I recently read a couple of items on startup teams and stock ownership (People and Ownership was one of them). I understand all the angst about equity percentages (after all, it makes it easier to justify working 100 hour weeks with a shoestring budget), but before I can worry about the ownership, I have to find the people, and, to change the song just a tad, it's hard out there for startups.
So, in the ideal startup, the founder will have one or two awesomely qualified buddies with complementary skills, they'd all have worked together before (in perfect harmony of course), and they'd happily work out ownership, roles (somehow only one of them would even think of being the CEO) and bootstrap their new venture with no worries. Every entrepreneur's dream.
In the not-so-perfect world, the founder's best buddies can't dream of bootstrapping as they need fat corporate paychecks (and oooh! health care benefits!) to cushion their family, or they'd really, really love the idea but have just taken a great job in a funded company with great options and can they get back to you next year, or they've upped and moved to another country to experience the globalization first hand.
It's not a matter of being able to attract people to your idea - it's a matter of finding them.
Its partly due to the economy of course. Things are better than they were in 2003. Some of it may be the skill level you're looking for. Early stage teams need those who bring in more savvy than the grads fresh out of school, and there are fewer of the savvy types available.
Conventional wisdom has it that one should only hire through referrals. I see the point. It's better to have a friend of a friend of a friend than a total stranger - the credo of all social networks. Onto emailing, calling, buying lunches and lattes, spreading the word as much as possible.
Email blasts to social/professional clubs? Craigslist? Alumni lists? Hmmm...Blogs and MySpace? Not your usual fishing ponds. Why not blast it to the whole wide world? After all connecting the dots through friends and acquaintances is a slow process, though fun (good excuse to catch up with your networks), and the net is not as wide. I guess if you don't mind sifting through loads of straight-to-trash responses to find the one worth a reply, it could be an option.
What I've learned (and am re-experiencing) is that you need patience, a stick-with-it-ness. Entrepreneurs would rather be building the company than searching for people, but as the very valid cliche goes, people are the company. The formula is nothing exotic, just patience, along with the hard work of searching. You have to put in the effort of contant networking even if it's a drag. (It's a little more bearable if you can also put in some work on your business too - you feel better if you're making progress somewhere, and add some polish to your venture.)
For every ten people who connect with, you may find one prospect, and if you keep it up, sooner or later you'll find the one you're looking for. As this is the same advice given to job seekers, there's a chance the one you're seeking is seeking you too. And keep talking to those old buddies you've worked with before, maybe one of them will decide that those other stock options are not worth as much as yours - now you can prep for the ownership percentage talk.
Channeling the inner entrepreneur who views life as a startup. Musings about people, their spirit, the startup ethos and the entrepreneurial attitude, with an emphasis on education and social ventures. The 'how-to'? Not so much. But definitely the why, the what and the whatever.
Navigating through Nay-sayers.
Once again, this is a more of a toughie when you're just starting out. As an entrepreneur you've presumably thought through your idea (read all the how-to's, attended all the workshops) and worked out a business model that looks promising. And then you run across people, many whom you may respect, who say flat out ' I don't think there's a market for this', 'It's been done', 'The big guys will do this soon', 'It looks like a hard sell' or, worst of all, 'I don't know if you can pull this off'. It's enough to make the most gung-ho person come to a screeching halt and wonder if this was such a bright idea after all.
There's no easy answer. For every Dell, Google or JetBlue that defied the doubters and nay-sayers to become a roaring success, there are hundreds of others that never made it ....and we don't know if they had their doubters too who just happened to be right. On the other hand if people gave up on their ideas at the first whiff of skepticism, mankind wouldn't never have taken the first step from lightning-struck branches to flint stones.
How should a would-be entrepreneur handle doubts?
First, it really helps to listen to the skeptics. Not necessarily believe them, but listen and understand why they may say what they do. And if you listen without getting either defeatist or defensive you'll find it generates some creative thinking. When I heard 'it'll be a hard sell' about my idea, I dug in and tried to understand why that would be the case and realized that the speaker was focusing on just one market segment. It made me question why one would assume that would be the primary segment, and got me to focus on improving the positioning.
