The life of a start-up is full of uncertainty. There are often going to be rough patches, when nothing seems to be going well. In order to sail through the turbulence, the founder realises he needs to pivot, but is not sure what to do next. He may have lost his confidence because his earlier attempts have failed, and he is full of self-doubt. 

At these times, a supporting investor, who has the benefit of having a 30,000 foot overview, can be very helpful.

However, sometimes you may disagree with the path which the founder wants to follow. The problem is that hard to know how to disagree tactfully. You don't want to upset him, because it is his company after all. He is in the trenches daily, getting his hands dirty, while you apply your mind to his problems infrequently.

However, it's important to speak up, because you do have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. I've realized that mature founders are quite happy to listen to feedback. They want you to question their assumptions because it helps them to sharpen their thinking. If they can answer your objections, not only does your confidence in them increase, their confidence in their own business model increases as well.

As an investor, you don't want to take over control of the company - you have too many other things to do in your life! You just want to be sure that the entrepreneur is being thoughtful; has considered all possible alternative options; and has a good reason for choosing the one he has selected. We all know that the future is uncertain, and whether his choice will turn out to be any better than yours is hard to predict.

We can all be wise after the event, but every start-up is an experiment where N = 1. We can't forecast what will happen, because they are complex adaptive systems, characterised by volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity.

It's important to learn to be tactful when you disagree with the founder's choice. You need to do it one on one, in a face to face meeting, rather than in front of other people, or at a board meeting. You need to find the right balance between being completely hands-off and allowing him to do what he likes (which is fine if things are going well), or being much more hands-on when he's running into trouble.

Of course, you can't force him to do what you think is right. That's a decision which he has to make for himself. However, if he's responsive and responsible, even if things don't go well after the pivot, you may still be happy to offer him a lifeline to help him recover from a near- death experience, which may leave him wiser, more resilient, and therefore more likely to succeed.

Using dashboards to manage your start-up

Every start-up is an experiment and the reality is that most of them fail. This is because they're complex systems with multiple moving parts, all of which have to work properly to make sure that the company continues to grow. This can be extremely challenging for the founder, who has to juggle multiple balls, and make sure he doesn't drop any of them. This is daunting task, because you need to learn on the job - which is why it's very hard to know whether you're on the right track or not. Are you chasing the right customers? Is your product delighting them? Is your competition catching up with you? Will you be able to find investors to fund your next round? It can be extremely hard to track all this stuff, especially when there is so much uncertainty, and it's easy for things to fall between the cracks.

Because there are no pat formulas you may find yourself disagreeing with your investors - for example, if you should go international, or whether you should stay in India. The only way to find the right answers is to run low-cost experiments, and track the results, so that you become progressively smarter. This is why tracking the key metrics is vital - so you can quickly see if you are on the right track or not.

Most founders use Excel to monitor their company's vital signs, but a dashboard can be much more helpful.

The secret is to follow open management principles, and keep an online dashboard which is accessible to everyone. This way, all employees can see how the company is doing; how it's progressing; what their personal contribution is; and what they need to do to make sure that the company continues to grow. It's far better to put it all out in the open, even when things aren't going well. You may be worried that this will affect morale, and that your staff will quit, but the truth is that most of them can sense when the company is doing badly, and they are already worrying anyway. It's far better to acknowledge this, rather than try to hide the truth from them, because this just makes matters worse. Being open about it will help to dispel rumours and gossip; and will reassure them that you have a plan of action to deal with the crisis. Even better, it will bring them all together and help them to pitch in, so that you can tackle the problem as a united team - there is strength in numbers, and employees should be empowered to provide solutions!

The dashboard should be simple, and should focus only on a few key metrics. You need to define what these are, because they will vary from company to company. You will also need to modify them as your company evolves. The beauty is that a dashboard creates a sense of ownership amongst all your staff.

As a CEO, your dashboard allows you to check how you've progressed; and whether you're headed in the right direction or not. You can set up access privileges, so if there's some information which you think is confidential (for example salaries), then you don't need to put that up on the publicly accessible dashboard.

Even better, a dashboard allows you to share information with your investors proactively, without your having to do any additional work. They will be happy to provide support and insights when they can see you are treating them as partners in your journey. 

A dashboard can be a very useful tool, and you should explore the available options. The standard is www.geckoboard.com, and there are many inexpensive alternatives as well, such as http://finalboard.com/. You can use also the open source JSlate code at https://github.com/rasmusbergpalm/jslate to create your own free customised dashboard as well

As a start-up founder eloquently said, “Without a dashboard, running a start-up is like flying a plane through fog with no instruments.” Life as a founder is hard enough as it is - why handicap yourself even further?