How to define a vision for your startup?

Vision from Day One

I often speak to founders today who think their vision is to take down a large company in their category. That's not a vision but a personal motivator. A mission statement explains why the company exists, and a vision statement explains where it is headed.

A company's vision statement should be focused on its long-term goals, purpose, and values, rather than just taking down a competitor. A good vision statement should communicate the company's long-term aspirations, the problem it aims to solve, and the impact it wants to make.

This type of statement is more likely to inspire & motivate employees, stakeholders, & customers & guide the company towards sustainable success.

Having a vision statement for a startup is important for several reasons:

1. Provides direction and focus: A clear and compelling vision statement helps the startup define its long-term goals and direction, and provides focus to the team, helping them stay aligned and motivated.

2. Guides decision-making: A well-defined vision statement guides the startup's decision-making process, helping the team make choices that are consistent with the company's long-term goals and values.

3. Attracts customers and investors: A strong vision statement communicates the startup's purpose and value proposition to potential customers and investors, helping the company attract the right partners and resources to achieve its goals.

4. Builds brand identity and culture: A vision statement can serve as the foundation for a startup's brand identity and culture, providing a shared sense of purpose and values that can guide the company's branding, marketing, and hiring decisions.

5. Measures progress: A vision statement can also serve as a yardstick for measuring the startup's progress and success, helping the team assess whether they are making progress toward their long-term goals and adjust their strategy and tactics accordingly.

Overall, a vision statement is an essential component of a startup's strategic planning process, and helps the company stay focused, aligned, and motivated as it works to achieve its long-term goals.

Few vision statements for enterprise startups:

1. Slack: "To make people's working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive."

2. Dropbox: "To unleash the world's creative energy by designing a more enlightened way of working."

3. Zoom: "To make video communications frictionless and secure, enabling people to interact as if they were in the same room."

4. Atlassian: "To unleash the potential in every team, by creating tools that help teams work smarter and faster."

5. Twilio: "To fuel the future of communications by enabling developers to build the applications that will power the way we communicate."

6. Stripe: "To increase the GDP of the internet."

7. PagerDuty: "To empower teams to take the right action, when seconds matter."

8. Asana: "To help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly."

9. Rubrik: "To simplify the complexity of IT by enabling enterprises to manage, govern, and protect their data."

10. Snowflake: "To enable every organization to be data-driven, by providing a platform that enables all data users to gain insight from all their data."

Here are some for AI companies:

1. OpenAI: "To ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity."

2. NVIDIA: "To accelerate the discovery and deployment of AI to solve the world's most challenging problems."

3. UiPath: "To democratize RPA and deliver a robot for every person."

4. Cognitivescale: "To augment human decision-making with the power of AI."

5. Vicarious: "To build unified algorithms of human cognition that can be used to solve real-world problems."

6. DataRobot: "To empower every organization to unleash the power of AI and become an AI-driven enterprise."

7. Algorithmia: "To make AI accessible to everyone by creating a marketplace for algorithms and models."

8. Hugging Face: "To democratize AI and make it accessible to everyone, everywhere."

Few more from consumer companies:

1. Amazon: "To be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

2. Tesla: "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

3. Microsoft: "To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."

4. Nike: "To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world."

5. Starbucks: "To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time."

6. Google: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

7. Patagonia: "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis."

8. Coca-Cola: "To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit, and inspire moments of optimism through our brands and actions."

9. LinkedIn: "To create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."

10. Airbnb: "To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere."

You don’t need to wait to define your vision after you are bigger. It is something that is intrinsically why you should want to start that company. These early vision statements demonstrate the startups' focus on solving a particular problem or providing a unique value proposition to their customers. They are aspirational, concise, and reflect the company's mission and purpose. Over time, as the startups grew and evolved, their vision statements may have been refined or expanded to reflect their changing goals and priorities.