Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. “I need somebody to run operations.&# I never said you shouldn’t have a VP of Operations. One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. I expected it to be controversial and it was.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Many startup CEOs hire COOs or launch companies with a co-founder carrying the title. When should founders hire one? For most of my career, I’ve served startups and early-stage companies as an operating executive or advisor. More importantly, A-players attract and hire other A-players.

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1 So what does an early-stage company do to avoid the doom and gloom plaguing the world of startups? When we set-up our next business our first decision was to operate with a remote workforce. That includes us. It wasn’t a decision we took lightly.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. For a well-funded seed company I have controversially recommended hiring a great office manager that doubles as an administrative assistant.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Actually, building and nurturing the right team is the hard part, requiring communication, hiring, and leadership. Planning for the future must be a regular activity, not just an early-stage or once-a-year event. These street smarts, if you acquire them early, can save you a lifetime of pain.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 15, 2022

Industry-specific domain experience becomes critical when identifying operational pain points ripe for transformation. This outside work provides a valuable source of revenue able to be used to fund operations. This provides both valuable experience and an understanding of the operational issues within each sector.

Incubator 188

Incubator Startup Software Developers Software Development 188

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2019

It might seem easier to put off thinking about your first essential new hires. Try to do it all and you’ll spend a lot of time learning new skills (that you’ll eventually hire for) when you should be focusing on growing your business. Hire someone who understands Generation Z (or your target demographic). A marketing maven.

Hiring 77

Hiring Technical Review Small Business Forecast 77

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2021

Growing a business is always challenging, but it’s often the hardest in the earliest stages of development. You’ll be operating with limited resources, limited knowledge, and quite possibly, a business model poised to change in the immediate future. Limited capital. You need to find a balance. Image Credit: anna nekrashevich; pexels.

Early Stage 125

Early Stage PPC Retention Churn Rate 125

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

State Regulation In addition to federal laws, each State has its own regulatory environment that applies to businesses operating within the state in areas such as land-use , zoning, motor vehicles, state banking, building codes, public utilities, drug laws, etc. Most early stage startups don’t have the regulatory domain expertise in-house.

Washington 295

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 295

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. Don’t hire a homogenous team. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early. Resist the temptation to build a group of “C Level” execs in an early stage business.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2020

Personal assistants are often hired to prepare decisions and information for managers and take care of miscellaneous tasks for busy executives and CEOs — who all earn higher incomes. Alternatively, individual VA contractors can be hired for a monthly salary, or workers for short gigs can be found via Fiverr or TaskRabbit.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Mali Management Technical Review 214

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.) Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Board skills (Startup coaching, mentoring, strategy, operational/growth). Here’s why.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 333

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2020

To begin again, to start anew, to have a fresh, blank slate — the corporate advantages of hiring entry level employees, strong professionals at their career beginnings, seem self-explanatory. In any economy, successful entry-level hiring is a crucial aspect of corporate success. Onboarding at the entry level can be resource intensive.

Hiring 264

Hiring Early Stage Non-Compete Salary 264

View from Seed

JULY 5, 2022

RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? One hour I’m deep into product development, the next I’m thinking about our hiring needs and recruiting, to the next on a sales call. As a first-time founder, the comfort in knowing that I can bounce ideas off of experienced operators and investors is huge.

DC 156

DC Software Review Government Boston 156

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

GV (formerly Google Ventures) – Started in 2009, GV is Alphabet’s venture capital fund, focused primarily on early stage in diverse fields: from life sciences and healthcare to robotics and entereprise tech. Gradient Ventures – an early stage fund backed by Alphabet, investing exclusively in AI first companies.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition. Very different.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

Up and Running

MAY 9, 2017

Here at Palo Alto Software , we take hiring pretty seriously. I should know—we just wrapped up a lengthy hiring process within the marketing department. After months of searching, dozens of interviews, and sifting through countless resumes, we finally hired a new managing editor for Bplans.

Hiring 105

Hiring Employee Matching Software Review 105

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

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2022

Not only do these requirements ensure that businesses operate within the law but it also protects small business owners and their consumers. . A small business is an independently owned and operated entity that engages in commercial activity and fulfills the set industry-specific size standards. What legally defines a small business?