Second, do tons of research. The more you know about your potential customers, competition, location, market trends etc., etc., the less likely it is to you'd get derailed by others' opinions.
Third, do the math. Not to impresss would-be investors, but to convince the most critical person - you, the entrepreneur - that your idea is viable one. When you're crunching numbers for yourself you won't try to kid yourself with the most optimistic guesstimates, but will use the most conservative ones so you know what the worst case scenario could be.
Fourth, come up with some alternatives. If it is possible that the doubters are right, are there ways to avoid the problem or mitigate the risk or soften the impact? Even if someone raises questions about your abilities (you're not technical enough, or you're too much of an engineer, or you don't understand sales, or you're too young or too old, or too impatient or too idealistic or whatever) - and you think they may actually have a point there - you can address them when you're building your team. Remember, most issues can be resolved, or at least lessened.
Finally, it's easier to figure out what will work if you have something to actually try out. If you're convinced your idea will work, and you're willing to take the risk, it's yours - go get it started. Maybe you'll have to change your offering, or your market, or your business model, or maybe all of it, but at least you're not stuck in the deer-in-the-headlights mode of operating which would only result in a non-startup.
Questions, caution, analysis. Good. Paralysis. Bad.
Once again, this is a more of a toughie when you're just starting out. As an entrepreneur you've presumably thought through your idea (read all the how-to's, attended all the workshops) and worked out a business model that looks promising. And then you run across people, many whom you may respect, who say flat out ' I don't think there's a market for this', 'It's been done', 'The big guys will do this soon', 'It looks like a hard sell' or, worst of all, 'I don't know if you can pull this off'. It's enough to make the most gung-ho person come to a screeching halt and wonder if this was such a bright idea after all.
There's no easy answer. For every Dell, Google or JetBlue that defied the doubters and nay-sayers to become a roaring success, there are hundreds of others that never made it ....and we don't know if they had their doubters too who just happened to be right. On the other hand if people gave up on their ideas at the first whiff of skepticism, mankind wouldn't never have taken the first step from lightning-struck branches to flint stones.
How should a would-be entrepreneur handle doubts?
First, it really helps to listen to the skeptics. Not necessarily believe them, but listen and understand why they may say what they do. And if you listen without getting either defeatist or defensive you'll find it generates some creative thinking. When I heard 'it'll be a hard sell' about my idea, I dug in and tried to understand why that would be the case and realized that the speaker was focusing on just one market segment. It made me question why one would assume that would be the primary segment, and got me to focus on improving the positioning.
Second, do tons of research. The more you know about your potential customers, competition, location, market trends etc., etc., the less likely it is to you'd get derailed by others' opinions.
Third, do the math. Not to impresss would-be investors, but to convince the most critical person - you, the entrepreneur - that your idea is viable one. When you're crunching numbers for yourself you won't try to kid yourself with the most optimistic guesstimates, but will use the most conservative ones so you know what the worst case scenario could be.
Fourth, come up with some alternatives. If it is possible that the doubters are right, are there ways to avoid the problem or mitigate the risk or soften the impact? Even if someone raises questions about your abilities (you're not technical enough, or you're too much of an engineer, or you don't understand sales, or you're too young or too old, or too impatient or too idealistic or whatever) - and you think they may actually have a point there - you can address them when you're building your team. Remember, most issues can be resolved, or at least lessened.
Finally, it's easier to figure out what will work if you have something to actually try out. If you're convinced your idea will work, and you're willing to take the risk, it's yours - go get it started. Maybe you'll have to change your offering, or your market, or your business model, or maybe all of it, but at least you're not stuck in the deer-in-the-headlights mode of operating which would only result in a non-startup.
Questions, caution, analysis. Good. Paralysis. Bad.
Why another blog on startups
There are already zillions of blogs on startups. So why another one?
I must admit that when I recently did a blog search on 'startup' this one doesn't show up in the first few pages of results (maybe never, because I ran out of patience and stopped scrolling). But that doesn't bother me too much, make it at all, as my goals for doing this blog have already been met, and now it's all icing on the cake.
