Has Your Startup Been Screwed Yet?

One of the few television programs I enjoy watching is Ask This Old House. I don’t own a house and live in a tiny apartment. When a problem arises, I call the super and he comes and fixes it. So I really have no idea why I watch this show but maybe it comes down to learning new things in the hope that one day I will own a house and can Bob Vila the heck out of it.

This week general contractor Tom Silva went to help a homeowner who was having problems with squeaky floors in her bedroom which would wake her infant when she got up in the morning. The homeowner was worried because her bedroom is carpeted and Tom explained that the reason the floors were squeaking is because the subfloor wasn’t properly connected to the joists. (stay with me here I have a point)

Tom went out to his truck and came back and said he had a new product which would fix the floor, there would be no furniture to remove and most importantly no carpet to lift. It’s called the "Squeeeeek No More" kit and basically what it includes are a new type of screw which breaks off when driven into a joist. There is nothing visible in the carpet and the screw breaks off just below the surface of the joist and can’t be felt as you walk over it. In the end the homeowner got a perfect floor and Tom saved the day using these new screws.

I asked in the title if your startup has been screwed yet because so many of the startups I meet and chat with need a new type of screw. It’s so easy to look at the issues facing your startup the same way today and the same way tomorrow and hope that an answer will be found eventually. But if you take the same path everyday, you will always miss the answer which might be sitting on the next street. Stop trying to use another company’s screw to fix your problem – invent a new screw and move the company forward.

This company who created this screw had to solve a problem and they did. And you can too – you just have to be willing to be screwed.