A mission statement can be a powerful tool to help ensure your company remains consistently excellent and focused. It is your "why" - it's why you exist. Your strategy. Your core. Your vision. Your identity. Your culture. And it can steer you toward success.
Is your mission statement boring and generic? Or have you been able to boil down everything your company stands for and strives to be in a concisely simple statement that tells your employees and the entire world why your company is valuable?
What makes a good mission statement?
According to this Inc. article, a mission statement can reflect short-term goals or long-term aspirations, but they should all share four key elements:
Value.
Inspiration.
Plausibility.
Specificity.
Some more advice on good mission statements comes by way of this Inc. article:
Don't talk about the company.
Don't mention "process" - how you do stuff (because nobody cares).
Focus solely on the result the customer will get from working with you.
Share the result as an "outcome" - an authentic result expressed emotionally.
If you're curious what makes a terrible mission statement, check out these nine examples if you dare.
Ok, so what can your company learn from some of the biggest startups in the world?
Plenty.
Whether it's just a few words, or a couple sentences, many of the world's most valuable startup companies clearly understand their mission and have made it part of their DNA.
Need some ideas to write or update your mission statement?
If so, you're in luck! I've collected 30 inspiring mission statements from startup companies valued at more than $1 billion.
Take SpaceX for example: "SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars."
SpaceX's mission statement highlights both its short-term goals (developing the technologies needed to explore space) and long-term aspirations (enabling people to live on other planets, like Mars).
Does it address value and specificity? Absolutely. Inspiration? Nothing more inspiring than space exploration! Plausibility? Sure seems like it!
How about fast-growing startup Slack: "We're on a mission to make your working life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive."
Quite the aspirational and inspirational mission statement. It also addresses value, though perhaps it's a tad weak on specifics and the jury is still out on whether using Slack will really make your life more pleasant.
Airbnb checks in with the shortest mission statement ("Belong anywhere"), proving you can say a lot about yourself with just two words. Bravo!
Meanwhile the longest entry comes from Moderna's three-sentence, overly wordy, somewhat meandering, slightly generic mission statement (you can read it in full in the infographic below). Might be time to revisit and refine this mission statement, Moderna team.
Check out the full infographic for all 30 mission statements, including those from Uber, Palantir, Pinterest, Dropbox, and many more (in no particular order):
The AISBX is a new securities trading licensed platform under the supervision of the AIFC. The objective is to support SMEs to gain more access to international capital market funding resources and complete the capital funding ecosystem.
Small business constitutes a major force in the global and local economy
The majority of all workers first entered the business world working for small businesses.
Small business is the portal through which many people enter the economic mainstream. Business ownership allows individuals, including women and minorities, to achieve financial success, as well as pride in their accomplishments.
Given the financial resources available to large businesses, you’d expect them to introduce virtually all the new products that hit the market. According to the U.S Small business Administration (SBA), small companies develop more patents per employee than do larger companies.
Small firms complement large firms in a number of ways. They supply many of the components needed by big companies. For example, the U.S. automakers depend on more than 1,700 suppliers to provide them with the parts needed to make their cars.
Using finance to aid growth can be smart and potentially explosive, and there are many ways to grow a small business. Funding it is a big part of the puzzle and it can help any promising company go from zero to 100 in a very short time.
If you are starting a business in your garage and you hear a few people laughing, remember these five entrepreneurs who started in a garage and moved on to the Fortune 500:
Are you working out of your garage, in your bedroom, a motel room, or a friends space that they aren’t using on the weekends? Listen, it happens. We all have to start somewhere – the big thing is that you started. So many people have had ideas for companies and just sat on them because taking that initial leap is too risky – but you did. And you’re in good company.
The heroic story of going from somebody’s garage to being worth billions has got to be one of the most compelling tales within entrepreneur and startup folklore.