Periodization In Startups

Don’t know if you knew this, but I used to be pretty into endurance sports. I’ve run 3 marathons, 2 ultramarathons (50k trail races), and did Ironman Wisconsin in 2006. Ah, the good ole days.

And in that time I learned a TON about putting together training schedules that allowed me to build my fitness consistenly over time, while minimizing the risk of injury or burnout.

Sound like a familiar conundrum?

The concept is called Periodization – it’s all about how to change the intensity, style, and format of your training so that your body has time to recover in certain ways, so you can keep on getting more fit.

I think it’s exactly the same in a startup.

Truth is you can only go all out so many times, and for so long until your body, your mind, and your spirit need a rest.

And that’s ok.

You are not “less of a founder” for admitting that it’s time to take a half a step back from a certain initiative. Everyone needs time to regroup, to gather energy, think deeply about what they’re focusing their effort on, and get ready to dive back in.

In my 9 years running first PodcastMotor and now Castos I have had several different “Seasons” as a founder.

The important thing to realize here is that when applying a concept like Periodization to your startup, it doesn’t mean you slow down, it just means you pivot. Kinda like crop rotation, but for your business.

Let’s explore a few scenarios I’ve been through that highlight this.

Pre-Launch to Traction

At the beginning, everything is a problem, everything is urgent, and everything seems important. In this phase you just have to grind. You have to put in the work and you as the founder have to solve these problems. No way around it.

To use the sports analogy again, this is your Base phase. You gotta put in the miles, have to learn from the market, iterate, and repeat.

Traction to Growth

Once you have the first dollars in your business, it’s time to filter out all the stuff that you were doing that didn’t really matter and start to focus in on those few key drivers of the business. You want to do this as early as possible, but the reality is that you just don’t know without some solid amount of data.

Again with the sports analogy (promise, i don’t do this very often), this is where you’d start incorporating speed work, intervals, and just some intensity. Doing less, but doing it more.

Growth to Sustainability

Now that we’ve learned from the market and have achieved some degree of scale, it’s time to think about hiring and making this thing sustainable for us as founders.

I think this is where a lot of founders burn out.

Because they don’t make the key hires at this point to get the pressure off their plate. And as a result the business may grow, but they just can’t do it anymore.

Implementing This In Your Business

I hope some of this resonates and that as you think about your business, your journey, and your current mindset you recognize a few places where you can apply the principles of Periodization – a methodical shifting of energy in your business – to allow you to continue to grow sanely and profitably.

Don’t know if you knew this, but I used to be pretty into endurance sports. I’ve run 3 marathons, 2 ultramarathons (50k trail races), and did Ironman Wisconsin in 2006. Ah, the good ole days.

And in that time I learned a TON about putting together training schedules that allowed me to build my fitness consistenly over time, while minimizing the risk of injury or burnout.

Sound like a familiar conundrum?

The concept is called Periodization – it’s all about how to change the intensity, style, and format of your training so that your body has time to recover in certain ways, so you can keep on getting more fit.

I think it’s exactly the same in a startup.

Truth is you can only go all out so many times, and for so long until your body, your mind, and your spirit need a rest.

And that’s ok.

You are not “less of a founder” for admitting that it’s time to take a half a step back from a certain initiative. Everyone needs time to regroup, to gather energy, think deeply about what they’re focusing their effort on, and get ready to dive back in.

In my 9 years running first PodcastMotor and now Castos I have had several different “Seasons” as a founder.

The important thing to realize here is that when applying a concept like Periodization to your startup, it doesn’t mean you slow down, it just means you pivot. Kinda like crop rotation, but for your business.

Let’s explore a few scenarios I’ve been through that highlight this.

Pre-Launch to Traction

At the beginning, everything is a problem, everything is urgent, and everything seems important. In this phase you just have to grind. You have to put in the work and you as the founder have to solve these problems. No way around it.

To use the sports analogy again, this is your Base phase. You gotta put in the miles, have to learn from the market, iterate, and repeat.

Traction to Growth

Once you have the first dollars in your business, it’s time to filter out all the stuff that you were doing that didn’t really matter and start to focus in on those few key drivers of the business. You want to do this as early as possible, but the reality is that you just don’t know without some solid amount of data.

Again with the sports analogy (promise, i don’t do this very often), this is where you’d start incorporating speed work, intervals, and just some intensity. Doing less, but doing it more.

Growth to Sustainability

Now that we’ve learned from the market and have achieved some degree of scale, it’s time to think about hiring and making this thing sustainable for us as founders.

I think this is where a lot of founders burn out.

Because they don’t make the key hires at this point to get the pressure off their plate. And as a result the business may grow, but they just can’t do it anymore.

Implementing This In Your Business

I hope some of this resonates and that as you think about your business, your journey, and your current mindset you recognize a few places where you can apply the principles of Periodization – a methodical shifting of energy in your business – to allow you to continue to grow sanely and profitably.