10 quotes from The Wire that’ll help you run a tech startup

I’m not a man of faith, but there is one thing that I believe with all of my heart: everybody should watch The Wire. David Simon’s inner city drama may not be the most action-packed or eye-catching of HBO’s original series, but it was a show that really had something to say. And since it was concerned in no small part with the lives of drug dealers – those most entrepreneurial of criminals – it actually has quite a bit to say that’s relevant to your quest to build a successful startup.

Don’t believe me? Take it from the characters of The Wire themselves!

Note: this list, like the show itself, contains very strong language, although I have censored the racial slurs. If that’s going to bother you, you should stop reading immediately.

“We’re building something, here, detective, we’re building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.”
(Lester Freamon, S01E06)

Freamon was talking about building a murder case, of course, but his assertion that all the pieces matter applies equally well to startups. If you focus purely on engineering with no marketing, you’re likely to fail. If you focus purely on marketing but haven’t engineered a good product, success is improbable. And on top of that, you’ve got to keep track of things like customer experience, workplace culture, keeping investors happy, navigating local regulations, etc. It’s a headache, but if you’ve founded a startup then it’s a headache that you chose. All the pieces matter. If you get tunnel vision and lose sight of the bigger picture – what you’re trying to build – you’re finished.

“If anybody asks you if in you in this game, you tell ’em you in it for life, a’ight?”
(D’Angelo Barksdale, S01E12)

When it comes to doing a startup, there can be no half-measures. You can get away with starting a company as a side project, but at some point you need to dive in headfirst. Think about it this way: if you don’t believe in your idea enough to invest your own time in it full-time, why on earth would any investor believe in it enough to give you their money? What D’Angelo says about the drug game is also true in the startup world: you’re either in or you’re out. And if you want other people to believe in what you’re doing, the first thing they need to see is that you’re serious about it, and you’re in it for the long haul.

D’Angelo schooling Wallace.

“What the fuck do you wanna hear? That you’re strong enough to do this by yourself?”
(Walon, S01E10)

How many startups do you know that were able to scale significantly without building up their team? There’s Instagram, sure – Instagram sold to Facebook for US$1 billion with just 14 total employees – but they’re the exception, not the rule. Adding people to your initial team can be hard, both because of the challenges of sourcing talent that’s also a good culture fit and because you’ve probably formed a strong bond with the coworkers you had in bootstrapping early days. But you can’t do it by yourself. It’s important to remember that. Realize when it’s time to scale up. And perhaps more importantly, recognize that anyone on your team making important contributions to the company’s success is someone you want to reward accordingly.

“Hell, if you can’t win the war on drugs in a prison, where the hell you gonna win it?”
(Warden, S02E04)

Your startup probably isn’t related to drugs or prisons, but try to appreciate the Warden’s broader point here: you should focus on fighting in the place where you’re strongest first. After all, if you can’t win there, you’re not likely to win anywhere. This could mean focusing on your geographical home market, or focusing on the product market you have the greatest understanding of even if you eventually aspire to offer products in other markets too. Focus on the area where you’re strongest first, and win that battle before heading further afield.