Gust

APRIL 20, 2014

This is a fancy title for a personnel manager in a large corporation who keeps track of all the hiring and firing, and has a staff to build job descriptions and personnel policy documents. But here is another example of a role that everyone carries in a startup, so investors can’t imagine paying anyone uniquely to do that job.

CTO Hire 171

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 171

Gust

DECEMBER 15, 2013

In today’s Internet world, enterprising entrepreneurs have found that they can find out and do almost anything they need, from incorporating the company to filing patents, without expensive consultants, or the cost to hiring and firing employees. Need expensive resources up front.

Bootstrapping 183

Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Technical Review 183

Gust

DECEMBER 22, 2011

This is often referred to in the creative community as a “ work-for-hire agreement.”. IP Assignment Agreements with founders, employees and consultants clarify ownership of all IP created going forward (the work-for-hire concept described above) and cover many other bases related to preservation of IP rights going forward.

Intellectual Property 149

Intellectual Property Technical Review Software Review IP 149

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2014

For startups, the time to do the people filtering and fit analysis is before the hire. In startups, you have to drive multiple initiatives concurrently or the company will stand still. Well defined and well documented processes don’t exist to guide you.

Startup 165

Startup Early Stage Technical Review .Net 165

Gust

AUGUST 23, 2012

So as more skills are needed, the founder(s) tend to spread out the responsibilities, pushing responsibility down the chain to newly hired CFOs, CMOs, etc.

CTO Hire 118

CTO Hire Cofounder Startup Founder 118

Gust

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

You are who you hire. “If If the person who hired you is smart and nice, the people that person hires will be smart and nice. If the person who does the hiring is smart and a jerk, you’re going to end up with a log of smart jerks” (Ron Galowich, First Health). A business needs momentum.

Jordan 185

Jordan Entrepreneur Green Hiring 185

Gust

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Don’t hire people who like your ideas all the time. Be quick to fire and slow to hire. Pull the trigger fast when a new hire isn’t working, but don’t forget to be human and follow all the steps. On the other side, hiring after one interview is like hopping a red-eye to Vegas to get married after one date.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Forecast Hiring Leadership 174

Gust

DECEMBER 29, 2013

Be quick to hire and slow to fire. Hiring after one interview is like hopping a red-eye to Vegas to get married after one date. On the other end of the process, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger fast when a new hire isn’t working, but don’t forget to be human and follow all the steps.

Startup 183

Startup Intellectual Property LLC Burn Rate 183

Gust

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Every outside hire increases your cost and risk. Hire experts, not help. Use voicemail, a world-class website, and personal customer service, with small expenses, to beat your big competitors. Do it yourself. Network big to get connections and ideas, but do the work yourself. Don’t plan for failure.

Bootstrapping 176

Bootstrapping Startup Merger Salary 176

Gust

JANUARY 12, 2014

What you then want is for the momentum to compound, with each new employee or outsourcer you hire to help, to give you get more time to create value and ultimately, increase profits. At this point especially is where you need to watch out for fake work, which thrives in less dedicated hires, outdated cultures, and old work processes.

Entrepreneur 171

Entrepreneur Hiring Employee Operations 171

Gust

AUGUST 22, 2012

For example, in an area known for a high crime rate, security guards can be hired and other measures taken. Building a startup is one of the riskiest endeavors to begin with, so predictability is key, even in the face of known adversity.

Technical Review 172

Technical Review Egypt Morocco Russia 172

Gust

JULY 22, 2012

I’m definitely not lobbying here for promising things you can’t deliver, or hiring a publicist before your first programmer. At any point, hiring a professional to generate your PR may be well worth the cost, but it’s not required.

Elevator Pitch 158

Elevator Pitch Startup IP Public Relations 158

Gust

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

If you are hiring, make sure you have multiple interviews, and input from multiple people on the team to balance your view. If you are looking for a potential business partner, count on building a relationship over several months, before you really know the person.

Entrepreneur 195

Entrepreneur Hiring Partner Networking 195

Gust

APRIL 9, 2014

Therefore, to avoid dilution to its existing equity holders, all a company has to do is not hire any more employees who get options, or take any more money from investors.

Dilution 150

Dilution Equity Vesting Stock Options 150

Gust

JUNE 26, 2012

The new job never want to hire somebody with that kind of chip on a shoulder. Most of us know not to complain about the previous employer during a job interview. Fair or not, it just doesn’t work, right? More so with investor pitches. I was at one once, as an investor member of a local angel investment group, when this happened.

Due Diligence 121

Due Diligence Hiring Partner Product 121

Gust

JANUARY 5, 2014

Don’t assume that only “fast talkers” are good salesmen, or that you can hire a good salesman at the last minute to sell your product. Selling is a learned skill, and takes effort, just like building a product. Everyone in your startup needs to understand sales, and needs to be a salesman. That should be you.

Business Model 171

Business Model Sales Customer Distribution 171

Gust

JULY 25, 2012

An entrepreneur or hired CEO can own as little as 5-10% of a Company but they can control it like a dictator if they are doing a great job running the business and the company is making a lot of cash flow and has no need for additional capital.

