Jason’s inspiration for this 6 ½ minute talk was a blog entry he wrote in 2008, which went viral within the startup community. You can check out Jason’s original entry HERE.

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You can watch Jason’s presentation below or on YouTube here:  http://youtu.be/fBGT8TVjZXQ

Jason has always been fascinated with superheroes. When he Co-Founded Docstoc, he decided to incorporate superheroes into his company’s Core Values. Each new employee is asked to publicly declare their favorite superhero, which is then added to a large mural on display in the company’s lobby.  

Always the serial entrepreneur, Jason is expanding Docstoc’s mission to include not just documents, but a variety of tools that help entrepreneurs run their businesses, such as ebooks and videos. To this end, Jason and his DocStoc team have created a compelling online course entitled, 21 Critical Lessons for Entrepreneurs. In fact, lesson 19 is the video shown below. If you enjoy Jason’s content and style, you might want to check out his online course.

The ten superhero lessons are listed below. Although each of these images is impactful in their own right, I strongly encourage you to check out Jason’s clever elaboration of each of these superhero lessons.

Superheroes Never Give Up

Superheroes Always Get The Job Done

Superheroes Are The Best At What They Do

Superheroes Are Crystal Clear Of Their Purpose

Superheroes Are Not Flawless

Superheroes Don’t Seek Glory… But They Get It Anyway

Superheroes Help Others

Superheroes Can Do It By Themselves But Are More Powerful In Teams

Superheroes’ True Strength Comes From Their Character

Superheroes Accomplish Huge Feats

Jason makes it clear at the outset of his talk that, although superheroes are a lighthearted and fun expression of his company’s core values, he is extremely serious about incorporating them into his “superhero culture.” He tells his employees, “When you come into the company every day, I want you thinking you are that superhero.” Fortunately, Jason does not require his employees to wear capes, masks or tights.

Just like a superhero’s mission, startups are exhausting and demanding. However, by emulating superheroes, startup employees can be inspired to achieve outsized results while remaining helpful and humble. Time to get your superhero on…

When 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.

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Who Not What

When you are interviewing candidates during the early stages of your startup, who is far more important than what, because the tasks the candidate previously performed may be only partially applicable to the role they will play in your adVenture. In addition, the ever-evolving responsibilities associated with their new position will likely be ill-defined, multi-disciplinary and relatively ambiguous.

As noted in Inventors vs. Innovators, early-stage hires do not have to be wide-eyed inventors. In fact, a company filled with inventors would be a dysfunctional mess. However, such early hires should be Bank Robbers with the innate qualities that will allow them to resolve challenges with minimal resources. Reasonable people will attempt to make the best of the status quo – unreasonable entrepreneurs with the proper dose of Confidence, Courage and Conviction will shape the status quo to facilitate your adVenture’s ultimate success.

What a Long, Strange Trip It Will Be

As made clear in Optimistically Pessimistic, most entrepreneurs’ experiences are not linear. Many emerging entrepreneurs have fractured, seemingly random careers. Look past the strange pit stops and extended detours and seek to understand who the candidate is and how you can leverage their disparate experiences to achieve your startup’s goals.

You may inadvertently dismiss a talented contributor if you solely rely on what a candidate has previously done. At Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix), I hired salespeople with disparate backgrounds, including: a bar-band drummer, a customer service agent, a venture capitalist, a financial analyst, a county employee and a technician from a Kinko’s-like store. Per their respective resumes, none of these individuals had relevant experiences which suggested they would excel at selling sophisticated software to technically proficient professionals. Yet, all of them, save the drummer, were successful salespeople during my multi-year tenure as the company’s sales leader.

In order to find out who the candidate is, not just what they have done, consider the following issues:

• How did they accomplish the tasks outlined on their resume? Did they build a team, did they go solo, did they dive into the task with relish or did they take on the mantel of a martyr?

• Why did they make their professional life choices? Are they willing to admit when they’ve made a mistake? Is their explanation reasonable and thoughtful, given their stage in life and the other choices that were available to them at the time? Do they internalize their failures or do they attribute their setbacks to others?

• What did they learn from their life choices? If the applicant cannot articulate meaningful lessons learned, they may not have the self-awareness necessary to Maximize Their Value at your startup.

Three’s Not Charming

I never hired anyone who was involved in three failed ventures. Great people can turn chicken poop into chicken salad. Adequate people can turn lemons into lemonade. Losers can turn fresh angel food cake into rancid devil’s food cake.

One or two failures spread over the course of an extensive career are not relevant. In fact, failures teach self-aware entrepreneurs many lessons that are impossible to gain from successful outcomes. However, people with three or more failures in their history either: (i) have poor judgment evaluating startup teams and opportunities, or (ii) are incapable of salvaging difficult situations. In either case, shun such unfortunate wantrepreneurs.

An exception to the Three’s Not Charming rule is successful serial entrepreneur who has been involved in a series of successful ventures, which far outweigh occasional failures. Gather as many of these successful serial entrepreneurs onto your team as possible, as executives, addVisors and Board Members.

Hiring Is Like Comedy

In comedy, one of the most important elements is timing. The same is true when hiring. A person who would be a great fit for a company in its early stages may not be an effective employee during a company’s expansion stage.

As shown in the chart below, there are various periods in a venture’s life in which certain types of employees are best suited. This may seem obvious at first glance, but properly leveraging this insight in the real world can be extremely challenging.

