July 21, 2008
If I Put It Up, They Will Come....Right?
You know what - if we all sat down and thought for a while, we can all think of at least one company that made it big all by itself, nice and viral like, without any help from anyone but users, and that first user was able to drag all his friends in, and then exponentially drag all their friends in as well, and so on, and so on. Pretty soon it became an internet dynamo, a dominant force on the Web and its founders made a gajillion bucks off it for practically doing nothing.
No advertising. No SEM. No SEO. No nothing. Just magic. Maybe a bit of accidental viral-ness, but nothing else.
The funny thing is, I've met so many entrepreneurs whose site growth strategy depends on this magic.
I listen to them tell me their idea, and sometimes their idea is pretty cool. Sometimes they've got the site up and their idea's coolness is actually reflected in what they built. I tell them I really like it and then ask them if they are going to start a company. Then the story gets murkier.
Each one tells me yes they really want to start a company. Each one has big dreams. Then I start asking them about how they're going to get the word out about their product. Then it's unclear. They say they want to put it up and see how it does.
Well....Okay.
I tell them do they intend on doing marketing, even some marketing on the cheap like reaching out to bloggers, or SEM, or something. As soon as the mention of spending more money comes into play, the answers get murkier and murkier.
I persist. I ask them why don't they go out and raise money and become a startup. Then they would have money to spend on marketing. They give a range of answers from not wanting to leave the comfort of their current job to fear of committing to something that might not work to "still thinking about it." Mostly, they got the site up and are just waiting to see what happens.
At this point, I have my answer at least (which is "no I'm not investing").
You know, it's hard to leave the comfort of where you are now. You're making money to support a great lifestyle, or a family. You are comfortable, and don't want to face the potential chaos of the unknown, let alone a startup and its challenges. You might even fail - god forbid what others might think of you, or worse, what you might think of yourself. You might fail, and end up with no money, no job and you bet it all on this one thing and now you might have....zip...nada....nothing.
So you say you'll just put it up and see what happens.
My thoughts to you are:
1. Growth by "magic" into an internet dynamo happens SOOOOOO infrequently that the chances of what you built doing that are so vanishingly small.
BUT - what you built might actually be useful and cool enough to grow into a decent sized business (or even a dynamo) IF you were to put some sweat and money into distribution and marketing so that users know you exist.
In absence of full commitment, you might as well be playing Lotto.
2. Since you won't fully commit, you're unfortunately not risk tolerant enough to become a great entrepreneur. No offense, and I don't say it as negative criticism. Not everyone is built to deal with the uncertainties of being an entrepreneur, and the chaos that inevitably ensues from running a startup and living on the edge of having no money. So just stay home, make your money, live your life.
And don't be delusional about the chances of your site which you just "put up" and are "watching what happens."
Posted by dshen at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2008
Our Economy Sucks, Raise More Money Now
Our subprime mess is very much underway and the economy is suffering from that and a host of other issues. When consumers feel the pinch, that means they buy less, and companies don't make as much money, and then they spend less on advertising and also on acquisitions. This is important to both startups and us investors: consumers spend less, so they are less willing to buy products and services from a company. Companies spend less and then they slowdown their advertising spend. Stats show that advertisers will maintain their online ad budgets when compared to offline budgets (woe to offline operations who are heavily dependent on advertising for revenue), but I can't help but wonder how much online advertising could have grown MORE if our economy wasn't so bad. Last as companies pull back and preserve cash, they will be less likely to acquire all these nice startups that we're working on now. Granted, the wiser and the more resourced companies will actually go on a buying spree, but they'll be after the startups at super cheap prices since they'll be lower performing towards the end of the year as revenues become tougher. Beware the corporate development folks who seem to slow down a bit; they're just waiting for you to go through your cash reserves and get to a more desperate place by end of year and snap you up at a discount!
