The stakeholder value chain of your company should be kept in balance.

Placing too much value in one area can kick off a ripple effect that is hard to correct.

Focus too much on your investors, board, and customers, and your team will drown in asks and struggle to innovate without having the room to make their own decisions and take action independently.

Focus too much on the team and investors and you lose touch with customer feedback and risk becoming the dreaded zombie company, a marching band to nowhere.

Homing in on mantra is important.

Identifying players across all three areas with similar long-term passions from the start is critical for taking startups from zero to one and beyond.