Several factors contribute to the difficulty of hiring the right person at the right time. For one thing, it is tricky to properly map candidates to the categories noted below. Candidates are complex and two rational, intelligent interviewers could reasonably differ regarding the proper categorization of a particular applicant.

Another factor complicating the startup hiring process is that most adVentures mature in a lurching, organic fashion. As such, it is often difficult to recognize when your company evolves from one stage to the next. The transitions between the various maturation stages are especially challenging, as the definition of the right person changes as the company evolves from one stage to the next.

For instance, in a company’s early stages and during a turnaround, Bank Robbers are an ideal hire. However, as a company moves into the expansion stage, toward its ultimate exit, hiring ATM Operators is appropriate (as shown below). If you hire Beach Volleyball players when you should be recruiting their indoor counterparts, your company’s morale, productivity and culture will suffer dramatically. 

Job One

At a BDC, the hiring process is straightforward.  A conscribed position exists, candidates who have previously performed the appropriate tasks are interviewed and one of them is hired to fill the open position.  At a startup, recruiting is a much more nuanced process. Rather than searching for applicants based on their resume credentials, the primary objective is to recruit candidates who are wily, tireless, and highly talented, irrespective of the specific tasks they have previously performed.

Each early employee, irrespective of their role, will have a material impact on your culture and your company’s ultimate success. Demonstrate to your team the importance of thorough recruiting by ensuring that at least one member of your Core Team meets with all prospective new hires until it becomes impractical to do so (i.e., once your startup exceeds 100-employees).

Just like the entrepreneurs you seek to hire during the early stages of your adVenture, be unreasonable when you recruit. Do not be satisfied with applicants who have outstanding track records but who are only looking for a job. Adapt the world to your reality by drawing together a team of talented winners, including those with seemingly tangential resumes and unconventional track records.

When interviewing such entrepreneurs, set their resumes aside and determine who they are, rather than what they have done.  Happy hiring.

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.

“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.”

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OK. So you are an entrepreneur, but you are not an inventor. You have no plans to found a startup, but you are driven to join a team that is building something from nothing.

No problem. Simply find an adVenture that compliments your passion and talents.

Unlike seeking a position with a Big Dumb Company (BDC), you cannot simply scan the want ads, shotgun your resume and do the interview dance. Finding the right position with a startup requires flexibility, creativity and patience.

Tactics For Joining An AdVenture

Consider which of the following tactics best fit your personality, risk profile, financial standing and temperament. This list is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all recipe. Deploy only those tactics which are appropriate to your unique circumstances.

Equity Focused – Display your belief in the startup by negotiating for an out-sized stock option grant, in exchange for a lower base salary. As discussed in W-2 Income Sucks, favorable tax treatment of capital gains allows you to retain a greater portion of the wealth you have helped to create.  

Flexibility – Startups are chronically in need of talented contributors. Because of this perpetual manpower deficit, emerging entrepreneurs are often given senior responsibilities that would not be available to them at a BDC. Conversely, startups generally require early employees to perform menial tasks that would be delegated at a larger company. If your adVenture is successful, you will eventually be in a position to focus on the tasks that you want to accomplish and hire others to perform less desirable tasks.

Egoless – When you join an adVenture, check your ego at the door and subordinate your self-interest to that of the team. Your individual success will ultimately be derived from the team’s overall success. Strive to be a low-maintenance, high-performing contributor, as discussed in more detail in Some People Are Indispensible, But No One Is Irreplaceable.

Leverage The Startup Ecosystem – Establish relationships and gain credibility with the accountants, venture capitalists and entrepreneurial lawyers. Be patient. It will take time for the word to ripple through the entrepreneurial community regarding your availability. Be sure you can answer the following questions (i) Who you are, (ii) Where you are going and, (iii) How you are going to get there, as described more fully in Personal Pitch. As young entrepreneur, Nithin Jilla points out in this interview; never forget that effective networking is based on quid pro quo. Find a way to first help the people with whom you are networking so they will be more apt to lend you a hand when you need it.

Batting Cleanup – If you are fortunate enough to be in a relationship with a significant other, you can swing for the fences while your better-half maintains a secure job. I was lucky enough to deploy this tactic, as my spouse held safe jobs with various BDCs while I worked for far too little pay and accepted significant risks at my various startups.

If you do not have a significant other, you may be able to call upon your family to provide a temporary financial safety net. Irrespective of the availability of a third party to financially lean on, you can create mini-ventures or venturettes that will increase your financial flexibility and allow you to eventually swing for the fences. Venturettes are discussed more fully in Small Ideas, Big Benefits.

Value Before Pay – Add value to your new adVenture before asking for anything in return. In your initial discussions with the startup, identify one or more tasks you can perform which will deliver real value. For instance, at Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix), I negotiated a highly advantageous agreement with an online credit card processor, months before I was added to the company’s payroll. This was in 1999, when it was a challenge to get Big Dumb Company processors (they were all large and dumb back then) to handle transactions for a dot com startup. This agreement added value for several years. The Founders were impressed that I was willing to invest my time to negotiate and craft this agreement, without asking for quid pro quo compensation.

At Computer Motion (NASDAQ: RBOT, acquired by Intuitive Surgical), I helped negotiate the company’s new phone system, which saved over $35,000 before I was an employee. Thus, before ever receiving a dime, I helped the company in a direct and material way.