When I meet startups, I am now telling them to raise more than they were thinking. I try to get them to run the numbers and to figure out how to survive until at least the second half of 2009, or further if possible. I want them to survive through the economic downturn and not be dependent on additional money until then. I tell them to expect that any revenue projections will be missed towards the end of this year, and advise them that if they try to raise money on poor metrics AND they have run out of money, they will have an extremely hard time doing it.
A lot of entrepreneurs are still coming to me with raising $100k-$300k in their plans. Then I try to convince them of the economic issues and that unless you can survive for 1.5 years on $300k, you'd better change the plan. Not all of them listen though. It will be interesting to see if I am right. To me, you should be at least $500k, even better upwards of $1-1.5MM, whereas in a decent economy, you could get by with $300k-$1MM.
Some of them only want to survive 6-9 months to get a prototype up and raise money on that. In a better economy, I would say that this is not a bad scenario. However, in today's world, I tell them that if they are getting traction on an idea in investors' eyes, that they should leverage that inertia and get more money now. If they build a prototype and are not gaining traction in a down economy, it's only going to show that you could not gain traction and investors be much less likely to participate as they look for positive metrics. It's much better to raise money on a beta and/or the idea and get as much money as you can now, and to plan on survival on minimal or no revenues for 1.5 years.
Another issue with the 6-9 month plan: August and the holidays. Running out of money by August really sucks for fund raising. This is because the venture community goes on summer vacation and it's nearly impossible to find someone to get a meeting. You have to wait until they all get back in September. Then you have about a two month window everyone gets distracted once again because it's Thanksgiving and then Christmas. From about mid-November to first/second week of January, the venture community goes on vacation, peoples' minds are on the holidays and families and not on funding you.
If you're an entrepreneur reading this now: raise more cash than you think, expect that any revenue projections you have will be missed, and try to plan to survive on minimal or no revenues until at least the latter half of 2009, and raise all that money now while you have investor inertia.
Posted by dshen at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2008
Incubation 201: Should You Incubate?
My last post Incubation 101 went over basic concepts which I think are essential to the success of any incubation operation. Basically, I think that risk of failure increases exponentially if you don't follow these concepts in their entirety.
In this post, I want to bring out some subtle points mentioned in the previous post which refer to whether or not you SHOULD incubate at all. I assume that if you are thinking about incubating, that somehow you've reached a point in your career/life where you CAN incubate. But does it mean you should?
What are YOU personally willing to do?
Self-examination and knowledge is very important. You need to figure out exactly HOW you can contribute to incubation and the nurturing of ideas into businesses. Then you need to figure out what really motivates you and how you gain satisfaction, relative to the kind of participation you're willing to give.
Are you willing to jump back into the startup life of working 24/7?
If you're not in a position to go back to startup life, then you shouldn't incubate your own ideas. Remember, the idea originator has the resonance with the idea, and is best poised to take an idea to a successful conclusion. If you're not willing to do that, that's a clear sign you shouldn't incubate. Transferrence of an idea to someone else is nearly impossible and substantially decreases chances for success. Incubating at arm's length is still possible.
Do you have incredible, kick-ass product ideas and want to see them flourish?
This is better than having dumb ideas, or ideas that others are working on, or no ideas at all. You shouldn't incubate your ideas if you don't have great ideas to begin with. Again, maybe you should incubate at arm's length.
Being the "Guy at the Top"
The most dangerous thing you can do with incubation is try to be the "guy at the top" who directs things but doesn't get involved in the day to day of any incubated operation. You generate great ideas, and then hire a team to execute that idea, and then think you can sit back and watch the idea flourish, grow big, and you reap the benefits while being able to kick back and just manage it all.
Incubating Your Own Ideas
So you have great ideas and are willing to go back into the startup world. Incubation is a great way to figure out what to do next, if you have the resources to work on many things simultaneously. You will need to be personally involved in the day to day of each incubated idea, and you'll most likely max out at around 3-4 ideas, perhaps less.
Follow the principles in Incubation 101 and you'll do great.
