I always find it good to try to sort out your thoughts by writing them down. I think you have done a good job of that here. One of the big issues I have seen in most companies that is an issue is communication. It is here as well. This only gets multiplied because we are doing with Media, which by its very nature is not very well understood by most (in business, technical and legal aspects). We are in 3+ offices around the world, so things like timezones, indirect communication, word of mouth, language barriers and cultural differences clash in many different ways that is not always clear and understood. Most of the time I find myself to be a dutch speaking American who has in interest in identifying these communication issues. Most of them are because people are doing literal translations that simply do not come over correctly, etc. Using e-mail and electronic communication for 90% of what we do can cause a lot of unneeded frustration as well. This is one of the reasons, I took ops to one on one and f2f communication first, before I start to bring things back into electronic form. In addition to communication there are many many unknowns that take a lot of time to get a grasp on. Even just knowing where particular pieces of code live and what they are used for can be something that holds you up for several days. Everyone wants to be part of this and everyone wants to see it succeed in different ways. This point of view of what the perfect company is and what its vision is also part of what causes confusion. I think it may be good to describe a few different phases of a startups life and explain which phase we are in and where we are going. For clarity and removing any confusion, I am thinking the following rough phases: * Phase 0: Found the Company - Idea - Developing basic business model and vision - Design the key business units that make up the business - Search for qualified leaders for each of the business units. - Start design of the proof of concept - Develop proof of concept * Phase 1: Develop Core Business Competencies - Start design of first revision - Rapidly develop essentials for first revision - Start rolling out the first revision while it is being developed. - Design and start Operational Teams - Find White Elephant Customers and Partners - Design business and operational processes * Phase 2: Solidify and Understand the Business - Focus on Stability, Scalability - Re-evaluate business model based on limited experience of Phase 1 and Phase 2 - Develop and implement business and operation processes - Fix short comings not discovered in Phase 1 - Analyze and get to grip with what you have actually build versus original expectations - Generate and build business intelligence * Phase 3: Grow and differentiate the Business - Expand and leverage core competencies to beat and outshine the competition - Expand outside of the core scope and experiment with alternative revenue streams and customer acquisition patterns - Study customer behaviors more and make corrections and changes to facilitate growth based on feedback and statistics * Phase 4: Diversify your business - Incubate from within and have parts of the business come up with other markets where the same pain exists or core competencies and intellectual property could provide a big roadway into a new market. - Invest in other companies in Phase 0 or 1 with a compatible Vision. - Execute on Exit strategy, if there is one. IPO, M&A, etc. I feel we are currently leaving Phase 1 and going into Phase 2. Where I think for most Phase 1 and Phase 3 are the most interesting parts. Communicating this top down, would help a lot in getting everyone on the same page. Things seem very very fuzy to most at the moment.