Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

You hire great people. You motivate, cajole, reassign tasks, hire, fire and push the organization forward. You have this tension between on the one side being a micro-manager (by which great people won’t want to work with you) or being hands off (and having quality lapses or team alignment issues). You set direction.

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

But not anal if one founder who shares equity graciously with early employees who are treated as “co-founders” My idea startup team is heaving on tech personnel but also has strong product management. Don’t hire a homogenous team. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You hire people who look good on paper. So one of the surest signs you’ve hired a leader is the willingness of his or her former team to re-assemble. When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

One of the questions I’m most often asked by CEOs is how to hire sales people. I’ve written a lot about recruiting and hiring at startups including my controversial post on whom not to hire and my rapid response to the flame war. Call high, and get passed down or; B.

Sales Cycle 375

Sales Cycle Sales Technical Review Campaign 375

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

But they also take on issues in science, technology and management. But in my experience it’s surprising at how little time we as investors and as board members and startups as management teams spend thinking about how to create the best team dynamics. I watch whether the CEO talks over other people or lets them participate.

Pakistan 150

Pakistan Technical Review Iran Russia 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Most technology startups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). These people take directions well from a sales manager on how to approach sales campaigns. I think I made a pretty good CEO but I know I would be lousy sales manager. More on that later.

Early Stage 350

Early Stage Startup Sales Campaign 350

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

I always tell teams I meet with, “The scarcest resource in your company is management bandwidth. And nobody is more important in this regard than senior management. We need to hire a team in financial services now to address the needs of that industry [yeah, I know we don't yet have big customers there. Spend it wisely.”

Bandwidth 415

Bandwidth Management Startup Channel 415

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

” So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. We focused together on improving our sales methodology, our training and our comp plans through a larger than life ex country manager from PTC named Kai Krickel. Don’t hire sales people if you expect to be over-the-top cheap on T&E.

Sales 382

Sales Startup Technical Review Matching 382

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

Whether you’re considering hiring a new employee or as an investor whether you’re looking to do a background check on the founders of a company. Most people delay reference calls until that point both due to expediency of time (why make phone calls unless you think you might hire the person?) Reference calls.

Technical Review 302

Technical Review Hiring Later Stage Employee 302

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Most firms hire associates straight out of MBA programs and usually it is a “2-3 years and out” type of job. At Upfront VC we have a very strict policy to hire pre MBAs into the role. Ability to manage and prioritize large amounts of tasks since you’ll get many things thrown at you from various directions.

Jordan 365

Jordan Technical Review Portfolio Partner 365

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ).

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

I never hire job hoppers. You have tough choices to make about whom you hire on your team. Now is the time that you need “all hands on deck.&# That awesome gal you hired in engineering has job options and she knows it. If you want to hire them as contractors fine. And it’s important because it’s true.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios. But the founders also recognized – as many great founders do – that they were going to have to build out an experienced management team to become the billion company everybody believes this can be.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

It is a truism that with more capital you will hire people more quickly and spend more liberally whether it’s on external contractors, PR firms, attending events, doing legal work (trademarks, patents) or whatever. It forces harder decisions about whom you’ll hire and whom you’ll delay. million or $4 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

As your company develops multiple offices, hires a larger number of sales people or increases product complexity over time this kind of tacit knowledge doesn’t scale. The new hires that you pick up will use your same sales decks created by marketing but will have less impact and you often don’t realize it’s happening.

Sales 286

Sales PR Forecast Technical Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

And many of these people are money managers rather than people like Gus who inspire entrepreneurs. At just 24 years old I was given the responsibility of managing teams. I think the best VCs act as a sounding board for management. They think that they know better than management. But much good also came.

Pakistan 297

Pakistan India Technical Review Software Review 297

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

But whether it’s Naval’s “power of two&# or my “start things and then hire your co-founder&# approach the reality is that you’ll need to find a partner. You might be great at networking and leading but bad at planning and managing. Are you a leader vs. a manager? - Are you technically inclined? -

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

If you’re at a startup and new to sales & sales people you might want to read my basic primers: Why hiring seasoned reps at a startup might not work. Or thinking about how much capital you have and therefore how many people you can hire – you rigorously prioritize. Managing C deals is called “nurturing.”