Managing Incubation at Arm's Length
So you don't have great ideas, OR you aren't willing to put yourself back into startup mode regardless of whatever ideas you have.
My advice to you, is to let go of any notions that you be the "guy at the top" and find another way to help others with their ideas. Reorient your values and take great pleasure in watching others' flourish with their own ideas, but contribute in ways that allow you to be involved.
This can be through advisorships and/or investments. Provide value to your entrepreneurs as you invest money in their ideas and they will come to you for help. Create a positive relationship and you can gain some satisfaction in knowing that you contributed to the success of their idea.
Raise a venture fund and support people more through cash, if you aren't so helpful in other ways. Keep the incubated ideas and companies at arm's length as much as possible to maximize incentives and reduce your exposure to ideas that aren't going anywhere. Again, follow the principles in Incubation 101 and you'll minimize risk and maximize your chance of finding something great.
My Personal Experience
Back in early 2006, I attempted to raise a venture fund with an incubation component. I was having a hard time raising it, and ultimately this caused me to get involved with startups in a different way. Looking back, I was glad that I didn't fully realize the incubation operation as I think it would have gotten to a bad place.
In my self-examination, which happened much later, I discovered:
1. I was not willing to put my personal time into any one idea. This would have lead to a bunch of ideas run by me, the "guy at the top". This would have been a risk increasing move.
2. I really didn't have great ideas. I had some, but none that were earth shattering. I didn't have a way to generate great ideas but would have tried to execute some mediocre ideas, again increasing risk.
3. I realized I was much better at taking someone else's ideas and making them even better.
Thus, I am today at something-like incubating at arm's length. I feel that I have yielded a much better risk profile through my work with startups across a number of great ideas and entrepreneurs, and leveraging my personality preference for making an existing idea better versus coming up with a great idea myself. I also have higher personal satisfaction working in this fashion.
Read Incubation 101, do the self-discovery, and do incubation the right way for YOU.
Posted by dshen at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2008
Incubation 101
Over the last few months, I spent some time interviewing a whole bunch of people about incubating businesses. It was very enlightening not for the information I uncovered, but the fact that it just brought to the forefront of consciousness things I already knew.
Incubation has had a bad reputation over the years, especially the large ones like IdeaLab and Internet Capital Group that raised enormous sums of money but didn't return nearly what they were supposed to. When I tried to raise my own venture fund 2 years ago and wanted to include an incubation component, I was advised unilaterally to not call it an incubator or else I would get nowhere fast! Investors had been burned way too much on the incubator model in the past to trust new ones.
Yet incubation is sexy. Generate new, cool ideas. Create new businesses. Find the next Google. Unbridled innovation, unlimited success! Wow!
If only it were that easy or certain. Incubation is really hard, but in my research I've uncovered some guiding principles which make incubation viable and possible as a strategy.
Here are the highlights:
Incubation works nicely for internet projects
Developing products and services for the internet has gotten so cheap and easy that invested capital can be very small relative to other industries.
Incubation is HARD
It's not easy to come up with a great new business. Attempting it is not for those wishing for a quick win. You have to be patient, focused, and be able to let go of projects that aren't getting anywhere or waste too much of your time and resources.
Go cheap
The less money you spend, the less money you need to properly incubate. Testing ideas as cheap as possible reduces overall investment. Don't invest a ton in infrastructure liking buying a pretty building and cool office furniture. Outsourcing can help with being cheap especially in the international marketplace for talent.
Build fast
Get your concepts out there fast and test. Being slow means competitors can get into a space before you can test properly. Also, the more ideas you can generate and test, the more chances you have of hitting on something worthwhile.
Fail and remove fast
If something is failing, close it down fast! Have the discipline to kill projects that aren't working. Throwing money at failing projects doesn't solve the problem either. The ability to let go of bad projects is extremely important. Otherwise, projects that are sitting around languishing just waste money and effort to keep afloat.
