Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. He said to me (only 9 years ago), “I hope you’re not just hiring her because she’s a woman.” (I Please help me welcome Kara into her role as Co-Managing Partner.

Partner 361

Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

There are many books written on this subject, but this classic by Chris Ducker, “ Virtual Freedom ,” manages to pack a lot more practical guidance into a small space that many others I have seen. Contractors and freelancers, like any other business, manage their own internal processes, but they can’t manage your business.

Cost 346

Cost Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 346

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

There are many books written on this subject, but this classic by Chris Ducker, “ Virtual Freedom ,” manages to pack a lot more practical guidance into a small space that many others I have seen. Contractors and freelancers, like any other business, manage their own internal processes, but they can’t manage your business.

Entrepreneur 303

Entrepreneur Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 303

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

From budget management to vendor coordination, the responsibilities are extensive—and that’s where professional event planners come in. Keep reading to discover the key benefits of hiring a professional to orchestrate your next gathering. Time management is yet another forte of the professional event planner.

Hiring 152

Hiring Hosting Curation Technical Review 152

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2020

This is a positive in uncoupling them from a dependency on a single company or boss, but the downside is that they have to suddenly manage all facets of a business, including finances, strategy, and savings for the future. Staffing Professional. Staffing requirements come and go in every company, big or small. Administrative Professional.

Startup 410

Startup Angel Investor Social Media LLC 410

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2021

The CEO must focus on key management team hires and assume a few mistakes which need to get fixed. A great hire can make a company, but a single bad one can break it. In it, he says "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." There are several books written on this subject.

Exit Strategy 407

Exit Strategy Leadership Founder Networking 407

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

In my experience as an employee, up to an executive, in large companies as well as small, I’ve found that people who are consistently negative and complain are a big constraint on productivity, as well as the most difficult management problem that most business leaders face. Hire only people with positive and can-do attitudes.

Employee 371

Employee Salary Hiring Stock 371

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Don’t let one incident, observation, rumor, or misunderstanding cause a rush to judgement, or hiring mistake.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

If they or you find it hard to trust others, love to work alone, always have to be in control, or insist on micro-managing, it may be time for change or looking elsewhere. Neither partner needs to be managed. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions. Carry minimal historical baggage.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

The Startup Magazine

JULY 6, 2024

When starting a property management business, offering key services, such as tenant screening, property maintenance, rent collection, and financial reporting, can set you apart and attract clients. Managing rental properties involves providing comprehensive solutions beyond finding good tenants. Will you start solo or hire employees?

Management 129

Management Software Review Technical Review Social Media 129

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business. Employees will lose focus on their work.”

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Manage customer service. Personnel Manager. This is one of the key roles in a growing new company which can benefit from someone who clearly has experience dealing with people – whether it be hiring and firing, assisting in performance reviews, or dealing with the day-to-day crises of any growing business.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Other Notable Functions Generative AI is poised to revolutionize supply chain management by enhancing demand forecasting, enabling businesses to anticipate market changes and adjust inventory accordingly. This not only speeds up hiring but also lowers the costs associated with lengthy recruitment cycles.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 295

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. While this approach appears to cost more on the surface, it often actually costs you less, when you consider the hidden costs of rework, poor customer satisfaction, employee management, and training required.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Employee 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2022

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. Business ethics are more about religion than management or leadership. Hire only ethical people, so further time on business ethics is not needed. Ethics can’t be managed.

Software Review 291

Software Review Offshore Entrepreneur Leadership 291

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Leaders are judged on key elements of execution, including a focus on priorities, ensuring clear accountability, managing decision making, mobilizing others, adapting quickly, and communicating execution urgency. Good performance management is more about rewarding desirable behavior than penalizing bad performance.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 20, 2024

One increasingly popular strategy is to hire a fractional chief marketing officer (CMO). Early-stage startups often operate with tight budgets, making it impractical to hire a full-time CMO. Hiring a full-time CMO, according to Salary , can cost your startup around $360,672 a year.

