Thread: Tips for Startup Entrepreneur

A couple of tips for starting a company around that "hot" idea of yours:

http://philip.greenspun.com/business/startup-tips/

Great article.

A few of the points that resonated with me:

• People (employees) don't do what you tell them to do; they do what gets them a reward
• Don't get too good at raising capital. The skills that are required to impress venture capitalists are to a large extent different from the skills that are required to acquire and keep customers.
• Membership on the Board should be limited to those who have founded companies, run companies, or held P&L responsibility in a division of a larger company rather than just a former management consultant with a fancy suit, fancy degree and smooth demeanor!
• When you are ready to sell, hire someone to do the sleazy stuff for you. . . .They are called investment bankers. (re: negotiating offers and terms)

Thanks for the link! Rep +

Just to touch on the topic between raising capital and running a business. The person that comes up with the big bang ideas and runs around gathering money for the venture is usually not the right person for running the business. As much as people don't like partnerships, this is one of the key reasons that they are needed. These are two totally different personality types.

Very true!!!

Big idea people are often not detail people.
and visa versa.

SteveO, absolutly agree. I am that "big idea" person you are refering too. I am the worst manager you can imagine (my past failures are great example of that. I had a marketing company 2-3 years ago and that company went belly-up because of mismanagement).

So my job is to get the company up an running as fast as possible and get it funded so that real managers can take over and make something worthwhile of my ideas. "Big idea" people run too fast for anyone else to follow, especially employees.

Great article.The google guys took this approach when they hired Eric Schmidt.

Originally Posted by TheRevolution

Great article.The google guys took this approach when they hired Eric Schmidt.

This was a somewhat more strategic move...more for the purpose of putting a proper public face on a company that wanted to go public and needed an air of maturity in management for Wall Street to take them seriously.

This is actually tremendously common in the tech industry...especially with the heavy hitters: Google with Eric Schmidt, Yahoo with Tim Koogle, eBay with Meg Whitman, Microsoft with Steve Ballmer (10 years too late), etc.