Not only will this proactive approach give you a chance to display your skills, it will also provide you with an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the company beyond what is possible in the context of the traditional recruitment process. By joining meetings and helping to make decisions before you accept a full-time role, you have an opportunity to assess the company’s fledgling culture and determine if it is a good fit for your temperament and aspirations.

Pay to Play – Another way to secure your position on a startup team is to invest. Bringing capital to the adVenture effectively offsets the incremental cost of adding you to the team. From a Founder’s vantage point, securing investments from early, key employees is a convenient way to further strengthen the employees’ vested interest in the company’s ultimate success. I purchased common stock, at its fair market value, at all of my startups when I was an operational executive.

Standout – I landed my job at Computer Motion, in part, because I took the time to read the Founder’s PhD dissertation, which was titled, A Computer Architecture for Advanced Robot Control. Although it was highly technical, it provided me with a basic understanding of the company’s technology. It also served as a great door-opener with a Founder who did not initially appreciate the value that a businessperson could add to his engineering-oriented startup.

Become a User – If practical, use and rigorously evaluate the startup’s product or service. When I interviewed potential new hires, this is one of the key factors I considered when evaluating each candidate’s commitment. At Expertcity, we offered a free 30-day trial version of GoToMyPC, which made using the service very convenient for any potential new hire. The number of candidates who professed a passionate interest in our mission and did not take the time to download the free version of our product was consistently surprising and disappointing.

It is foolish to commit your life to a startup without a thorough first-hand, user’s perspective of the company’s value proposition. In some instances, the startup’s product or service will be under development and it may not be possible to test-drive their solution. In such cases, ask to become an Alpha user. Hands-on experience with the company’s solution will provide you with invaluable insights as you evaluate the adVenture’s fit with your skills and proclivities as well the startup’s overall chances of success.

Professional Student – If you are on the front-end of your entrepreneurial career, you should consider first taking a job at a BDC. This will give you a chance to learn a bit on their dime and gain some experiences that you can apply when you eventually join an adVenture. This concept is discussed further in Advice For Emerging Entrepreneurs.

There And Back Again

Many people do not realize that the subtitle of The Hobbit is There And Back Again. This subtitle underscores what serial entrepreneurs know to be true – it is the journey that matters most, not the treasure you will split with your team at the journey’s end. Enjoy the journey.

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

Each generation, a few magnetic personalities emerge and generate a mania of public interest. Before 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.

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We Believe Blondin, We Believe

The Great Blondin began his Niagara show by crossing the Falls on a tightrope three inches in diameter. Although the cable spanned 1,100-foot and was 160 feet above the raging waters, the trek was fairly pedestrian for a man of his skills. Always the showman, he nonetheless choreographed a few wobbles and slips in his initial crossing in order to heighten the drama.

He then addressed the crowd, asking them if they believed he could cross the Falls blindfolded. The crowd predictably cheered, "Yes, yes. We believe, we believe, we believe!" Much to their delight, Blondin donned a blindfold and made a roundtrip across the tightrope.

He then asked the crowd, "Do you believe I can cross pushing a wheelbarrow?"  Again the crowd riotously chanted, "We believe, we believe, we believe!"

Blondin successfully crossed the Falls pushing a wheelbarrow. Blondin then whipped the crowed into a frenzy before shouting, “Do you believe that I can cross with a man on my back?” Again the crowd hysterically shouted back, “We believe, we believe, we believe!"

Blondin smiled broadly and shouted back to the cheering throng, “It is great that you believe in me. Now who wants to get on my back?"  

Silence…

Talk about a buzz kill.

No one in the entire crowd of revelers, which had moments before shouted, “We believe, we believe” volunteered to join Blondin on his trip across the rope. They clearly did not really believe.

You will meet Blondin’s crowd over and over as you plan and execute your adVenture. Friends, family and disinterested parties will emphatically tell you, “We believe!” whenever you tell them about your wacky entrepreneurial plans. With friends and family, this sort of superficial support is to be expected. However, when it comes to building a team of stakeholders, you cannot afford such placation.

When a potential stakeholder, such as a future employee, investor or supplier tells you that they believe, pull the Blondin Test. Make them prove their belief by getting on your back as you step onto the proverbial entrepreneurial tightrope.

One way for a supplier or strategic partner to prove their belief is to accept equity in lieu of cash, as described in Free Advice and Beware The Consultant. With early employees, you might ask them to defer receipt of a portion of their cash compensation until your adVenture attains certain milestones, such as closing a suitable round of funding.

If the potential stakeholders really believe in you, your team and your startup’s prospects, they will get on your back and trust that you will collectively make it to the other side unscathed.

Blondin Revisited

What happened after Blondin silenced the crowd by challenging their belief? Did a drunken fool stumble from the throngs and take Blondin up on his offer of a free ride over the Falls?

No such fool, drunk or otherwise, emerged from the crowd. Instead, Blondin’s manager, Harry Colcord, climbed aboard Blondin’s back and the two men successfully made the journey without a mishap.

Why did Colcord make the perilous trip on Blondin’s back? Clearly it was not a contractual obligation nor was it likely driven by an insatiable desire to see Niagara Falls from such a precarious vantage point.

Colcord climbed onto Blondin’s back because he really believed. However, this was not a case of blind faith. Colcord was confident in Blondin’s capabilities because he was privy to Blodin’s rigorous practice regime. Through his actions, not his words, Blondin had earned Colcord’s trust.