B2B 148

B2B Hiring Salary Early Stage 148

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

Leaders are judged on key elements of execution, including a focus on priorities, ensuring clear accountability, managing decision making, mobilizing others, adapting quickly, and communicating execution urgency. Good performance management is more about rewarding desirable behavior than penalizing bad performance.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Minimize permanent hiring and customized operational facilities. In this age of the gig-economy, you can more quickly hire and manage freelancers, contract workers, and contract operations. Every new business has unexpected pivots and adjustments, and outsourcing is easier to manage.

Merger 386

Merger Acquisition Software Review Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

You may be the main problem, insisting on making every decision, and hiring cheap helpers rather than help. Inadequate focus on hiring and people development. Where hiring seems to always be associated with a crisis, I rarely see an adequate assessment of candidate skills, culture, and future potential.

Technical Review 306

Technical Review Metrics Social Media Channel 306

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2020

One of the things I’ve learned in working with aspiring entrepreneurs is that managing and leading a team is a scary venture into the unknown for many people, even if they have worked as a business professional for years. Then when you have to hire people, you will pick the best. Understand both leadership and management.

Leadership 380

Leadership Demand Management Founder 380

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

Here are my recommendations for training and managing your team to keep their delivery memorable for customers, as well as profitable for your business: Hire team members who enjoy customer interaction.

Customer 369

Customer Technical Review Metrics Employee 369

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. Project Management: Get a clear understanding of the company's process. Is there a project manager? An account manager? If so, what’s the vibe like? How do they handle testing?

Software Developers 295

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 295

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Hiring virtual assistants for each specific project can be a lot more efficient and cheaper than hiring and managing employees. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Generate revenue around the clock. Use the Internet to outsource staff.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Software Review Internet Revenue 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

Manage customer service. Personnel Manager. This is one of the key roles in a growing new company which can benefit from someone who clearly has experience dealing with people – whether it be hiring and firing, assisting in performance reviews, or dealing with the day-to-day crises of any growing business.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

If you’re an early employee at a startup, one day you will wake up to find that what you worked on 24/7 for the last year is no longer the most important thing – you’re no longer the most important employee, and process, meetings, paperwork and managers and bosses have shown up. The company was going to hire a VP of Marketing.

Part-Time VPE 334

Part-Time VPE Employee Cofounder Hiring 334

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

What had previously been a strength – their great management processes – now holds back their ability to respond to new challenges. HR processes, legal processes, financial processes, acquisition and contracting processes, security processes, product development and management processes, and types of organizational forms etc.

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2020

Don’t manage details and hold people accountable. Balance here comes again from the operational expert, who is very good at leading, managing, and holding people accountable. Tends to hire helpers and not develop talent. Good integrators are fanatical about problem resolution and making decisions.

Founder 329

Founder Cofounder Bandwidth Matching 329

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 12, 2020

You must also routinely review your data security plan as you hire more employees and create more departments. Embrace Managed IT Services. It is, however, possible to strengthen your company’s cybersecurity by training your team, creating a data security plan, and introducing affordable managed IT services into your operations.

Security 273

Security Software Review Technical Review Networking 273

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask. It takes a strong team and strong leadership to manage it. Provide step-by-step job aids, training, and hiring for critical aspects of the new plan.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

The allocation of shares among the founders, and the number and size of outside investments, will tells volumes about the health, stability, and management of the business. 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 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Every organization must constantly review its hiring practices, training, and leadership to make sure the focus is on people who are motivated, open-minded, and empowered. Managing an agile business means managing change, not solidifying a status quo. Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

This is a positive in uncoupling them from a dependency on a single company or boss, but the downside is that they have to suddenly manage all facets of a business, including finances, strategy, and savings for the future. Staffing Professional. Staffing requirements come and go in every company, big or small. Administrative Professional.

Angel Investor 267

Angel Investor Social Media LLC Viral 267

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

Investors bet that by offering prospective hires a stake in the company’s future growth- with a visible time horizon of a payoff – employees would act more like owners and work harder– and that would align employee interests with the investor interests. That made sense. And you’re working just as hard.

Stock Options 335

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 335

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. The challenge is to avoid the bad risks, while actively seeking and managing the smart risks. Risk is more manageable with subscriptions and even freemium pricing.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Chip Bell and Ron Zemke, who are experts in this area, provide some of the best specific insights I’ve seen, in the classic book “ Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service.” You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Technical Review 385

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 385