After my last startup experience, I discovered two things (1) I learned a lot of stuff that I wish I'd known earlier and (2) I really enjoy thinking about and discussing the startup experience. It was important that I share what I've learned with others - spread the word, help someone, chalk up some good karma kind of thing. Some of these things can only be learned through experience, and it is much better when it is not your own. I was seriously considering writing a book, not a how-to or do-you-have-what-it-takes kind of book, but a this-is-what-you-should-think-about,
this-is-what-you-should-watch-out-for and
this-happens-all-the-time
book that you can read if you're prepping for a startup and occasionally check out to recover your balance when everything seems to be going haywire.
So, I did start writing the book. I did an outline, skimmed through a couple of how-to books on non-fiction writing, and even did the first chapter. And I realized that it takes commitment to put in a few hours a day to it, something that's hard to come by when you're working. Also, having been immersed in only business-writing (am a PowerPoint junkie) for so long, I really needed the discipline of writing frequently to polish up my general writing skills. It started to look like it'd be two years or so for the book to be finished, which seemed a very slow way to help wannabe entrepreneurs.
There was the coffee/cocktail 'advisory' circuit of course. I've been discussing these ideas with some startup dreamers, and the helping is more immediate, but it still takes time and much consumption of beverages. So a blog seemed the thing to do. It gets the word out quickly (if anyone can find it) and makes me practice my writing skills. I'm the kind of person who'd only blog about what engages me, which is why writing about the startup ethos is fun and easy (I'd be seriously bored maintaining a blog about my daily activities - I couldn't read it myself).
Yesterday I was talking to an UCLA MBA student who needed my input on some startup issues and I'd told him about a couple of posts on this blog that might be relevant. He called back and was very effusive about how helpful it was 'because it speaks to the average Joe and tells you stuff that you'd never think about unless someone told you'. I'd started this blog with the idea that it didn't matter if it wasn't popular, I'd get to work on my writing and I'd feel it was worthwhile if it was helpful to just one person. Check and check. Ahhh. Now, if I can meet my startup goals....
I must admit that when I recently did a blog search on 'startup' this one doesn't show up in the first few pages of results (maybe never, because I ran out of patience and stopped scrolling). But that doesn't bother me too much, make it at all, as my goals for doing this blog have already been met, and now it's all icing on the cake.
After my last startup experience, I discovered two things (1) I learned a lot of stuff that I wish I'd known earlier and (2) I really enjoy thinking about and discussing the startup experience. It was important that I share what I've learned with others - spread the word, help someone, chalk up some good karma kind of thing. Some of these things can only be learned through experience, and it is much better when it is not your own. I was seriously considering writing a book, not a how-to or do-you-have-what-it-takes kind of book, but a this-is-what-you-should-think-about,
this-is-what-you-should-watch-out-for and
this-happens-all-the-time
book that you can read if you're prepping for a startup and occasionally check out to recover your balance when everything seems to be going haywire.
So, I did start writing the book. I did an outline, skimmed through a couple of how-to books on non-fiction writing, and even did the first chapter. And I realized that it takes commitment to put in a few hours a day to it, something that's hard to come by when you're working. Also, having been immersed in only business-writing (am a PowerPoint junkie) for so long, I really needed the discipline of writing frequently to polish up my general writing skills. It started to look like it'd be two years or so for the book to be finished, which seemed a very slow way to help wannabe entrepreneurs.
There was the coffee/cocktail 'advisory' circuit of course. I've been discussing these ideas with some startup dreamers, and the helping is more immediate, but it still takes time and much consumption of beverages. So a blog seemed the thing to do. It gets the word out quickly (if anyone can find it) and makes me practice my writing skills. I'm the kind of person who'd only blog about what engages me, which is why writing about the startup ethos is fun and easy (I'd be seriously bored maintaining a blog about my daily activities - I couldn't read it myself).
Yesterday I was talking to an UCLA MBA student who needed my input on some startup issues and I'd told him about a couple of posts on this blog that might be relevant. He called back and was very effusive about how helpful it was 'because it speaks to the average Joe and tells you stuff that you'd never think about unless someone told you'. I'd started this blog with the idea that it didn't matter if it wasn't popular, I'd get to work on my writing and I'd feel it was worthwhile if it was helpful to just one person. Check and check. Ahhh. Now, if I can meet my startup goals....
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