“Because, you see, nobody cares. When things go wrong in your company, nobody cares. The press doesn’t care, your investors don’t care, your board doesn’t care, your employees don’t care, even your mama doesn’t care. Nobody cares.” ✍🏽 Ben Horowitz, “Nobody Cares” I’ve re-read that quote from legendary VC Ben Horowitz from A16Z more time than I can count. For many companies, we’re in the midst of a big downturn 📉 in SaaS. New sales are challenging. Retention is equally so. Procurement departments are turning the screws on discounts. Between a deluge of layoffs, limited to no compensation increases and slowing promotions, employees feel dispirited and dejected. And while AI holds great promise for business and for humanity, the sense of anxiety is palpable. In Ben’s blog post, he recalls an anecdote from legendary and now-departed NFL 🏈 coach Al Davis. Equally-epic coach Bill Parcells called him to ask for advice in terms of how to manage his team through a rash of injuries. Al responded “Bill, nobody cares, just coach your team.” While that advice might sound harsh or unsympathetic, in a way, it’s the most compassionate feedback ❤️ a leader can receive. In SaaS: 2024 Edition, it’s easy to reminisce about how much easier the past was. It’s tempting to complain about the current circumstances. It’s human to wish for a time machine to back. Or to long for a return to zero interest rates! But we are here. We are now. All we can do is embrace the world in front of us and plot a path forward. Figure out how to reaccelerate growth - through better execution, new products, evolved positioning, AI or more. Do it while eliminating everything that doesn’t drive growth, since profitability is here to stay. And determine a sustainable value proposition you can deliver to your team. Ben nails it with his final paragraph: “All the mental energy that you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one, seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. It’s best to spend zero time on what you could have done and all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares, just run your company.”
Thank you for sharing this wake-up call post, Nick. Your inclusion of the phrase "evolved positioning" brought to mind this quotation from British evolutionary biologist, zoologist and author Richard Dawkins: "Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous—indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose." We are challenged with the task of plotting our path forward and devising our own self directed, mindful, and engaged purpose toward more desirable outcomes.
Well said. There's a similar anecdote with Steve Jobs and Andy Grove. https://thenextweb.com/news/steve-i-dont-give-a-sht-about-apple --- Then CEO of Intel, Grove had long been one of Jobs’ idols, in fact Jean-Louis Gassée remembers Jobs’ father being extremely proud of seeing his son onstage with Grove at the announcement of NeXTSTEP being ported to Intel. According to the account that Jobs gave Isaacson, the call to Grove was 8am on a Saturday morning, but the content of the call was very much the same. Grove stopped Jobs’ long-winded list of pros and cons of returning to Apple and told him “Steve, I don’t give a sh*t about Apple.” Jobs said he was studded and realized that he “did give a sh*t about Apple. I started it and it is a good thing to have in the world.” And that is how Jobs finally made the decision in 1997 to come back as CEO on a ‘temporary’ basis that would last until a month before his death in October, 2011. In 2005, Apple made the transition to Intel processors, which it still uses today.
It's so easy to get into negative headspace around these downturns, Nick. This is such a great reminder that it is not productive, healthy nor helpful to go there - but instead to focus that energy on a turnaround/pivot/shift that's needed to weather the storm (Beryl pun intended). Things like this downturn challenge us to find new and innovative ways to do things that, before, were done by throwing resources at problems. Positive/Growth mindset is crucial to maintaining the presence necessary to evolve.
So true and these times are hardest for the ones who only know the golden years. Wrote a post with a similar theme. Uphill can be challenging and exciting at the same time https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marili1_dealing-with-changing-circumstances-24-months-activity-7211648807455883265-wf0M?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Leon Markham
2w
Love love love this. It can be a tough pill to swallow but once you engage with reality and face the situation as it is - all you can do is climb out of the hole. I think it kinda helps that my wife works in adolescent mental health - I'll have a "tough" day at work and when I start to feel sorry for myself about what's been going on...sheesh. Nothing.
Love this breakdown of Ben Horowitz's "Nobody Cares" quote! It's a tough pill to swallow, but in the trenches of a SaaS downturn, it's exactly the wake-up call we need. Stop dwelling on the good ol' days. the market's shifted, and whining won't win back customers. Instead let's channel Bill Parcells' fire! We gotta coach our teams, even when morale is low. Time to get laser-focused on growth strategies.
Love this Nick. To take a saying from my favorite hobby (flying), the two most useless things in flying are the runway behind you and the altitude above you. When you're in trouble, just fly the plane.
Brian Larsen
2w
But empathy builds loyalty, increases retention, and drives LTV! /s Also, realizing that I need to be explicit. That was sarcasm, aimed at the CX industry (of which I am a part) because, as a profession (CX), we push this caring = profits narrative and it's factually untrue. "Just win baby!" - Also Al Davis
Customer Success Leader | SaaS | EdTech
2wIt’s always fascinating to me how many people compare sports and business, when most haven’t actually ever been involved in sports past high school. What most don’t talk about is a version of the anecdote you mentioned - when you are in the thick of it - from a sports framework - you just keep going/working/improving. They don’t stop games because your best player is down; they don’t cancel because the ticket prices have fallen, or you have more losses than wins — players and coaches just keep playing. As a D1 athlete, we played for roughly 300 fans on avg - think we didn’t give it our all… every single day? Keep improving no matter the situation - that’s the athletes mentality- and not everyone in business has that mentality.