In my last post I talked about worrying. It made me think about some of the startup founders I've met over the years. In my oversimplified and grossly generalized view, there are really two kinds of startup founders.
The hard-charging, risk-raking product champions that won't take no for an answer and have a long-term vision for the company based on research and a heaping serving of intuition. I see Steve Jobs as one of these men. Then there are the constantly worrying Chicken Littles. They say, "that won't work," "we can't afford that," and/or "I need this feature completely and totally mapped out for launch before I'll write a single line of code." I'm sure you know many of these guys. Often the former is a business-type founder and the latter is a technical-type founder.
Try to be BOTH.
The best startup teams I've seen are of a savvy technical founder and a sharp business founder. Many would argue with me here. That's fine. And in the early goings just a technical founder is fine. You have to focus on building product. If you're a lone star, you need to inprove your skills across all business and tech functions. You have to be a jack of all trades. You can hire specialized masters later.
It's better to have a product with no business than a business with no product.
Before you go out raising funds, handling accounts payable, and other things of that nature you need to build, build, build. But at some point you need to write a business plan, devise a marketing strategy (and tweeting about it doesn't count), set up the financial architecture of your company, navigate legal hurdles, etc. If you're the business founder you'd better be surrounding yourself with brilliant programmers/designers and incentivizing them before you go running out and building a business with no products.
Building a Team of Waifs and Fatties
It's better to have a product with no business than a business with no product.
Before you go out raising funds, handling accounts payable, and other things of that nature you need to build, build, build. But at some point you need to write a business plan, devise a marketing strategy (and tweeting about it doesn't count), set up the financial architecture of your company, navigate legal hurdles, etc. If you're the business founder you'd better be surrounding yourself with brilliant programmers/designers and incentivizing them before you go running out and building a business with no products.
Building a Team of Waifs and Fatties
One of my favorite video games of all time was Ice Hockey for NES (God, I should just go buy a walker and a burial plot). You choose between 3 types of players: the bloated behemoth that took 10 minutes to cross the rink but could knock the snot out of anything in its path; the stocky and average "Joe"; and the weak, spindly waif that was only about 2 pixels wide but skated blue line to blue line in less than a second.
I loved setting up my team and trying out different combinations of characters. (None of these combos helped beat my older brother though. Ass hat.) This is a microcosm for your organization/startup/small business.
I loved setting up my team and trying out different combinations of characters. (None of these combos helped beat my older brother though. Ass hat.) This is a microcosm for your organization/startup/small business.
For Cohesion You Need Diversity.
If you're a startup founder, take a look at your cofounders. Do you have multiple "Steve Jobs'?" (Gosh his name sucks to pluralize.) If you do, you're in trouble. You need someone with their feet on the ground. You need a detail-oriented worry wart. Have two technical founders and no marketing/bizdev person? Get one. Have two marketing/bizdev founders and no developers? You're off to a really bad start. You have to have representation for the different silos of your organization or there will be major gaps. And if no one is "minding the gap" you're going to wake up one day in a world of hurt.
Opposites Attract...Funding
Lots of marriages are between two seemingly "bad for each other" people, but they work perfectly together. Jobs needed the Woz. Gates needed Allen. Page needed Brin. Take a look at your startup. Where's your copilot?
I see this a lot with startups founded by good friends. They are too similar, and they need someone to balance them out or they will lead each other astray. Building a "fundable" team is about filling the silos, covering the bases, and showing that you have your business under control. nothing is worse than a board making hiring decisions or structural changes.
Hire your opposites. Hire waifs AND fatties to round out your business.
P.S. Take Your Work Home with You
I see this a lot with startups founded by good friends. They are too similar, and they need someone to balance them out or they will lead each other astray. Building a "fundable" team is about filling the silos, covering the bases, and showing that you have your business under control. nothing is worse than a board making hiring decisions or structural changes.
Hire your opposites. Hire waifs AND fatties to round out your business.
P.S. Take Your Work Home with You
Forget your co-founders for a second. Does your co-pilot at home just dismiss your ideas or does he/she engage and question your thought process? My wife-to-be grills me. Makes me feel like crap sometimes because I overlooked something, or energizes me on a new initiative. If your spouse doesn't support --and challenge-- your ideas, how can you hope to succeed?
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