Keep this important distinction in mind when you deploy the Blondin Test. If someone jumps on your back without just cause, they may just as quickly jump off with the first wobble. You owe all your stakeholders proof that their belief is justified. Informed faith, based upon mutual respect, is the solid foundation upon which should establish your stakeholder relationships.

Deploy the Blondin Test judiciously. Only ask those who should be on your back to make the journey with you. In most instances, Donors, as described Personal Pitch, can help your adVenture succeed without jumping on your back and taking on significant risks.

Entrepreneurial leaders must instill an absolute belief in their adVenture among all their stakeholders. The Blondin Test is a great way to assess whether or not someone truly believes, and thus whether or not you can count on them to lend you meaningful support when the startup tightrope starts to shimmy and shake. In such cases, do not hesitate to ask them to get on your back and prove their belief in you.

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

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. 

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Rookie Draft

There is never enough time to perform all of the outstanding tasks at the typical startup. Thus, entrepreneurs must consistently balance expanding their bandwidth via delegation with the more efficient, but non-scalable tendency to complete tasks themselves. I discuss specific tactics to facilitate such delegation HERE.

Due to their lack of practical experience, this delegation/efficiency tradeoff is especially acute with respect to hiring Interns. However, as noted in Youthful Discretion, Interns more than offset this shortcoming with their energy, passion and propensity to solve problems in non-conventional ways. For these reasons, a properly managed Intern Program can be an economical recruiting stratagem, generating a number of benefits.

Summer Fun And Mutual Profit

The mutual “try before you buy” aspect of an Internship allows both you and the prospective employee to better assess the potential fit. It also mitigates the risk associated with hiring someone who lacks a professional track record. The internship provides a window into each student’s ability to transition from college into the adult world of deadlines and accountability.

As described in Beware The Consultant, startups should strive to conserve their most precious assets, time and money, by avoiding paying fees to third-party service providers, such as recruiters. Similar to public relations, recruiting at a startup should be performed in-house, except for the occasional fulfillment of senior executive positions. The growth rate of most startups justifies hiring an in-house talent coordinator. Like all startup utility players, this junior person should be responsible for a number of tasks, in addition to recruiting.

Don Charlton, Founder and CEO of the applicant tracking solution The Resumator, calls such individuals, “Deputized Hiring Managers.” Recruiting is not their fulltime job, but it is an important function they perform on behalf of their startups. Assign the responsibility for orchestrating and managing your summer Intern program to one of your Deputized Hiring Managers.

At both Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix) and Computer Motion (NASDAQ RBOT, acquired by Intuitive Surgical), our Intern recruiting efforts were primarily focused on identifying engineering talent for subsequent full-time employment. However, many of the characteristics of our Intern Programs were also applicable to non-technical positions, as follows:

• Meaningful Work – Treat your Interns as adults and magical things will happen. We insisted that our Interns produce something of value during their brief summer tenure. In several cases, we eventually productized summer Intern projects, including a mobile version of GoToMyPC which we called PocketView. Working on meaningful projects will shorten the Interns’ learning curve, thereby ensuring they will reach an acceptable level of productivity soon after being hired full-time.

  By giving Interns projects that matter, you can critique their performance in a real-world setting in which a deliverable must be produced in a specified timeframe. This pragmatic assessment will enhance your ability to identify which Interns will be effective contributors once they join your adVenture as a full-time employee.

• Law of Large Numbers – Even when your startup is relatively small, it behooves you to hire numerous Interns. At both Expertcity and Computer Motion, we invested in outsized Intern programs. Despite the fact that both companies were comprised of about 100 – 150 employees at the time, we routinely recruited 30 to 50 Interns each summer.

  Within reason, the larger your “graduating class,” the greater the volume of creative ideas and the larger number of talented recruits from which you can select full-time candidates

• Competition – Make it clear that only the best Interns will be granted offers for full-time positions. This explicit competitive element will cause the high-achievers to excel. 

• Integrate With University – both Expertcity’s and Computer Motion’s Founders were former Professors at UC Santa Barbara, which augmented our Intern hiring efforts. If you do not have a direct relationship with your local university or college, create one. Do not rely on the campus recruiting office, whose goal is to find every student a job, irrespective of their talent. Network with professors who can direct their best students to you.

  At Computer Motion, we regularly allowed engineering classes to tour our facilities. This allowed the Faculty to expose their students to a real-world application of concepts discussed in the classroom, while providing us with a chance to woo future Interns. Such tours were effective because we were designing and building cutting-edge medical robots, thus there was a lot to see and touch. A number of our best employees were first exposed to Computer Motion on such tours. It was not possible to replicate this strategy at Expertcity, as a tour of an office in which people were writing software code did not have the same allure.

• Team Building Fun – It is summer after all, so keep it fun. In addition to attempting to assess your Interns’ talents, you are also courting them. At Expertcity, we routinely organized off-site field trips to nearby Santa Cruz Island where we conducted a variety of team-building exercises.

• Invest – Frugality is a core competency at successful startups. However, consider the money spent on your Intern program an investment. In general, a well run summer Intern program will be cheaper than attempting to recruit a like number of new hires via conventional means.

• University Value Prop – People pay a lot of money for the privilege of attending an institution of higher learning. Your Interns’ frame-of-reference is the academic world, so facilitate the transition from the classroom by creating intellectually stimulating teams comprised of Interns and their senior counterparts within their departments and give them meaningful problems to solve as a group.

