Startup lessons from Spartacus, the gladiator that awed Rome

March 29, 2010

This week’s blogging competition has allowed me to roam far and wide in search of interesting topics to include in my blog. Today, I will try to link two seemingly alien subjects: start up business growth strategies and Roman history. Let me know how well I do this time.

I just finished reading the book “The Spartacus War” by Barry Strauss, a well known historian of the Greco-Romano history at Cornell University. In this new book, Strauss sought to reconstruct the life and times of Spartacus and shed new light into the legends of his amazing victories over the Roman armies sent against his ragtag bands of runaway slaves.
 
I enjoyed the most Strauss’ discussion of the political and strategic context of the events during the war, and his explanation the factors that contribute to Spartacus spectacular success and eventual defeat by Crassus. Interestingly, these are very relevant to software companies looking to growth and compete in the global marketplace today:

– Have strong competitive positioning: Spartacus made it clear in the beginning that he was fighting for the slaves to earn their freedom, honor and redress of the wrong doings that the Roman masters have done them. He was never simply just another rebel – he was the leader with high ideals and great vision. This helped him to quickly grow his army to tens of thousands in a short period of time.

– Have a clear exit strategy: Spartacus’ failure begins and ends with his lack of destination. Rebelling an entrenched military superpower such as Rome in their own homeland, he should have known that his only hope for survival is to get out of Italy as soon as possible, but he did not even though he had several chances to do so. Instead, his army traversed the length of Italy several times, unsure of where to eventually go and what to eventually do. In the end, worn down by the relentless Romans, his army was cut down not too far from Brindisium, the port that could have let them leave the country on boats to reach Spartacus’ homeland, Thrace. 

Both of these are important lesson for expansion stage companies. They need to build competitive advantage and positioning to gain market share quickly, and have a long term company exit strategy that guide their short term plans and execution.

In the next post, I will look at some relevant lessons from the Romans, who eventually defeated Spartacus, and how these might be relevant to expansion stage software companies, too.

Chief Business Officer at UserTesting

Tien Anh joined UserTesting in 2015 after extensive financial and strategic experiences at OpenView, where he was an investor and advisor to a global portfolio of fast-growing enterprise SaaS companies. Until 2021, he led the Finance, IT, and Business Intelligence team as CFO of UserTesting. He currently leads initiatives for long term growth investments as Chief Business Officer at UserTesting.