Go wide...Carefully
Risk is reduced if you cast your net wide of ideas to try. Throwing all your eggs into one or a small number of baskets increases risk substantially of failure. But go wide carefully, meaning don't stretch your resources too thinly.
The founder of an idea needs to go with that business
It is nearly impossible to properly transfer an idea to someone else. Trying to do so raises risk tremendously. To reduce risk, the person who comes up with an idea should stay with that idea, should that idea blossom into a business. This is because the originator of an idea typically has some intrinsic resonance with that idea as a business, and is the right person to build, innovate, and nurture it.
If you are not willing to take an idea through to its proper conclusion, my advice to you is to re-examine your life and what you want to do. If you're not willing to jump back into a startup, then I would tell you to just let others develop their own ideas and let go of your own. Take pleasure in nuturing others and their ideas into great businesses. Raise a venture fund and help others do well.
The team members also should go with that business
Shared resources developing an idea is a nice concept, but to reduce risk, as soon as an idea starts taking off, the development and product team should immediately be deployed on that project. Switching people on a project is hugely problematic and wastes time in education, learnings, and experience.
Any resources working in an incubator should be told beforehand that if they work on an idea, they can't just sit around and keep coming up with new ideas; they need to see the blossoming idea through to its conclusion. If anyone can't buy into that model, then they should find a job somewhere else.
Keep resources at arm's length
The more resources you can keep not on recurring payroll, the better. It's easier to remove people who aren't working out, or shut down projects. Hire the teams on projects that are flourishing to the corporations in which those projects reside.
Build a rolodex of resources you can deploy at a moment's notice. Find great people who are willing to give you great rates and can do great work.
Be disciplined in a process for evaluation
Set clear checkpoints for your incubated projects. If they do not reach basic minimum levels, then they should be shut down ruthlessly. Budgets, time, goals all can be used to create checkpoints.
Incentives are key
Nothing motivates people better than survival instinct and a life or death deadline. The survival instinct is activated when they know they're going to run out of money (like their salary, their means for eating and paying rent, etc.) if they aren't successful. The life or death deadline is activated when they know they're not going to get any more resources or help beyond a certain point. So they MUST be successful or else they're gonna starve.
On the other side of the coin, it is highly motivational to know that their success is also tied to success of their project in a large and singular manner.
Paying them a regular salary from the overall incubator pool is not motivating enough; it makes them too comfortable knowing that they could fail on any idea but still are able to go on surviving. It also severely reduces their urgency, knowing that they're still going to get a paycheck whether or not it launches today or 3 months from now.
Giving them large ownership in a separate corporation formed from their project is. Tying their salary to the separate corporation is even better.
Forming a separate corporate entity per project increases clarity in ownership and process
Keeping projects internally makes it difficult to track and assign costs properly to each project. When you have a separate corporation each with its own budget and resources, tracking becomes easier.
It also makes it clear who owns what part of what corporation, and how much of it. Keeping projects internally removes that fact as you're part of and being paid by the whole.
This clarity extends to funding as well. When an entity is running out of money, you have to take an official step to put more funds into that corporation's bank account, along with all the ramifications in doing so in ownership, and why you have to do so. It really makes you think twice about funding a business that may be faltering or flawed.
As mentioned before, when peoples' salaries are tied to the corporation, then incentives are highly aligned with the success of that corporation, and not blurred with the whole incubator.
Some ideas require a sustainability component to be fully tested
A recurring theme among internet products is that ideas can be launched quickly and once it's out there, people will come and use it, love it, and it will grow. Banking on an idea to grow organically by itself is a recipe for disaster. The problem is that not many ideas have the ability to do so. We often fool ourselves that by launching a new idea live, that people will just come and use it and it will be the next Google. It might happen, but probably won't. Then we get frustrated wondering why it isn't growing, and often end up thinking that the idea sucked and we should close it down.
However, it is deceptive to think that an idea which does not grow organically is a failure. The reality is that the idea might actually be good, but just requires people, time, money, and smarts to apply to it and then it might grow. Thinking through the sustainability of a launched idea and how that can be supported for at least some period of time is really important.