• Integration Outside Home Department – Integrate your Interns into cross-disciplinary teams in order to expose them to a departmental cross-section of your full-time employees. This will assist in their onboarding process and allow them to gain a greater understanding of your company’s culture. If a recruit self-identifies with the company’s Core Values, the chances of an ill-fated hire are further reduced. This will also facilitate your evaluation when determining which Interns should be offered full-time positions, as you can solicit feedback from a variety of sources beyond the department in which they will be hired.

Ryan Rises To The Top

Michael Scott and his cohorts in The Office are wonderfully farcical characters. However, in the real world, Interns should not be viewed as free waitstaff who will fawn over you and retrieve your coffee. Your Team is arguably the most important asset at your startup. The Interns you recruit today are your future managers and directors – choose wisely.

Ryan the Intern eventually rises through the ranks at Dunder Mifflin and becomes Michael Scott’s boss. Although clearly done for comic effect, in reality, you would be fortunate to recruit an Intern with the motivation and skills to eventually become a senior member of your team. By implementing an effective Intern program, you will greatly increase your odds of economically hiring an emotionally stable and productive version of Ryan, who can hit the ground running and thrive within your corporate culture.

 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.

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Actions You Can Take Today to Successfully Start…Anything

I was inspired to write this entry after reading Scott Dinsmore’s 11 Quick Actions article.

The following list is from Scott’s entry. He provides annotation for each item, as well as a very inspirational story related to a recent fishing trip he took in South America. If you have not yet read it, take a quick moment, it is worth it.

11 Ways to Start Really Small

1. Make a tiny list of tiny things
2. Talk to someone who’s done it (find a model)
3. Read something about it
4. Make it fun
5. Write about it
6. Buy a domain name
7. List out your reasons why it’s so important to you
8. Find your support 
9. Send a note to your boss 
10. Help someone
11. Put a price on it
Source: Scott Dinsmore’s Reading For Your Success

Scott’s article struck a chord with me, as a number of my entrepreneur studies students from UC Santa Barbara have reached out to me in the past few days looking for jobs after they graduate. I appreciate students who seek help, but those who wait until two weeks before graduation make it difficult for me to give them a strong recommendation. It also brings into question the degree to which they are suited for work at a startup.

As noted in Do Not Seek Your Fortune, Create It, successful entrepreneurs do not wait for someone to shout, “Go!” They know there is no starting gun that will alert them as to when they should start running. When I was an undergraduate, I secured my post-graduation job in the fall, even though I was not scheduled to graduate until the following spring.

Like George Page, it seemed natural to seek out a suitable employer early, even though many of my fellow classmates were essentially waiting on the dock for the ship to arrive. Use Scott’s article as inspiration and start pursuing something you are passionate about before your head hits the pillow tonight. Do not wait, start now.

He was also often referred to as a “hotdog” for his self-promotional antics and lackadaisical on-field play. When teammate Darold Knowles was asked about Reggie’s hotdog status, he replied, "There isn’t enough mustard in the world to cover Reggie Jackson.”

In addition to his reputation as a showoff, Reggie was renowned for deriding his teammates in the press and initiating clubhouse fights. While it is not uncommon for losing teams to squabble, Mr. Jackson fought his teammates in good times as well as bad.

Rick Cerone, the New York Yankees’ catcher during the early 1980s recalled a fight between Mr. Jackson and teammate Graig Nettles, which occurred at a celebratory dinner following the Yankees’ American League pennant victory.   

“We are going to the World Series and we’re celebrating. But Reggie and Nettles are fighting. Nettles punches Reggie in the face and Steinbrenner is rolling in the middle of the floor trying to break up the fight. And I’m saying to myself, ‘Didn’t we just win the ACLS? We’re going to the World Series right?’”

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Matching Maintenance With Productivity

Although Mr. Jackson was assuredly a superstar baseball player, he failed to realize that even though he was indispensable, he was not irreplaceable. As such, he played for five different teams during his career.

Cal Ripkin, Jr. was also a baseball superstar. However, unlike Mr. Jackson, Cal was a selfless, self-effacing player who routinely played with injuries and placed his team’s victories ahead of his personal statistics. During a 17-year period, he played in 2,362 consecutive games, earning him the nickname “Iron Man”. In doing so, Mr. Ripkin broke the prior consecutive game record, which had stood for 56 years, by 500 games.

No one ever called him a hotdog. Rather than bounce from team-to-team, as is common in major league sports, Cal repeatedly turned down more money and greater media exposure to play his entire 21-year career with the same team, the Baltimore Orioles.

Although Mr. Jackson and Mr. Ripkin represent extreme examples of high and low maintenance sports superstars, the analogy is valid in the business world. Numerous executives have the ability to deliver value to your adVenture. Some will do so in a quiet, unselfish fashion based on Humble Pride, while others will act as A- Players, delivering results while generating negative, unintended consequences.

Consider the following chart, which compares an employee’s productivity with their maintenance. In this context, maintenance is defined as the amount of management time and energy required to sustain the employee’s productivity.


Core Team – These trusted employees act with great autonomy and consistently deliver results with very little coddling

Temperamental Superstars – These individuals perform at a high level, so long as they receive the high level of care and feeding required to assuage their oversized egos.

Farm Team – These individuals are entrepreneurial lieutenants who have the raw talent to become part of the Core Team, but lack the necessary maturity and experience. Hands-on management of these teammates is a worthwhile investment, as they have the ability to eventually enhance their productivity to a high-performing level. However, if their productivity does not increase over time, consider counseling them out of your startup.

