It’s said that more companies die of indigestion than starvation—meaning they get distracted by shiny new opportunities, spreading focus too thin to be effective.

The possibility of starvation keeps many startup founders up at night. So, it’s understandable that turning down potential growth opportunities, or distractions disguised as opportunities, can feel counterintuitive.

Yet, for a tech startup chasing rapid global growth, the symptoms of indigestion often pose a greater risk than hunger pains. Distractions and overextended resources lead to slower delivery and mediocrity. Being laser-focused on your key objectives and disciplined in aligning the necessary resources—or not—could be the difference between an exceptional company, and one that bit off more than it could chew and ended up choking.

Whether your strategy is set, the key objectives neatly tied with a bow, the team ready to execute, or you're only now planning for the next 12+ months, here's a reminder to get crystal clear on what you are doing this year—and even clearer on what you aren’t.

Your strategy and anti-strategy

I am a believer in identifying 3-5 major strategic objectives that need to be progressed in the year. Lots of time should be applied to be very clear on why these objectives must be achieved and how they will be measured. That much is obvious to most companies.

At the same time, it’s a great practice to create an ‘anti-strategy’ list—everything your company has decided not to do this year. That’s not to say that you’ll never go near it, but it is to say that the company is actively deciding to put it on the not-now list. The anti-strategy list should be visible to the whole team.

As soon as a company starts to have some level of success opportunities will start to present themselves with increasing regularity. The more success you achieve the more distractions will tug at your attention. These opportunities could come externally and sometimes from bright ideas internally.

These distractions can become a huge drain on management time if they’re given oxygen. They can become energy pits that have management and in some cases, the board discussing things that aren’t core to stated objectives.

The clearer your company is on its strategy and anti-strategy, the faster your team can triage new opportunities and say thanks but not for now thanks.

The focus flywheel

Focus is a virtuous cycle. The more focused your business is on a high-value niche value proposition or set of objectives, the faster you become at building more value in that area. That in turn means winning more business. Winning more business builds momentum and more resources to double down investing in that value proposition. Focus creates more alignment in the team, it’s easier to measure performance and win together. It means fewer internal conversations and debates about direction and if something is on or off strategy.

Conversely, split focus creates a flywheel of its own—but in reverse: more conversations, more bureaucracy, worse product outcomes, less happy customers, less momentum, and worse financial performance.

Being an expert in a niche

Being focused requires confidence. It requires the confidence to be excellent in a niche.

As Kiwi companies, it’s easy to adopt a small-market mindset, trying to solve many problems for as many people as possible in the hopes of building a sizable market and an interesting-sized business. By contrast, companies born in larger markets often focus on niche products for niche audiences, confident that the sheer size of those niches can drive significant growth and business scale.

To be transformative global tech companies from NZ, we need to resist the urge to be everything to everyone. Instead, we need to be experts in our niches—and stay the course.

Happy 2025 planning!

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