Tag Archives: Entrepreneur

Don’t assume you can just hire a sheryl

26 August,2013 by Karen in StartupsBusiness, Entrepreneur, New product development, operations, Startup Edition, Startups 2 Comments

Each week, Startup Edition poses a single question to a group of bloggers from the startup community. This week’s question is “How do you turn your idea into a startup?” Karen’s answer? Don’t assume you can just hire a “sheryl” to do all the hard work.

by Karen Catlin

[dropcap bg=”#ba82e0″ color=”#ffffff”]A[/dropcap]few months ago, I introduced two of my friends to each other, both of whom are named Joe. Ever since, they’ve been working on a startup idea, doing the usual market research, talking with potential customers, designing wire frames, and so on. I caught up with the two Joe’s over lunch recently, and our conversation touched on a number of topics, including operational plans for their future company.

I was delighted they were already thinking of operations. It was in sharp contrast to something I heard from a prominent venture capitalist earlier this spring, who said there was a new phrase being used by the startup community: we’ll just hire a sheryl. That’s right: many early stage startups who VCs for funding have not yet figured out how to turn their idea into a successful business; they assume they’ll be able to hire someone as smart and capable as Sheryl Sandberg to do all the boring stuff, all the heavy lifting to make the company successful.

While I believe this VC meant this as a compliment to Ms. Sandberg that her first name has become a noun, synonymous with a critical role in a tech company, I took it as a sign of arrogance. Founders should never assume they can just hire someone to make their company successful. They’ll need to do more than just come up with the business idea, the prototype, and funding pitch; they’ll need to roll up their sleeves and do a lot of the grunt work. They’re going to have to scrub the proverbial toilets, and maybe even a real toilet or two.

What operational responsibilities should an early-stage startup team be thinking about? Depending on the product and the business model, the list might include:

Business development: What partners are critical to the success of your product? Who is going to manage and nurture these relationships?
Customer acquisition: Once your founding team has exhausted their list of contacts, how will you attract more customers? How much are you willing to pay for each one?
Customer support: How will customers contact you when they have problems? Who will respond to them?
Technology: How will you deploy your product? Will your initial implementation scale as you acquire new customers?
Metrics: What are your key metrics for measuring the success of your product? Who will analyze and report on this data?
Legal: What contracts will you need? Who will oversee the relationship with the law firm?

So, as you develop your initial product offering, make sure you know how you are going to be operationally effective. And your plan should not be “we’ll just hire a sheryl.”

–Karen

NOTE: This post is part of Startup Edition, weekly wisdom from founders, hackers, and designers who answer a single question each week. Click here to see other answers to this week’s question: “How do you turn your idea into a startup?”

Seven Somethings That Keep Me Smiling

13 February,2013 by Poornima in My Experience, My StartupCoaching, Entrepreneur, Lyndi, OK! 3 Comments

The journey of a founder is tough. You have to get comfortable with rejection, learn to bounce-back from mistakes made due to a lack of knowledge or experience, and keep hoping that your vision will come to reality. All the while motivating others, building and shipping a product, and finding ways to make the business profitable!

While I’ve been in startup land for 7+ years, it’s officially been 3 years since I started my entrepreneurial journey as a founder. It is a hard transition from founding engineer to founder, but I’m actually happier, calmer, and more confident than I was when I first struck out on my own. Not because business is booming, in fact I’m personally poorer and have more gray hairs than I did when I started, that’s just what happens when you bootstrap! I’ve gotten smarter and stronger when it comes to dealing with a host of issues to the point that it now takes quite a lot to phase me. No I haven’t become a robot… I’ve just learned that spending too much time lamenting means that I’m not spending time enjoying how far I’ve come, and that it will cause me to stray off course from where I’m headed next.

Before becoming a founder I had small bouts of depression and anxiety, and over the past few years I’ve had a long list of really bad things happen to me. I’m fortunate when they just happen one at a time, rather than all at once! But I’ve learned to push through all of it. I don’t let life’s little stresses get in the way of what I love doing most, and I have to be honest and remind myself that I chose this journey!

