Setting up the Startup Vision, Mission and Goal Setting
Startup vision, Startup Mission and Startup Goals: A startup is all about its grand purpose, the narrative for a beautiful outcome. In all the startup pitches I’ve seen, the most inspiring part is that most founders have a beautiful vision. Most times, these visions and missions are bigger than financial gains. It comes from a place of deep passion, respect for the customer’s problem and commitment to solving it.
Even during your investment rounds, the potential investors or founders, and teammates will ask you about your purpose. It is always great to prepare your start-up basics such as
In this article, we will talk about creating the startup vision and startup mission. These will need to be tied into your goal setting as a startup. I’d redirect you to the linked article about goal setting in a startup.
Startup Vision and Startup Mission
The vision and mission statements play a powerful role in your startup. It is important for everyone you associate with. Think about all your touchpoints and what you want them to feel. How do you want them to think about you? It will create a compelling statement about your values and what you stand for as a company.
As a founder, I’d encourage spending some time to think about these in your early stages. Note that these will change. When you start scaling, these statements will start acting as the strongest glue to hold your startup together.
What is a startup vision?
A startup vision is your dream as a founder. The vision answers three simple aspects
The startup vision is about the purpose of your business. It will touch on the main reason for the existence of your idea as a startup. It must be simple, and easy enough to understand for any layperson. A good startup vision can help you convey the purpose of your business to investors, customers and potential employees. A simple startup vision template would look like:
It comprises 3 parts: what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. The Why is of utmost importance. Please have a look into Simon Sinek’s Golden circle for more explanation on creating a compelling vision.
What is a startup mission?
A startup mission sounds similar to a vision. The difference however is that the mission only talks about what you’re trying to do. It has less to do with how and is also much smaller in size compared to a vision. Even the scope of a startup mission is smaller compared to the startup vision. The vision talks about the journey of a startup whereas the mission is the core reason as to why you exist.
Examples of mission statements:
- Airbnb: “Belong anywhere”
- Tesla: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”
- Patagonia: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”
Difference between vision and mission
The main difference between the startup vision and the startup mission is in their timeline. The mission is what your company does now. Whereas the vision is a journey in which you’re headed. A startup vision can afford to be more aspirational than a mission statement. The mission solves a current problem whereas the vision can be a journey and future direction.
Things to remember while setting up startup mission and vision
Things to remember while setting up a startup mission and vision
The WHY is equally important if not more than the HOW. A plan is merely the best route of action to achieve the mission and vision!
The mission provides a guiding light, clearly elucidates the minimum standards for a plan
Adjustments to a plan to reach the overall goal. What is more important — just the plan or the purpose of a plan?
A plan is pointless if it doesn’t tie in with the mission and vision of an organisation. It turns out to be a strategic outlier if we can’t connect it to
If we want to develop high-performance teams, we ought to find a way to connect the WHAT, HOW and WHY!
Originally published at https://inspire99.com on February 27, 2023.
