Survive and advance

At Secfi, we have and continue to prepare for a prolonged downturn. Similar to how we did during the 2020 shutdown, we’ve started the process of navigating a difficult macroeconomic environment for a prolonged period.

The first step in preparation is acceptance. Realizing that we likely won’t be seeing a V-shaped recovery like we did in 2020, I’ve started acknowledging the fact that this is will be life in the coming few months and perhaps year(s). This allows us to take a hard look at ourselves, our financial situation and current spend, then make crucial decisions today.

As a company, the #1 and most important goal is to survive. There will be many startups in bad financial positions that won’t make it out unfortunately. At Secfi, we’re in a fortunate position but regardless, we need to evaluate our burn and plan for the worst case scenarios. Everything I and my team does needs to look towards this goal as a baseline. It may sound obvious to most, but those in lower level positions may have never needed to manage burn before. This needs to be articulated and reinforced. Survive.

From a business unit perspective, I’ve started to review and adjust my roadmap. Things will take longer in an environment like this. Hiring will slow down. Deals will take longer to close. Priorities will change. This is the new reality and we need to set new expectations. Launching a new product will be for naught if you fail to survive as a company.

We’ve gone from a grow as fast as possible environment to a grow with caution to manage burn levels. Nowadays, the name of the game is survive and advance.