Trade To A Competing Team – These individuals represent the worst type of startup employee. Not only do they consume a significant amount of management resources, their output is lackluster, even when they are performing at maximum capacity. Cut your losses and find an alternative home for such employees, ideally at one of your competitors.

The Straw That Stirs Up Trouble

After initially denying an infamous quote in which he was alleged to have said that he was the “straw that stirs the (Yankees’) drink”, Reggie Jackson subsequently told a New York Times reporter, "I’m still the straw that stirs the drink… not nobody (sic) else on this club." Reggie just did not know when to stop swinging his lips and simply swing his bat. Learn from Reggie’s transgressions: you can be simultaneously indispensable and imminently replaceable.

As noted in A+ Players, you should consider an individual’s impact on your adVenture’s Core Values as much as their ability to contribute to achieving your company’s overall strategic goals. Although Temperamental Superstars will help your company achieve short-term victories, most startups do not have the time or energy necessary to keep them happy over the long run. Such mercurial superstars generally do not maintain their high level of productivity while they are sulking over their perceived lack of attention. As such, you are likely better off allowing your competition to hire the Reggie Jacksons of the startup world and focus your efforts on recruiting high performing, low maintenance teammates, like Cal Ripkin.

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John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Q&A:

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Want to learn more on this subject? Read the post about building Tribes:

The Tribe

You may not realize it, but your adVenture’s Core Team is akin to a primitive tribe. The Core Team is of the three to five key individuals upon which your company’s leadership and direction is derived.

Thus, understanding the tribal organizational structure is vital to gaining an appreciation of the various roles played by your Core Team. The tribal structure works, as evidenced by its survival over eons, ultimately leading to Man’s position at the top of the food chain.

Click Here to see Full Article

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

The story is familiar. A young band gets into music for the sex, drugs and fame. They record a few songs, have a couple hits and then hit the road. The rigors of touring, along with the instant notoriety and unending public scrutiny cause the band to disintegrate, often to the point of declaring they will never work together again.

In many cases, once the money (and sex and drugs) run out, the band members forget the days of rancor and only recall the “good old days” when creating something from nothing was fun. Eventually one of the band mates swallows their pride, picks up the phone and proposes a reunion tour. A similar phenomenon occurs in the startup world, without the drugs or drama endemic in the music industry.

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It is not uncommon for successful entrepreneurs to work as a team, take some time off for a victory lap or two and then “get the band back together” in order to build upon their prior successes.

At Rincon Venture Partners, the single most important facet we consider when contemplating a new investment is the quality of the Serial Team. One way to assess quality is the degree to which the team has demonstrated success in an adjacent market.

Rincon’s Fund I portfolio is comprised of a number of such Serial Teams, some of which include:

Alma mater, Rent.com: sold to eBay for $430 million. After nailing lead generation in the apartment listing space, they are now killing it with respect to lead generation for higher and career education.

Alma mater, CallWave: 2005 IPO. At its peak, CallWave generated $55 million of recurring subscription revenue in the Internet telephony space. The team has applied its deep understanding of telephony and online marketing to create an infrastructure which allows advertisers to track phone calls like clicks.

Alma maters, Traffic Marketplace and Tagworld: sold to Vivendi and Viacom, respectively. The team is applying its ad network and ad serving insights to the emerging world of mobile advertising.

Alma mater, Overture: sold to Yahoo. The team is leveraging its expertise in search infrastructure and optimization to dramatically increase the reach, relevance and profitability of search campaigns.

The Upside

Focusing on serially successful teams and not individual serial entrepreneurs offers investors a number of advantages, including;

• Group Dynamics – Serial Teams have already resolved potential interpersonal issues. The chances that the team will blow up because of personalities and/or office politics is significantly diminished. Roles are understood and the team is able to efficiently leverage each member’s strengths while shoring up individual weaknesses.

• Shared History – Serial Teams can draw upon a common history that facilitates communications and problem solving. However, as discussed below, this advantage can also prove to be limiting, especially if the team does not embrace a diversity of opinions, as described in Dirty Team Building,

• Fox Hole Mentality – Social bonds made under duress are extremely resilient, as evidenced by well attended military reunions decades after the soldiers fought together. Although clearly not on the level of battle-tested warriors, Serial Teams who toil together often form life-long social bonds which motivate them to ensure the team’s mutual success, even at the expense of personal gains. This deep mutual respect also serves as the cornerstone of a healthy corporate culture, as described in Core Values.

The Downside

Serial Teams also entail certain risks and disadvantages. Although the advantages usually outweigh the potential drawbacks, the negative aspects of Serial Teams should be heeded in order to minimize their impact:

• History – Serial Teams speak in shared code, based on their prior collective experiences. This common set of experiences facilitates communication but can be bewildering to new entrants to the team. Such history can also cause adVentures to apply inappropriate solutions to new problems, based on what worked in the past.

• Cronies– It can be difficult for new executives to assert themselves within an existing Serial Team. Even when an explicit effort is made to incorporate new talent into an adVenture’s executive staff, the institutionalization of the company’s approach to problem solving can make it difficult for a new executive to express their opinions without forcing them to sharpen their elbows and excessively raise their voice.

• IP Risk – The closer the Serial Team’s new adVenture is to their prior successes, the greater the risk that they may be accused of infringing on their former company’s intellectual property (IP). Thus, care should be taken when crafting the band’s reunion tour to ensure they do not inadvertently run afoul of third-party IP rights.

