Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2020

Thus if you want to change the world with your new business, you need to follow the example of startups like Zappos , which hires according to cultural fit first. There are many ways to add levity to a tough challenge, and engaging the team occasionally in some fun activities will work wonders for your team’s productivity and motivation.

Product 322

Product Stock Options Salary Stock 322

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Cofounder 308

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 308

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. They come up with two options: Hire Praveena as an employee and offer her stock options. Bring Praveena in as a founder and offer 10-20% of the company as stock. Our (now three) co-founders begin building out their product.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

Transformify

DECEMBER 6, 2021

If you’re struggling to keep up, you likely need the best workforce management software to help improve your team’s productivity. Some features include attendance, leave management, employee productivity, labor requirements, schedules, benefits, and onboarding. What Is Workforce Management Software? Oracle Cloud HCM.

Software Review 52

Software Review Software Employee Management 52

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2022

Thus if you want to change the world with your new business, you need to follow the example of startups like Zappos , which hires according to cultural fit first. There are many ways to add levity to a tough challenge, and engaging the team occasionally in some fun activities will work wonders for your team’s productivity and motivation.

Stock Options 362

Stock Options Salary Leadership Stock 362

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Plan to deliver a family of products, rather than a one-trick pony. Even a great initial product, with no follow-on, won’t keep you ahead of competitors very long. A smarter risk is to build a plan, with associated greater resources, that will put you in position to expand your product line and keep one step ahead of competitors.

Startup 283

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Plan to deliver a family of products, rather than a one-trick pony. Even a great initial product, with no follow-on, won’t keep you ahead of competitors very long. A smarter risk is to build a plan, with associated greater resources, that will put you in position to expand your product line and keep one step ahead of competitors.

Forecast 161

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 161

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2016

The most effective and productive team members are positive, driven and want to be measured by results rather than hear work hours, perks or stock options. Attracting, evaluation and hiring direct reports is a task that should never be delegated. Motivation and commitment to results.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Stock Options Salary Hiring 120

Women Entrepreneurs Can

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Invest in Financial Products Investing in financial products such as stocks, cryptocurrencies , bonds, commodities, and mutual funds can provide a steady stream of income while also offering the potential for significant returns. Be sure to conduct extensive research before committing to any financial product.

Artificial Inteligence 52

Artificial Inteligence Guerilla Technical Review Stock Options 52

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Cofounder 245

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 245

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Make sure you understand all of your options before making any decisions. When business owners decide to go down the route of equity compensation, there are two primary options to choose between.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

If the company has been around for more than a couple of years, and still has no product or revenue flow, there better be a good explanation. Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Sweat Equity Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

My original post was directed at hiring managers. It said that I didn’t believe it was a good idea to hire job hoppers. My view still stands – for many hiring managers a large factor in looking through resumes of somebody who is 30+ and has never worked somewhere for more than 18 months will be the job hopping element.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Plan to deliver a family of products, rather than a one-trick pony. Even a great initial product, with no follow-on, won’t keep you ahead of competitors very long. A smarter risk is to build a plan, with associated greater resources, that will put you in position to expand your product line and keep one step ahead of competitors.

Forecast 120

Forecast Startup Stock Options Technical Review 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

If the company has been around for more than a couple of years, and still has no product or revenue flow, there better be a good explanation. Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

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. I can’t tell you how many people have thanked me for this advice and say their productivity increased exponentially. This is all about “leverage” which is the key to success.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

It was a stock option incentive related “expense” but I bet you didn’t know that because in an era where we only read the headlines — they must be a train wreck losing billions. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet and can’t hire more people that’s fine — but understand this may lead to slower growth. Two-f **g-billion!

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2014

10 Massively Successful Minimum Viable Products – crowdspring.co/1mVcFD5. “the people you fire are more important to your [company''s] culture than the people you hire.” “the people you fire are more important to your [company''s] culture than the people you hire.” ” – crowdspring.co/1slKVZ2.