I know that not everyone is built like me, and they shouldn’t expect to be! I had a rather tumultuous childhood as an immigrant that has helped me build up a reserve of resiliency. However, even a few years ago I sought out professional help, but was told that the most I needed was to learn some life coaching techniques. They have helped me out tremendously. I say all this because in the wake of a fellow founders death it’s important to recognize that we are all after all human, social creatures, who need support, and nurturing. There is no shame in going through a rough patch, and actively seeking out help. The key is to seek it out!

The journey of a founder is a hard one. Over the year’s I’ve come up with my own secret formula for staying even-keel, and much of it has been inspired by the life coaching techniques I’ve learned. Here are my 7 somethings that keep me smiling:

I do something silly! Like braving the cold waters of the Santa Cruz bay to body surf with Lyndi.

I do something just for myself. Indulging in massages, chocolate, red wine, and always setting aside time to do yoga.

I do something serious. Taking the time to acknowledge that I have comforts and personal freedoms that people, especially women across the world don’t have.

I smile and do something for a stranger, without expecting anything in return. My personal favorite is smiling at those who scowl, opening the door for them despite their less than peachy nature, or letting them cut in line when they are in a “hurry”.

I do something with good and close friends. I’m fortunate that I have a lot of friends, who care about me. There are times that I cannot meet with them, but I do my best to make time. When I do, I keep it simple like playing a game, talking on the phone, or just enjoying a meal together.

I do something aspirational. Reaching out to those who just might be unreachable, and doing it over and over again until they acknowledge my presence.

I do something depressing. I know this seems ironic, but I like to visualize the worst possible failure that could happen to me. Once I know what it is, I know that I can handle it even if it happens, and I work hard to try and mitigate it as much as possible.

My barometer for success has always been and will continue to be having a smile on my face. It’s how I know I’m enjoying myself, and doing what I love. When things start going a little south I try to do 1 or all 7 of these somethings. You can try these out yourself, but you may have to find your own special somethings. The most important thing to remember is that sometimes you need a little help and guidance to find them, and that’s OK!

Conversations Potential Co-Founders Should Have

17 December,2012 by Poornima in My Startup, Professional Relationship Building, StartupsEmployment, Entrepreneur, Silicon Valley, Skype 0 Comments

I recently met up with a friend of mine to have tea and catch up in San Francisco. I hadn’t seen him since he had sold his last company a year ago. He was really eager to get to work on his next idea. As he was telling me his idea I got excited, because I had heard this same concept only two weeks ago. A friend of mine in Seattle had already built the prototype for it! I decided I just had to introduce these two guys to each other because I thought they had complimentary skills (one being amazing at technical work and the other . But before I made the introduction I set both of their expectations. I said, “I don’t know where this will go, but I wanted to introduce you two to each other because you have a very similiar passions and interests. I’ll leave it up to the two of you to take it from here.”

After they chatted with each other they got back to me. They were pretty psyched, because they had both found someone to talk to about their idea. Prior to their conversation they had just been thinking about it and working on the same idea alone. But they were both a little cautious about each other because they hadn’t yet met. They had been in partnerships before that hadn’t worked out the way they had wanted them to.

We all at one point have the problem of the partner who initially inspires and excites us to excel, but then at some point things just don’t work out. Usually one person wants to go in a different direction. We have to be aware of this, acknowledge it early on, but also learn to appreciate what we’ve gained from the experience.

If you’re thinking about working on a project with someone new make sure you take time to not only talk about the project, but also about where you each think you can add value and what it is you want to achieve from this project. While it might seem a little touchy-feely to most, having these kind of conversations helps you understand each other and make sure there is alignment. But it doesn’t just stop there, you have to do check-ins periodically.

I know my co-founder Alex and I are pretty honest with each regarding each others behavior commending and criticizing each other professionally. Everytime there is a decision to be made we make sure we both want the same thing. Its made our dynamic cohesive, and the rest of the team feel reassured that they have good leaders in place.

So before you get into a partnership with someone do the following:

Ask them what bad experience they might have had in the past that they want to avoid.
Setup a clear standard for communicating both the positive and the negative.
Make sure their is alignment when it comes to values and the direction your headed in.

If you’re unsure from the beginning, then take it one step at a time, and express your reservations to each other.

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