Term Sheet 105

Term Sheet Founder Hiring Entrepreneur 105

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2013

In a big company, you get used to having an IT team around configure your computer, a personnel specialist for hiring and firing, and a marketing team for strategy. That’s a whole different mindset and skill set from your experience and training in an enterprise. Highly specialized focus. Training courses are required.

Entrepreneur 182

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Salary Lean 182

Gust

JANUARY 12, 2014

What you then want is for the momentum to compound, with each new employee or outsourcer you hire to help, to give you get more time to create value and ultimately, increase profits. At this point especially is where you need to watch out for fake work, which thrives in less dedicated hires, outdated cultures, and old work processes.

Entrepreneur 70

Entrepreneur Hiring Employee Operations 70

Gust

JANUARY 20, 2013

That means hiring help, rather than helpers, and providing the resources they need to stay current. Equip everyone with core skills to solve problems now. Replace preventing people from doing the wrong thing to helping them figure out for themselves how to do the right thing. Enable the team by building trust and banishing fear.

Startup 180

Startup Social Media Cloud Customer 180

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2011

And, a bit misty-eyed, this old war veteran can actually remember the glory days: Venture capitalists would commit tens of millions for a startup to buy expensive infrastructure; hire sales and marketing teams as products were still being built; and lease out big slugs of office space for the coming hiring spree.

IPO 87

IPO .Net Social Network Mobile 87

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2013

They should be asking to speak to you if you are a potential investor or a superstar hire. The only true outside board or advisory members are not family members, not current investors, but are experienced entrepreneurs with deep knowledge and connections in the relevant business area. Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 174

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 174

Gust

JANUARY 13, 2013

But these won’t help you much finding investors, key executive hires, and pitfalls to avoid in the real world. Once you graduate, you can’t take that course you need, and even the advisors are gone. Business networking is key. These days, every student has his social network of peers. Plug yourself into a new network of business people.

Entrepreneur 180

Entrepreneur Seed Money Social Network Business Plan 180

Gust

DECEMBER 9, 2012

It also means that it’s time to stop micro-managing, hire some of the right people, and start giving up some control. After the initial zigs and zags to get profitable, it is time to formalize and document the processes that worked. Only then can you expand those things that led to your initial success. Scale the business.

Elevator Pitch 163

Elevator Pitch Startup Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 163

Gust

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

Hire a lawyer. The last thing you need after all this work is partners stepping on your toes. Make sure you all agree on what you know, what you are good at, and what responsibilities are assigned to each. Get this in writing as a standard pre-nuptial.

Cofounder 170

Cofounder Silicon Valley Non-Compete Startup 170

Gust

JULY 29, 2012

Don’t hire any employees. You can’t be successful doing something you don’t enjoy. Passion isn’t really a substitute for money, but if you love something enough, you will find a way to get it done without paying much cash up front. Managing employees is a whole separate discipline, and most true entrepreneurs aren’t very good at it anyway.

Bandwidth 155

Bandwidth Bootstrapping Equity Startup 155

Gust

JULY 12, 2012

The legal role of the board is to make strategic and corporate-level decisions, hire/fire the CEO, and represent all of the stockholders of the company. It doesn’t give you more cash compensation, more equity ownership or more direct control over the operating business.

Cofounder 107

Cofounder Founder Warrant Equity 107

Gust

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Every partner and employee can kill your success potential in a heartbeat, so don’t take shortcuts on your hiring and training practices. Customers don’t like to see you learning on the job or outsourcing. Define and document the service process you sell. You can’t measure, scale, or patent a service process that is not clearly documented.

Angel Investor 143

Angel Investor Venture Capital Partner Networking 143

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

You hire them, you own them now. Hire fast, fire faster. To hide your demons so that you don’t scare the bejesus out of your employees. To inspire others to join your cause when by all rational accounts they should not. And having the cojones to have them join you anyways. Pottery Barn rule. Don’t f**k them up. Hell, get used to it.

Monaco 122

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 122

Gust

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

Technology companies in particular, which often grant stock or options to every employee, can easily pass the 500 mark if rapid growth results in rapid hiring. To avoid this situation, a company like Facebook will choose to go public prematurely.

IPO 110

IPO Prospectus SEC Intellectual Property 110

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

were paid their share of the proceeds of the buyout (but again, based on a $125 million valuation); Finally, MySpace employees who were hired after the spin-out in early 2005 received only MySpace stock options. of MySpace, Inc.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Gust

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

It doesn’t necessarily mean hiring an expensive consultant (or even a lawyer) with deep expertise in the area, but applying a mindset of pessimism and paranoia is helpful for purposes of this thought exercise.

Startup 98

Startup Silicon Valley Reputation Community 98

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Once you’ve completed all the planning, you’ll need to execute on the 3-to-6-month plan, albeit with limited resources.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital Finance Early Stage .Net 163

Gust

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Lowering the risk by hiring the cheapest, or counting on family members, is a bad risk. Build your team from the best and brightest. Good people are expensive, and they are hard to find, which adds risk to your startup, but it’s a strategic risk. Count on less funding rather than more.

Forecast 188

Forecast Viral Social Network Business Model 188