of the curve balls that the company (and real life) will throw at me, and I’m doing my best to be ready for them. Or at least I won’t be surprised if they happen. I’m trying to learn from mistakes and missteps, and writing about them definitely helps keep them fresh in my mind. I hope they help you out in your quest as well.

See y’all next week! Play nice!
Patrick

P.S. I get to upload this picture for every post. “Hi!”