• Diapers – It can be difficult for junior members of Serial Teams to grow into positions of greater authority. This phenomenon is partially due to the fact that the senior members of the Serial Team, much like a parent, fail to realize that the younger team members have matured and are no longer as inexperienced as they were when they first joined the Serial Team.

Let The Lead Singer Go Solo

In highly successful bands, it is not uncommon for one of the more visible members of the band to abandon the rigors of touring and enter into a state of semi-retirement. In other cases, such frontmen leave the band and go solo.

The same phenomenon occurs in the startup world. In many instances, one or more of the senior members of the Serial Team generate enough personal wealth to take a permanent vacation from their careers as operators. As such, when a Serial Team reforms, it is often comprised of operational lieutenants, such as Vice Presidents and Senior Directors rather than C-level executives, (e.g., CEO, CFO, etc.). Ideally, the members of the Serial Team should be senior enough to effectively operate a fast-paced startup, yet are sufficiently financially hungry to deploy the requisite time and energy required to make their adVenture a success.

Be A Roadie

The factors that cause Serial Teams to be good investments for venture capitalists make them equally advantageous for young entrepreneurs. A team of proven winners that self-selects to work together again usually create a healthy environment in which to learn and grow. Serial Team mentors will make fewer mistakes than a comparable adVenture led by inexperienced people who are learning on the job. Thus, young entrepreneurs are well served to seek out the company of Serial Teams.

Hotel California

“Relax” said the night man, “we are programmed to receive.”

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!”

The Eagles, Hotel California

As discussed in The Fringe, entrepreneurs are pathological. Most of them simply cannot help themselves and are thus repeatedly drawn back to the startup world. They often temporarily “check out” from the startup treadmill but many of them “never leave”. Savvy investors and young entrepreneurs take advantage of this phenomenon by joining Serial Teams and helping them leverage their past successes to achieve new startup victories.

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Lord Byron’s bold challenge, combined with a supportive environment and the significant talent of the participants, resulted in two of Western literature’s most enduring gothic horror creatures.

Understanding how you can emulate the cooperative, yet competitive atmosphere created by Lord Bryon will help you foster a team of A+ Players.

If you haven’t seen John Greathouse talk about
The Three C’s of Wealth Creation
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Most students of business have heard the business cliché that entrepreneurs should “hire A Players because A Players hire other A Players, while B Players hire C Players.” However, rather than simply focusing on hiring “A Players,” entrepreneurs should identify and recruit individuals who can play an “A” game, while simultaneously fostering enhanced results in others. Such “A+ Players” are proficient individual contributors while simultaneously raising the collective output of their adVenture teammates.

Sports are fertile ground for A+ Players, where they are often referred to as “team players” because their presence enhances their team’s overall performance. Such individuals readily sacrifice their individual results for the team’s collective good. In basketball, soccer, hockey and volleyball, such players pass the ball to an open teammate, rather than taking a difficult shot.

Sports are also rife with A- Players. Such talented individuals generate impressive personal accomplishments but often diminish the team’s overall ability to win. Reggie Jackson is a classic example of an A- professional baseball player. Upon being traded to the New York Yankees, he infamously said, "This team, it all flows from me. I’m the straw that stirs the drink.” Although the Yankees won the World Series the first two years after Jackson joined the team, his career in New York was inconsistent and tumultuous. He was often the catalyst of dissension on a team described by Time magazine as, “High-powered and high-salaried, they are as disputatious, selfish, and disdainful of each other as they are talented – a galaxy of stars, singularly burning with a hard, cold light.” Winning in life, business and sports, is determined by more than the score at the end of the game. A team comprising A- Players may have more points at the end of the game than their opponents, but they are seldom “winners.”

As noted in (Non)Sense Of Entitlement, successful entrepreneurs need talent, tenacity and a Humble Pride temperament to succeed. A- Players generally rely solely on their talents. A high-priced team comprised of A- Players who are unable to augment the performance of their teammates will often lose against a moderately talented, highly motivated team that includes a few key A+ players.

For instance, when Free Agency rules became the norm in professional sports during the early 1970s, some pundits decried the end of athletics, as they prophesized that large-market teams would purchase the most talented players and thus make it impossible for smaller market teams to compete. Although large cities do have a decided advantage and salary caps have been put in place in many sports to limit an owner’s ability to “purchase” a winning team, a number of teams with far smaller payrolls have successfully won championships during the past thirty years in all major professional sports. Such teams always have at least one A+ Player who unselfishly subsumes the pursuit of their own personal gain to contribute to the team’s betterment.

Rising Talent Lifts All Players

A proficient tennis player has a difficult time performing at the top of his or her game when faced with a mediocre opponent. The same is true within an adVenture, where the quality of competition often dictates the overall level of the team’s performance. A healthy dose of cooperative competition, or coopertition, among your adVenture’s team members will encourage everyone to push the limits of their individual potential.

We Can Work It Out

The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is a classic example of “coopertition.” While both members of the Beatles, John and Paul largely wrote their songs individually, although they shared song-writing credits. Irrespective of who actually wrote a particular song, each artist received equal credit. Such shared credit reduces the potential ill will that can arise when rivalries are encouraged within a team.

As John Lennon noted after the band’s breakup, “…there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side – who got the hits.” When this vital combination of competition and cooperation was missing after the band’s demise, neither songwriter’s output was consistent or as widely acclaimed.

