Wonolo
June was a huge month in sports. The World Cup, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, and the final race in the Triple Crown. It was the horse racing that got me thinking.
Did you ever wonder why a horse can walk a few minutes after birth but a human baby takes 12 months+ for her first steps? Scientists say it has something to do with the proportional size of the mammal’s brain – smaller being faster. Too much brain power leads to slower development. I think that 6 months into Wonolo, that theory can be applied to business as well.
A startup like Wonolo has low input / high propensity to act. A big enterprise like our partner Coca-Cola, has high input / high propensity to perfect. A horse isn’t winning the Kentucky Derby two hours after birth, but it is making progress and learning how to be more stable and move faster and faster. It stumbles a lot and looks kind silly, but its learning and growing instead of theorizing to make itself look perfect before ever trying. Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome is 3 years old. His jockey is 42. Wonolo is doing the same, and we like this approach. Perhaps all those people who called us pea-brains were being nice!
Since our first steps 6 months ago, we have picked up a lot of speed. And we have stumbled and fallen on our face many times as well. We have realized that our initial style of walking was good, but there are other ways of getting from A to B (or solving the problem of unpredictability for jobs needs) and we are building those now, which we hope will accelerate our growth further.
Very much like Wonolo, valuing flexibility over rigidity has been crucial to keep us up and running. And we can do this because our great collection of customers and community of Wonoloers have hung around during our growing pains.
Just wait until we starting galloping.
