4-Nov-16 – I must have heard the story about the tortoise and the hare a few million times and you’d think I’d be sick of it by now. But – and this is amazing to me in today’s everything-in-a-hurry world – the basic lesson that slow and steady progress wins the race in the long run is still remarkably relevant and applicable, especially to new businesses.

It sounds a little old fashioned and even a bit boring and it’s rarely something that you’ll hear any venture capitalist say – especially when the topic on the table is how quickly to scale a business – but it’s something that the very best entrepreneurs always take to heart and keep top of mind. Rushing to roll out your business nationwide may make the boys and girls in the boardroom happy, but it’s bad for your business if you aren’t ready.

One of our recent Chicago success stories is SpotHero, which helps drivers find off-street parking spaces while helping parking lot owners fill their slots and garages. There couldn’t be a better example of the “go slow until you get it right” approach. While competitors, copycats, and other knock-offs attempted rapid geographic expansion across the country, SpotHero hunkered down in Chicago for the first two years of its existence. SpotHero figured out that you’ve got to nail it before you scale it.

(Left) SpotHero offices on North Franklin Street in River North. The company moved out of Merchandise Mart in 2013. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Doing a lot of things not the same as getting things done right

Today, five years on, they’re still only in about 20 cities – with five major cities contributing about 98 percent of the firm’s revenue – while one competitor that is still standing is “doing business” in more than 150 cities. I say doing business because SpotHero earns more parking revenue in one of its cities than those guys do in all 150 of their locations combined. SpotHero is larger and growing faster than its remaining competitors – notwithstanding having raised less capital – because the company continues to focus on deeper and better connections to its markets and customers rather than trying to be everywhere at once. Doing a lot of things is not the same as getting things done, and done right.

Adding marginal inventory or any other kinds of commitments in new markets without assuring the presence of matching demand is a quick trip to the toilet for any new business – like the busted-out guy who takes an Uber to Bankruptcy Court and then invites the Uber driver into the proceedings as a creditor. Similarly, the kind of parking you’re identifying and booking for the consumers who are using your services matters as well. Event parking is relatively easy, but it’s also infrequent and a relatively small part of the overall market. SpotHero targeted the biggest and best parking concerns and locations in the country – with massive numbers of consistent, often daily, users – from the get-go and now works with nine of the top eleven players including all five of the largest parking companies in the United States.

It’s never easy pursuing and trying to sign the big guys. They’re tougher and smarter and more demanding, but they’re also the best business people. What you can learn from them and what they can help you accomplish is priceless. If you can lock these folks in and deliver the right results for them, there’s no better place to be and no easier way to scale.

There are almost always at least two economic sides to any marketplace, not counting regulators, legislators, etc. When you’re growing your new business, you need to be very careful that you don’t leave the early adopters and boosters behind. They were there for you when the whole thing got started and they’re critical references, foundational supporters, and concrete demonstrations that your product or service is sticky. Tracking and driving improvements in same-store sales is the best and easiest way to measure stickiness and the best way to keep score as well, especially when those critical numbers keep ticking up year over year in your oldest markets. This is because, if the older customers lose interest and they’re leaking out of the back door, it doesn’t matter how you’re doing in terms of growing or buying new customers at the front end of the funnel.

Sustainable businesses create real value

Good business isn’t usually about beating the other guys – there will always be new and different competitors – and there will always be people pitching cheaper and even better solutions. Chasing someone else or trying to quickly copy their plans and trying to outdo them assumes that they know what they’re doing and are a lot smarter than you. There’s no good reason to believe that. Sustainable businesses create real, demonstrable value for their clients and customers and they keep upping the ante.

No one new gets to rest on their laurels, their past performance, or their track record. Otherwise, we’d still all be carrying BlackBerrys. Customer expectations are progressive. It’s not about how fast you’re going it’s about how fast you’re getting faster and better. It’s all about acceleration, not simply velocity. And it’s about innovative techniques and technologies rather than tonnage. Precision trumps sheer volume. Your pitches, programs, and proposals must be better, not just longer or louder.

(Left) Howard Tullman (right) and SpotHero CEO Jeremy Smith in 2013.

Growing a business isn’t always a discussion or a conversation about a specific contest, feature, function, or challenge. As often as not, it’s about making this discipline of “always trying to be a better you” a part of your company’s culture and embedding it in the ways that you do business whether you’re selling products or services.

Having a great product isn’t enough. Creating a business that will last is about building long-term relationships and compounding customer trust. Connection and continuing engagement coupled with constant improvement and innovation are what keeps you in the game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see SpotHero developing some new tools soon that will let their lot owners dynamically price parking based on all the same variables that so many other services are now using.

Startups don’t have an established following or a brand to rely on as shorthand for their promise to deliver and/or to overcome the decision fatigue that plagues us all in a world of infinite choices. Startups make a future promise and then it’s directly on them to deliver on their commitments and to keep raising the bar. It’s your business’s job to earn and retain my loyalty. Loyalty today means nothing more than the absence of a better alternative.

Over-promising and under-delivering are obviously fatal over time. And even the coolest technology available may not get the job done. SpotHero stuck with old-fashioned paper documentation until it precisely figured out the needs, comfort levels, and the concerns of its customers, and only then did the company build a killer mobile app that now handles more than 80 percent of the reservations. The other players are still using websites.

Bottom line: People don’t long remember who was first. They only know who’s best. SpotHero’s the best in the biz.