Small Business 167

Small Business Intellectual Property Cofounder Software Review 167

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 27, 2022

It seems like having a good combination of certain hard and soft skills is crucial for building a business and ensuring its operations are viable and sustainable. Once your startup begins to grow, you might want to hire a professional with more experience in finances to focus on this part of your business. Project planning.

Startup 151

Startup Australia Web Development Forecast 151

Eric Friedman

MAY 1, 2023

This happens in the form of operating, coaching, investing, and now helping them grow their own fractional consulting practice with the launch of GoFractional.com. For the last 4 years I have been a Fractional COO – building a practice of business operating excellence for clients. Its been empowering, exhilarating, and humbling.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review Engineer Early Stage Operations 117

Hunter Walker

MAY 17, 2024

It’s also not an accident that, upon stepping back from being Textio’s CEO, I’ve built a sizable exec coaching practice working largely with early stage founders. HW: Textio is open to remote hires from a specific set of states which I found interesting. As a CEO, I was at my best when I embraced this side of myself fully.

Cofounder 96

Cofounder Founder Technical Review Seattle 96

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

In fact, it’s why many startup folks leave the early stage world to go over to the big company side—because the benefits tend to be much better. I mean, think about it—if you have to pay a recruiter to hire someone, you’re paying, on average, 25% of their first year salary anyway.

Hiring 192

Hiring Early Stage Marketing Term Sheet 192

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

You have 5-10 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, and/or investor. You have an edge in the highly competitive world of early stage investing that comes from some combination of your experience, industry knowledge, and personal network. You act as an “ invited guest.”.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

Experienced leadership, well-funded, and hiring in engineering, product and operations. Highlighted Homebrew Portfolio Jobs. Orum is a NYC-based financial technology company that makes money move fast.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Seed Stage Startup Software 146

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

It was an amazing gathering of some of the most ambitious early-stage CEO’s looking to make a dent in fields related to healthcare, biology, AI and other transformative fields. A Short Presentation I was invited to do a keynote presentation at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit this week in Sausalito.

Management 234

Management Startup Dividend Early Stage 234

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

A lot of startups fail within the first few months due to some commonly acknowledged culprits – picking a bad time to scale, running out of operating capital, lack of a steady customer base, high customer acquisition cost, and low to nonexistent repeat business. If the answer is “no”, why hire him/her at all?

Sales 171

Sales Widget Sales Cycle Software Review 171

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. Ventures that are further along and now executing their business model are no longer startups, they are now early-stage companies.

Acquisition 333

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 333

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2014

In reality, very few executives or professional stars from large corporations survive in the early-stage startup environment. This attitude sows division and mistrust at exactly the early stages when the business most needs to build precious esprit de corps. Never cover your a$$. Get used to dynamic budgeting.

Startup 258

Startup Early Stage Technical Review .Net 258

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

They aren’t operating on big bankrolls of venture capital (at least initially), and they don’t have trust funds to fall back on if the business fails. Our families — and the families of the employees we eventually hire—come first. Yet, especially in the early stages of your business, you will have to drive the whole of that process.

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

The Startup Magazine

MAY 22, 2018

At this stage of a company, all employees of the company need to proactively focus on customers and their receptivity to the offering. Every startup company that grows very fast understands the complexity that comes when scaling operations. Early stage. Growth is the priority, avoid being distracted by shiny things.

Customer 94

Customer Early Stage Churn Rate Startup 94

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Our clients have more efficient operations, higher profits/value and streamlined processes after they work with us. The ever-changing reality is that companies operate internationally even if they do not think they do. As you have a history of building early stage companies, what is the most important thing you tell startup founders?

Technical Review 99

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 99

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2020

When you’re starting or growing a business , a major trade-off you’ll ultimately have to consider is the efficiency of your operations versus finding, winning, and keeping customers (revenue versus expenses). Weigh hiring an employee versus implementing software. Learn where you can add accountability. Tough decisions are persistent.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Early Stage Texas 149

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Companies like Warehouse Now have developed digital platforms leveraging AI to help warehousing and supply chain businesses streamline their capital-expenditure (capex) intensive, highly underutilized real estate warehouse assets to operational expenditure (opex) based, just-in-time, highly efficient supply chain management assets.

Artificial Inteligence 167

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Global Technology 167