Incubation works great if you're personally trying to figure out what to do next
If you have some personal capital and want to find a new idea to work on, incubation could be for you. I've talked to a number of people who have employed incubation at a personal level successfully. Instead of working on just one idea, they launch 3-4 and work on all simultaneously. Each idea gets funding and their own team. At the end of the process, the most successful idea survives. The other projects are closed down or sold, and you become CEO of the surviving, thriving business.
It could work much better than working on singular idea and trying to determine if that idea is the right one or not. Or working ideas serially. Being serial takes up a lot more time than doing things in parallel.
Yes it takes a lot of time and effort, and requires a multi-tasking brain. But if you're a startup person, you're probably used to working like that anyways.
Find great startup people
Seems basic right? It's actually harder than you think.
Find creative, hard working, caffeinated people who are smart and motivated AND can take a project to a conclusion. Too many people float at the creative, idea stage and don't have what it takes to stay with an idea over time and develop it. Discovering people who are like this is very hard, so beware.
As mentioned previously, keeping them at arm's length makes it easier to get rid of inappropriate people. Be ruthless in culling people who aren't working out.
Young people are great. They can work for long hours, live cheaply, have almost no other attachments in their lives. They will try stuff because they don't know better, unlike us old, jaded, experienced people. They're not so great because they don't have enough business experience to know how to take a business further.
Build an idea with revenue generation on the mind from day one
If an idea is generating money, its ability to sustain itself grows dramatically. Creating products which bank on the free model and gain lots of users, but have no concept or plan for short term revenue, is great for people who have a powerful investor as backer and who is willing to fund growth beyond that point. For an incubator, I would say that this is not a good path to go down and substantially increases risk of failure.
Revenue generation sustains the incubation process
Following on the last principle, if you can find a way to generate revenue immediately, then the incubation process can be self-funded and sustaining, and opens up the ability to try new ideas without deploying more outside capital.
Good luck with your incubation efforts, and I'd love to hear how you're doing if you are going to incubate new businesses.
Posted by dshen at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2008
Exploratory Products vs. Utility Products
Over this last year, the topic of exploratory products versus utility products has come up so many times. And I've always felt uncomfortable with products that engage users because it helps them "discover" or "explore" something.
"Discovery" and "exploration" are always so alluring terms. Throughout human history, we've always envied the explorer. Christopher Columbus set out to discover the New World. Lewis and Clark went looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean. Neil Armstrong sets his foot on Lunar soil and declares, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Even watching Star Trek with the Enterprise on their 5 year mission to explore new worlds, we can't help but wish we were on the Enterprise alongside Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. It sounds so wonderful, so romantic, and speaks to our ingrained cultural tendencies that achieving, discovering, and exploring makes us feel that blazing new territory like pioneers puts us out of the comfort zone and sets our senses afire, and takes us out of our normal, boring lives.
First, I think that there is a segment of the population with a natural "gene" for exploration. I personally know people whose first inclination every morning right when they get up is to go to click randomly on news articles or websites, like StumbleUpon or Digg, or Del.icio.us. They always do this before doing anything else.
Second, I think there are differences in the manifestation of the "exploration gene" based on age. Young people seem to engage in more exploratory behavior. But once young people grow older, they get more responsibilities, their time gets occupied by a whole bunch of things, their lives get so full that there is little or no time for exploration unless you have a natural "gene" for exploration.
To me, exploration is either an activity relegated to a small population relative to the whole, or one that does not sustain itself as a person ages. Given this belief, I think there is a tremendous amount of risk associated with products that depend on "exploration" and "discovery" as the main reasons why users would want to and/or continue using a product.
What's the difference between an exploratory product and a utility product?
Utility products are those which depend less on exploration and discovery as primary tenets. Instead, utility products work their way into our lives because they are essential and we gain continual value from our usage and interaction with the product.