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

The best technologists often aren’t amazing people managers. They work on their own schedule and are often hard to manage. You still have some leeway to hire above them if need be. The VP Engineering aspires to manage teams. They are sticklers about managing unit tests , system tests and regression tests.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. Ethan had pointed out to me that merchants were being barraged by “deal site” wanting to drive customers in the door but they didn’t have great tools to manage their customers. And we wanted a head of global marketing.

Southern California 359

Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. So your Q1 results will be $180,000 less profitable than if you hadn’t hired them. Hiring more people isn’t always the right answer.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

When you hire people in functional roles they want to show that they’re achieving results and results are easiest to measure by tasks accomplished. But many CEO’s and management teams fail to set clear guidelines on what the company objectives are and make sure that everybody is driving toward the same goal.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. Back then it was a larger than life ex country manager from PTC named Kai Krickel. That doesn’t make them bad – it just means that they know that they are “hired guns&# and they act accordingly. Cash, cash, cash. And finally.

Sales 316

Sales Technical Review Matching Hiring 316

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Here is where I see this really play out: Product Management. Eventually I had a head of Product Management – the best I ever worked with named Tim Barker – politely say to me that this wouldn’t fly any more. Allocation planning in product management in ingenious and helps a lot with CEO meddling. I did this.

Startup 150

Startup CTO Hire Sales Leadership 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

So rather than hiring a VP Marketing [to establish a strategic marketing plan, build and manage the marketing team, manage outside vendors, etc.] I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.” If you can’t do this, nothing else really matters.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Great product managers who are not great business people still often fail. How many people will you hire in the first 24 months and in which sequence. I won’t need to hire many engineers or customer support staff. But they should also be the map and the Lingua Franca of your management discussions.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. The truth is I have never enjoyed running team meetings, managing processes & procedures and deciding HR policies, promotions and org structures.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. To run an effective business it’s really important to hire women in your company & as advisors - “Men tend to pump up their chests more (than women).

Startup 311

Startup Sales Database Community 311

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

I spent an hour on the phone working with Sam Rosen, the CEO of MakeSpace on a senior exec he is considering hiring. If course you can’t manage all 50 on an ongoing basis with a heavyweight touch but let’s say just 10% of them you really hit it off with and you maintain contact, emails, social mentions and physical meet-ups.

Networking 366

Networking CTO Hire Technical Review Email 366

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

They hire their initial co-founders and early employees and everybody has a sense of “mission.” We try to hire deeply analytical associates to can help companies problem solve and who make us better investors. You can’t let every team hire as many team members as they want. A Sense of Purpose.

Leadership 150

Leadership Southern California San Diego Hiring 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It’s the one thing I miss having switched from player to manager – I love the joy of winning and of competing. I realized that it is not enough to know one partner per firm and it is not enough for only the management team to like you. They hired a consultant to help them with the review.

China 333

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It’s the one thing I miss having switched from player to manager – I love the joy of winning and of competing. I realized that it is not enough to know one partner per firm and it is not enough for only the management team to like you. They hired a consultant to help them with the review.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 328

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

For a well-funded seed company I have controversially recommended hiring a great office manager that doubles as an administrative assistant. This happens because many CEOs are passionate, market-driven people who are constantly trying to launch new products, win contracts, get press, hire staff and woo VCs. Hire a great CFO.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2011

But five years into it he has brought on a senior management team, had stopped growing at the same meteoric rate and started to lose some enthusiasm. When you haven’t been decisive in years, when you botched a profitable exit, when you hired a non-visionary CEO and then fired her by email – it’s time to get out of the way.

Leadership 418

Leadership Technical Review Software Review PR 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

He talked about how Neeleman worked at Southwest Airlines but couldn’t keep his job because at management meetings he was too impatient to sit through a bunch of corporate b t without speaking up and saying it was wrong. The Dave I know is very insightful about marketing, channel management and building developer ecosystems.

China 309

China Incubator Email Portfolio 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. Well, aside from it showing discipline and intelligence – we always get flooded with emails when we recruit and when you have to manage volume you need to go for obvious filters. We manage nearly $1 billion.

Los Angeles 290

Los Angeles Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 290

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Once a company has raised $2-3 million dollars I often advise them to get an office manager. I will quote one portfolio company CEO who said about his office manager, “Mark, this is the most important hire we made last year. Hire a part-time accounting clerk to do the data entry and prepare the monthly books.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333