At Sifteo, we’re celebrating!

February 16th is the 3-year anniversary of Dave Merrill’s first viral TED talk that set our founders in motion and resulted in the creation of Sifteo, Inc.

The occasion’s got us thinking: things are going really well here at Sifteo. We’ve got a bright, sunny office in the Dog Patch area of San Francisco, 23 fabulous employees, and 19 games for our ever-expanding game library. Everyday we get to connect with enthusiastic Sifteo users and every week we attend conferences and events, meeting the cool kids who are playing or developing on Sifteo cubes.

But of course, we also keep in mind that it hasn’t always been so good. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that Dave and Jeevan started Sifteo in a dark, wonky basement in SOMA. It’s taken a lot of hard work and team effort to get where we are today and, looking back, we realize we’ve learned a lot along the way.

So considering our 3rd anniversary is a pretty big milestone, we decided to ask Dave and Jeevan what the most important lessons have been and what advice they’d give to other startup companies going into business today. The following list represents the collected wisdom of some people our founders really admire—including Sifteo advisors, the founder of MakerBot, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Jeevan’s mom.

 

Startup Advice from the founders of Sifteo

10.  Ordinary efforts yield ordinary results.

9. The cult of done: Done is in the engine of more. –B. Pettis of MakerBot

8. Be open to being wrong about anything at anytime. You have to be flexible and willing to change your mind.

7. Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. –Dwight D. Eisenhower

6. When in a leadership role, be the best version of yourself. It’s not your job to make everyone happy; rather, it’s to listen to them and make a reasonable decision as quickly as you can.

5. Make time for people to interact in ways that aren’t specifically about work.

4. Employees must know they can come up with ideas they can put into action.

3. If you have to do something, do it right then and there. (Jeevan’s mom’s critical advice we’d all like to be a little better about following…)

2. Great people are infinitely more important than great technology. Involve everyone on your team in the problem solving effort.

1. Treat your customers like you would treat your friends.

 

Have your own words of wisdom for fellow startup businesses and entrepreneurs? Please share by leaving your comments below!