Here's an example. News sites like NYTimes.com are utility sites. We consume news every day and find value from that by being informed. But they also introduce exploration to keep things interesting with their Most Emailed Stories module. But it's not the focus of the site; it's secondary.
Another example: StumbleUpon. I consider StumbleUpon a classic exploration site. You go there because you don't know what you'll find. You have to like discovering new websites and are ok with spending your valuable time doing so. But yet traffic over the last year has been dropping.
Here are the Alexa graphs for NYTimes and StumbleUpon:
Do you want your product's graph to look like NYTimes.com or StumbleUpon?
My basic tenet is:
If you want a chance at success, you must make your product essential from a utilitarian point of view. You can use exploration to make your product more interesting, but if you make exploration your main purpose, you'll reach a topping out point of users and potentially decline over time.
Is it a perfect rule? No, of course not. I am sure if we thought hard enough, we could think of some sites who are successful at employing exploration as their main purpose. However, I'm talking about risk reduction of failure and increasing the probability of success dramatically in my opinion. Wouldn't you want to reduce the risk of failure by a great amount?
Posted by dshen at 08:41 AM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2008
Talking Entrepreneurs Out of Only Going for Users
Occasionally I come across an entrepreneur who insists that his current strategy is to go for users and not worry about revenue now. It always makes me cringe. Then I try to talk them out of that strategy and find a more balanced strategy of getting users and revenue at the same time. Why do I feel this way?
In the past, the "get users now worry about revenue later" strategy has been successfully employed, so it's not totally without merit. Yes it's true; if you have tons of users then at the very least you can monetize the eyeballs via advertising. But certainly if many users find your product/service useful, that's evidence that they would probably pay to use some version of your service at some point.
In examining how this strategy does work, I've come up with these cases:
You hit on a killer app early and you have hockey stick growth in users.
Somehow you've hit on a killer app early and you've got users up the wazoo. You see exponential growth and you can increase your valuation by waiting a bit longer to really cement your negotiation position when fund raising. In any case, operations can last that long because the speed at which your users are growing is so fast that it is obvious you can survive cash-wise until you reach your goal, before you need to figure out your revenue strategy.
You can last expenses-wise long enough to grow users to a point to be valuable.
You've built a service and found it valuable to users, and now you want to wait to build up users before figuring out a firm revenue plan. Expenses to run the site are low enough that don't eat into your funds. Whatever money you've raised now, you can extend that budget for a very long time (try 1-5 years). Or maybe you're rich or you are married to a rich spouse and don't need the money coming in from the company to survive.
You've got the initial backing of a big fund.
I've seen cases where if you get seed money from a big fund, like Sequoia, then it gives you a bit of comfort that there will be someone there to infuse you with cash if you get the huge amount of users but don't have revenue. Often their terms enable them to get first right to fund you when it comes time for the next funding round. But also realize that they can spend $100k-$500K on a company and not bat an eyelash if they lose it all; they've got billions under management and can afford to give you seed cash knowing that they might lose it.
If I see an entrepreneur that fall into these categories, then I usually shut up on this issue. But most people are definitely not, especially when they are in the early stage of their startup.
That's why I try to talk entrepreneurs out of going just for users. I want them to think about revenue right from the beginning. Even if it's incomplete or risky, at least they are thinking about it now versus getting into a budget crunch and then realizing they should figure out revenue when they're almost out of cash. And who knows, they may actually hit on something that brings them revenue to survive or even do better than that. But you'll never know unless you try as soon as possible.
I've also seen entrepreneurs argue they have a funding plan along with their business/product plan. They will build the product and user base, survive until their current cash runs low, and then they will go for their Series A funding and everything will work out great. The problem with this plan is that there is no backup; it pre-supposes everything will go as planned with no hiccups. This is a highly risky supposition to go on.
One problem is that you think you've got something great, but those pesky users don't behave like you want them to. They might actually NOT come in droves to your wonderful product! Or they come slower than you think.
