When Hiring Entrepreneurs, Ignore Their Resumes

Note: This is the third installment in the Startup Team Building series. Read Part I HERE and Part II HERE.

No ResumeWhen hiring ATM Operators at a Big Dumb Company (BDC), assessing each candidate’s ability to execute predictable tasks is of paramount importance. As such, the recruitment process revolves around applicants’ resumes, which highlight what they have previously done in their professional careers.

What is important at a BDC, because most duties performed at mature entities are repetitive, structured and involve minimal ambiguity. Thus, evaluating the tasks a candidate has previously performed is a valid methodology when filling job openings in relatively static organizations. Continue reading

Make Yourself Irresistible To A Startup

Note: This is Part II in the Startup Team Building series. Read Part I HERE

Bilbo’s offer letter from Thorin in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit exemplifies the proper attitude that you must have when joining a startup adVenture.

The Hobbit“For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for.” Continue reading

The Blondin Test Will Ensure Your Stakeholders Truly Believe In Your Startup

Note: This is Part I in the Startup Team Building series. Read Part II HERE

Each generation, a few magnetic personalities emerge and generate a mania of public interest. BlodinBefore Elvis, there was Sinatra. Before Sinatra, there was Bing. Before Bing, there was Caruso and before Caruso, there was Blondin.

Jean Francois Gravelot, who wisely abandoned his given name and dubbed himself The Great Blondin, was a true rock star of the 19th Century. On June 30, 1859, at the height of his fame, he stood before a crowd of tens of thousands of people at Niagara Falls. Continue reading

Why You Should Hire A Gaggle Of Interns At Your Startup

The Office Team“If I had to, I could clean out my desk in five minutes… and nobody would ever know I’d ever been here. And I’d forget too.”
Ryan Howard, the fictional Intern on the TV comedy, The Office

Michael Scott, the fictional head of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton office, hires an Intern for all the wrong reasons. Driven by low self-esteem, the hapless Mr. Scott is seeking a junior person who will adore him and act upon his whims.

Unfortunately for Mr. Scott, he hires Ryan, a smart, ambitious and disrespectful young man who is the catalyst of endless subterfuge which further undermines the office’s abysmal corporate culture.  Continue reading

Now Is Never Too Early For An Entrepreneur

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is right now.”
Chinese Proverb, borrowed from Scott Dinsmore’s Reading For Your Success

Mission Linen Supply In the 1930’s, when Max Fleischmann (of yeast fame) brought his yacht into the Santa Barbara harbor, the local laundry trucks did the sensible thing. They lined up on the dock and patiently waited for the ship to arrive so they could get their “share” of its dirty laundry. This approach made sense to everyone; everyone except a young man named George Page, founder of Mission Linen.

Rather than wait, Mr. Page jumped in a rowboat and met the yacht before it entered the harbor. The surprised Capitan, no doubt impressed by the young man’s drive, invited Mr. Page on board. By the time the yacht anchored, Mr. Page had closed a deal which gave Mission Linen the exclusive right to clean all of the ship’s laundry, thereby shutting out all the trucks waiting at the dock. Continue reading