There's a saying I heard recently from someone in the tech business that goes something like this:
Things take longer in the short run but they happen faster in the long run
I am sure I've bastardized the quote but the point is important. Nothing happens as fast as you'd like but if you have a longer term horizon, it is amazing what you can accomplish.
I was reminded of this today when I saw the news of our portfolio company Indeed's five year anniversary.
Indeed.com launched five years ago. I have no idea how many job searches or visitors it had that day, but I can assure you it wasn't many. Five years later, they are the leader in the jobs industry online. Check out these stats:
•The #1 employment website in the US by job search unique visitors and page views (comScore Media Metrix, Oct 2009).
•Websites in 19 countries and 10 languages.
•24 million unique visitors and one billion job searches per month worldwide.
•The leading pay-for-performance recruitment advertising network.
•The source of thousands of success stories from job seekers andrecruitment advertisers.
•A leading data provider, including Job Analytics, job trends, industry trends, job market competition, and salaries.
They did that in just five years. It's a pretty amazing accomplishment if you ask me. And they did it by keeping their heads down, focusing relentlessly on their product and users, and rolling out a better economic model for employers.
So when you are frustrated that you can't get your next release out of engineering, you can't recruit that person you really want, or that VCs just won't open their checkbooks and fund your deal, take a deep breath and relax. Nothing happens as fast as you want it to, but if you stay focused on the long term goal and keep building toward it, you can reach your goals and it won't take forever.