Competitive, Collaborative Inklings

Another example of healthy competition is that between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. They initially met each Monday morning to drink beer (this is not a typo – these guys were professors, so they could get away with drinking in the morning…) and critique each other’s literary work. Over time, other writers joined Lewis and Tolkien and the group eventually came to be known as the Inklings.

At each weekly meeting, a member would read a recent work to the group, who would offer a harsh critique if they felt the author was falling short of his potential. According to Diana Glyer in her book The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, “…as they met throughout the 1930s and 40s, extraordinary things began to happen. They generated enormous creative energy. They forged strong personal connections. And together, they helped bring to light some of the greatest literary works of this past century.”

Lewis was the Inkling’s ostensible leader. His primary role was to encourage the supportive environment which promoted a healthy level of coopertition. If anyone’s criticism became too pointed, he modulated the critique, often using his wry humor. Balancing the competitive and collaborative aspects of such an environment is the key to maximizing the A+ Players’ effectiveness.

Setting The Stage

In addition to being supportive yet competitive, the most significant environmental factors that must be present in order for A+ Players to impact an organization include:

Managed Tension – As noted in The Tribe, the Tribal Leader or CEO’s primary job is to maintain harmony within the group. However, such harmony should not come at the expense of eliminating coopertition. Properly managed, rivalries among talented teammates can enhance the group’s overall performance. Poorly managed, such tension can turn a team into a disparate group of dissenting individuals.

Take, for instance, the typical all-star bands that often play an encore together at the conclusion of large benefit shows. Although the individual members are vastly talented, the “music” they create is generally horrific. There are only so many successive five-minute guitar solos that the average music lover can endure.

Shared Credit – As in the case of Lennon & McCartney, the potential destructive impact of internal rivalries can be modulated by emphasizing group recognition over individual acknowledgments.

Shared Goals – As noted in Turn Of The Screw, performance-based compensation should ideally be based on a combination of individual and company-wide goals. For instance, a salesperson’s compensation might be based on their individual sales performance, as well as the company’s overall profitability. The collective goal will encourage the salesperson to avoid discounts and minimize expenses, both of which would negatively impact the company’s overall profits. Such shared goals help bind the team together and encourage cooperation, thus offsetting the natural friction caused by internal competition.

Cross-functional Teams – As described in Dirty Team Building, teams comprising members from an organization’s various functional departments, such as accounting, engineering, marketing, sales, etc., will help deter an “us versus them” mentality which could otherwise arise from coopertition.

Ego Checking – Jamal Hamdani, the Founder of Moseley Associates, a wireless infrastructure company, once took a large sign with “ME” printed on it, turned it backwards and upside down, to spell “WE”. He hung the sign in a prominent location to remind his employees of the importance of subverting one’s personal goals for the collective good.

Record Producer Quincy Jones also understood the importance of ego management to a team’s overall performance. When recording the 1985 famine relief song “We Are The World,” Quincy assembled a significant number of the most successful musical acts of the day. In order to ensure that the collective good would be served, he taped a simple, handwritten sign to the studio entrance which read, “Check your ego at the door.” This simple message helped focus the team on their collective goal of raising money for Ethiopia and quell potential personality conflicts.

Even within this ostensibly egalitarian environment, the recording session was not without constructive conflict. At one point, Stevie Wonder adamantly suggested that Swahili lyrics be added to the song, until it was pointed out to him that Ethiopians do not speak Swahili. In addition, several members of the group insisted that the nonsense line “Sha-lim sha-lingay" be changed to something meaningful. After a spirited debate, the group eventually agreed upon the phrase "One world, our children."

Later in the session, some of the rock singers complained about the inclusion of “uncool” pop stars in the session and threatened to walk out if the pop stars were not asked to leave. At this critical juncture, Bruce Springsteen played the role of an A+ Player by declaring, “I don’t care who is here to record this track, I’m here to help save lives.” The rockers were suitably shamed and kept subsequent egocentric thoughts to themselves. The song went on to become a number-one hit in 15 countries.

Honest, Constructive Critiques – In order to bring out the best in a team, A+ Players must provide honest feedback that is often painful to hear. Such feedback is only effective if it is given with the intent of enhancing the team’s overall performance. The team leader(s) must maintain this precarious balance between constructive and destructive critiques, much as C.S. Lewis was able to do within the Inklings.

Celebrate Collaboration – Significant acts of collaboration should be heralded and publicly rewarded. Your team should be willing to “feed” each other, as the individuals in the Long Spoon parable described in Do They Believe?

Monster Mash

What monsters arose from the coopertition encouraged by Lord Byron? Lord Ruthen was the primary character in The Vampyre, a thinly veiled caricature of Lord Byron written by his personal physician John Polidori. Lord Ruthen was literature’s first characterization of a vampire, published over 80 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The other infamous monster to arise from Lord Byron’s contest, Frankenstein, was created by Mary Godwin (later Shelley), an 18-year-old with no prior literary experience.

By bringing together talented individuals and encouraging a cooperative yet competitive environment, Lord Byron was able to turn a dark and stormy night into an entertaining evening, which subsequently had a profound impact Western literature. You can have a similar impact on your adVenture by encouraging coopertition among your A+ Players, which, if properly managed, will enhance your entire team’s performance.

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Copyright © 2007-9 by J. Meredith Publishing.
All rights reserved.