What did escape rooms teach me about value?

The first time I went in an escape room I was in Paris. My son insisted on me joining him in an escape room. Somehow I had an unrest about the unknown, about whether I was fast enough to find the clues…. before taking part in this, the focus was consistently on me, on my abilities to find the solutions, not on the fact that I was in a team, and that it was supposed to be fun, trusting that the different skills of people can make the mission much, much easier!

Going for it, I learned that to escape, one had to have: 1/ clarity of the mission; 2/ realistic assessment of available resources and 3/ pay attention at the given clues as they were valuable opportunities to advance. The clock was ticking and in all the chaos, what mattered most was how we, the team members, coordinated our moves. Our understanding of our individual strengths and our unique resources was critical.

Similarly, in a start up what builds most value is the strength of the team. Up to 60% … even 100% of valuation of a startup lies in the team, resources, expertise, as well as how they articulate the idea: problem & solution.

The hardest thing, however, is to keep the team on track. Easier said than done: whenever we were losing too much time exploring and describing the existing elements and losing track of the mission, what helped was pausing and asking:

“How can this help on our mission?"

More than 90% of startups, lose precious time in analysis of the landscape, of existing solutions, instead of rolling up sleeves and getting on with their mission.

How many times do I read a pitch-deck that talks more about an industry, than about what is it that the startup and the team uniquely have to offer. What is their unique proposition? What are their most valuable resources: people, network, experience?

My advice: think of your start up mission as an escape room! The clock is ticking, the resources are limited. Value is built if the focus on the mission is 100%, if realistic assessment of resources is made, and if you leave space for creativity, asking how can you solve it faster!

See the 7 points - for the structure, the questions and practice you can make for your start up.