Another problem could be that engineering your incredible product might take longer than you think. Or you launch but find out you need to do more.
The last problem is that convincing people to give you tons of money can be easy or hard. I've seen a company close Series A in a month and a half, and I've seen companies still out there after a year trying to raise money. You can't plan for how venture funds and investors are going to react to your plan and progress, even if it seems great. Even if you court someone, the terms negotation and the due diligence process could take months.
Mitigating the risk of all these bad things happening could just simply be...to think about revenue from the beginning. In that way, you can get cash coming in as soon as possible in case you need to survive longer than your plan dictates as you can never predict if you'll need to or not.
Posted by dshen at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2007
It Sucks to Not Be an Engineer...
It's gotten pretty clear to me that if you're not an engineer, then starting a new Internet startup becomes a difficult venture.
Consider the non-engineers out there with great ideas. You want to start a company but haven't been able to convince someone that you have a great idea through Powerpoint alone. Everyone wants to see something working so they can wrap their brains around it and see if it is truly viable. But you can't show them anything. So you go try to build it.
So far it becomes an expensive project...well, in Web 2.0 terms it's expensive. In normal terms, it probably costs what it should cost. You go find some money, and you pay people what they need to get paid and whatever you build gets built.
But not so in the world of Web 2.0. It turns out that full on products can be built for so much less than normal. Well...less than normal if you are an engineer and program it up yourself. You are programmer, product manager, visionary, business development, designer all rolled up in one. You spend a few months coding at night after your day job and, poof, you have a working web site. The only expenses you may have are your own; nobody else needs to get paid.
For non-engineers, it's a tough to build a Web 2.0 company without being an engineer, or having one as a partner. You could hire an outsourced engineering firm but that could run your costs up to $30k to $100k per month for many months. You could raise that but you'd need 6-12 months to build something. That would put your angel raise at the very high bounds of what is achievable with a Web 2.0 concept. And you'd have to do it without a working prototype. Makes it that much more difficult as investors know they should see something first and have gotten spoiled by all the other Web 2.0 companies who do come in to present a concept with working prototype in hand.
Best bet: Find an engineer or two and bring them on board with your concept. Without engineers, it's a long hard road and I've already encountered several entrepreneurs who are trying to start something, as well as those who are well along the way. Those who have built something could only get money from friends and family, so having rich friends and family goes a long way. Very few have gotten money from a fund, and those were people who had track records in entrepreneurship, experienced and persuasive in the pitch, and had all the important questions answered.
Second best bet: buy Ruby on Rails for Dummies and start programming.
Posted by dshen at 09:26 PM | Comments (1)
September 03, 2007
Investors and Entrepreneurs: Joining the Herd and Not Being Forgotten
These last few weeks have been really hectic. For a while, it seemed like I wasn't looking at any new deals whatsoever. I resigned myself to working on the companies I had signed up with but also could see that my work with them was starting to taper off in an expected fashion.
But then it changed. All of a sudden, a flurry of new opportunities came down and I found myself meeting with companies every week. It actually got fairly hectic, meeting up with entrepreneurs and actually going through some due diligence processes with a few companies. But one by one they dropped off my radar. As they dropped off my radar for a variety of reasons, some interesting observations came to light about the way startups and investors strategize with each other.
The Entrepreneurs' Perspective
The most sought after entrepreneurs/startups get deluged by requests from angels to invest in them. Typically, they are also pursued by venture capitalists who also like what they see and want to participate. The availability of money to these entrepreneurs creates an situation where they can pick and choose the money they receive. I've seen them go in these directions:
1. They go directly for the big VC investment and skip angels altogether. Let's face facts: raising money sucks. It's time consuming, you get a lot of negativity from people who don't believe in you, and you'd much rather be building something than begging for money. So why not skip all the nonsense and just take the big money and go back to building your business and hiring people you need.
2. They take the VC investment but only bring on some angels who are either high value or friends. