vision, communicationI have a very ambitious vision for our little startup. Now I am afraid to sound unrealistic, detached or like a romancer. I do not want to lose credibility with possible employees and investors, especially since I have nothing to show right now.
So my question is: How and to whom do I communicate such a vision? Do I keep it hidden until I have some first results to show that it is not completely unrealistic? Do I show it only to employees to motivate them? Do I use it as a slogan?
When Microsoft wanted a PC in every home in 1975, this was very ambitious. And as far as I know, they didn’t communicate this goal to their customers…
Edit: To clarify matters, I am not talking about the idea (which should be freely communicated to everybody) but about the greater vision, which is enabled by the idea. For example:
Idea: Internet-/crowd-based encyclopedia.
Vision: Gather all of humanities knowledge in one place and make it freely accessible.
Now that Wikipedia is 13 years old, this vision is almost reality. Before the first entry, things were quite different… and one could have been laughed at for making such an ambitious claim.
The clearer you can communicate your vision, the more the idea of the startup makes sense to potential customers, employees, and shareholders. Having a grand (and clear!) vision lets you be more specific in what you do and what you don’t do. It can help you, your employees, and everyone around you make better small-term decisions that line up with you long term vision.
Example: (http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/coca-cola-great-britain/within-an-arms-reach-of-desire/introduction.html)
The vision of Coca Cola is:
Always a Coke within arm’s reach of desire
This may sound like an ambitious challenge for even the greatest companies, but it helps drive their business decisions on every level. From marketing (“Always…”), to manufacturing and distribution, all the way up to the executive level.
In short, having this grand vision is a great asset to have and a lot of companies have faded away with a lack of a clear, long-term vision. Use it to your advantage at every opportunity you have!
I attended a series of guest lectures at (a major german) university - all those guest lecturers were entrepreneurs who successfully managed to bring up their ideas and convince others of the ideas and finally brought their product to the market years ago. Your question was asked several times throughout the series and there was broad agreement on the answer from all lecturers:
Tell everybody of your idea - do this by simply expressing your idea again and again you give yourself the chance to develop it further and additionally gather a lot of first reactions and feedback. The consensus was that a lot of people think they have “THE great idea”, but the idea is often from the view of an uninvolved person rather mediocre.
Another benefit of talking about your idea is that you learn how to communicate the essential parts. This could help in a possible investment round to give you more self assurance.
But keep in mind, that this is still a pretty opinion based answer, as a lot of people might see this totally obverse.
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