Sergio Paluch

What do Gmail and Slack have in common beyond being among the most loved and used apps in the world? Both were created with a focus on just three key features, which the companies sought to perfect beyond all. Paul Buchheit, who led the development of Gmail, famously wrote about his team focusing on just the ability to search, threaded conversations, and large storage. Similarly, Stewart Butterfield recounts how Slack’s big three features were the ability to search conversations, seamless synchronization, and simple file sharing. In this article, I’ll explain why focusing on just two or three key features is vital to building a meaningfully differentiated and valuable product.

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Having worked with a number of founders on the earliest stages of their startups, I have seen quite a few promising folks drop out prematurely. It’s not that they are not tough enough or that they lack passion, but it seems that many first-time founders are not prepared for how grueling and long the startup journey can be. It’s striking how often I see pitch decks that project a startup to reach 100 million users or $5 million in revenue in a year or two.

Although striking, it’s not surprising why founders have such unlikely scenarios in mind given how much the media loves to portray nearly overnight successes like Snapchat and Oculus, which raced to a $2 billion exit in just 280 days since its first financing round. The likelihood that a startup will become a unicorn (valued at $1 billion+) is about one in a hundred. It’s even rarer that a startup can become a billion-dollar company in less than three years. In fact, the odds are roughly one in ten thousand. Is it any wonder, then, that many founders quit when they are expecting overnight success but arrive at a decade-long Navy Seals Hell Week?

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