Hi Founder’s! As a former Founder & CEO myself — and Strategic Growth & Operations Expert here at Startup Stage, I frequently like coming back to this. As a Founder, you are juggling so many topics and initiatives. This has served me and others I have advised as a beacon of sorts.

There’s a famous saying in entrepreneurship and innovation: “Nothing big, starts big.” That holds for all businesses, and even global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, and sitting here in Los Angeles as I type this even the now enormous fires started small. 

I refer to the aphorism “Nothing big, starts big” in the context of new ventures, innovation, and also 'intra'-preneurship within larger companies. Innovation can stem from a serendipitous encounter, a turning point, an 'a-ha' moment, or perhaps as in many innovation cases via a bold vision by a Visionary and Dreamer -- a Crafter of the then unrealized and non-obvious 'needs' and opportunities in the market. As they grow, others will say, “oh, that’s obvious…”.

The attached photo/meme of Harley-Davidson, Disney, & Mattel which you may have seen sums that up well. I believe in each of those garages -- and so many other ‘garages’ for the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, HP, and many others – “Nothing big, starts big.” And, very likely, these other innovation adages likely also played out:

“What is now ‘obvious’ was once only imagined...”

“There is a way to do it, better…”

“Innovation loves constraints…” 
[PS: this seems counterintuitive but true. We should talk about this because every start-up has constraints.]

And the list goes on.

To all the innovators, inventors, creators, and dreamers those in start-ups and large companies alike, to the customer experience leaders, change-agents, the entire C-suite, and even the Board/investors [ideally], and the too often misunderstood business/tech “misfits” out there -- keep dreaming. Keep pulling the World into your vision.

As 'nothing big, starts big.'

- Prag Shah
Startup Stage / Expert - Growth & Operations