Social Media 97

Social Media Small Business Design Media 97

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Next → How we Hire for Sweat Equity (Part 2)… Posted on April 7, 2011 by Travis Biziorek. The first time we hired partners for Kibin was way back in late 2009. I’ve heard people say it’s impossible to hire good developers right now. I want to hire before I have the ability to pay anyone.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Hiring Technical Review 40

Up and Running

JANUARY 4, 2017

This could look like changing the amount of ownership you’re willing to give to your investors, or establishing a way to deliver a faster return on their investment by increasing production, upping your products price point, or investing in a better sales team. Hiring the right employees. See Also: Business Funding Guide.

Small Business 122

Small Business Social Media Stock Options Employee 122

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Your contractor wrote a great V1 of the product and it helped you get angel funding. Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? Your memory – they never worked very hard and didn’t want to commit.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 17, 2023

Employees are the foundation of any organization, and their engagement and well-being have a direct and profound impact on productivity, morale, and the overall success of the company. Consider also offering performance bonuses, stock options, or profit-sharing plans as additional incentives.

Employee 101

Employee Stock Options Programming Equity 101

Up and Running

MARCH 7, 2018

Aside from the time-consuming tasks of screening potential employees, interviewing, and re-hiring , losing and replacing employees is expensive. This cost includes recruitment, lost productivity, and lost opportunity. Hire the right people. It wasn’t what I was hired to do, but it was liberating. Here is how to do it.

Employee 91

Employee Startup Salary Hiring 91

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

And as the company grows, it brings on new people and may decide to issue stock options to attract new staff and funding from investors. For instance, the cap table will help you with various possibilities while running business activities like available options and pre-money valuations faster. Total share ownership.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Hiring Of all the issues we ran into when we first built our team, hiring was the most critical. So when you first start building your team, the most important hire should be your lead architect. The cliches of hiring the best of the best is as true in Malaysia as it is in the US. Culture creation is not easy.

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

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. Google offers your product for free. 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.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Now that I’ve mapped out key first steps that need to be taken and important cultural nuances to be aware of when expanding your business into Asia , many CEOs ask me if they can actually locate their engineering and product teams here and expect the same level of quality they get in the Valley. My simple answer is: absolutely.

Silicon Valley 121

Silicon Valley Asia Engineer Stock Options 121

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

At 6Wunderkinder, our motivation is a combination of passion for what we’re doing (creating the best productivity software in the world) as well as our strong and endless will to build up an impressive team and business. I launched a product, and everything went wrong. Within weeks of starting the company we already launched a product.

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Interestingly, one of the first things that you learn when you run an engineering organization is that a good Quality Assurance organization cannot build a high quality product, but it can tell you when the development team builds a low quality product. From hire to retire, how good is your company? How do you know?

Management 78

Management Development Team Review Stock Options Technical Review 78

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

When we decide to hire someone, the interviewers who were involved in the "hire" decision will sit down with the candidates resume and salary history and figure out what level they will start at. These people sit around thinking "lofty thoughts about markets, products, the competition, and the like. Its neat and egalitarian.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

David Crow writes in his article “ Founders versus Early Employees “, “Remember the goal is to incent early employees to have an emotional ownership of the product and company they are building. I was originally hired as a contractor, developing a SaaS app from scratch, including DB design and coding. Joe Stansell.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2022

When I left in 2003 we agreed that my final title could be focused on Product and Marketing, since that’s what I was interested in pursuing next. Extend Your Stock Option Exercise Period. Obviously this can be a bit tricky but in small companies when you have kind founders and you’ve been a great team member, it’s ok to ask.

Stock Options 94

Stock Options Vesting Stock Valuation 94

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Some startup CEOs prioritize it and build theirs with the same attention they give to product. Once we’ve invested in a company, I find it easiest to talk about culture in terms of hiring because it’s (a) often the most important post-financing activity and (b) it’s an immediate use case with real tangible decisions.

Hiring 103

Hiring Advisory Board Ruby Stock Options 103

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

We had personally invested $70,000 of our own money at this point, and we were hoping to raise at least another $250,000 to help us hire a team, launch our company, and begin to build our product. We had a beta product launched, 20 beta testers, and lots of interest from different investor groups. Our attorney should have known.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

Be honest with yourself VCs are now going to be looking closer at margins, cost structures and true sales, and product market fit. If the best client success person is in Oklahoma instead of LA, we’re going to hire her, (in fact, we did). Hire versatile players and lean into your team The SVB collapse reminded us that staffing matters.

Early Stage 105

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 105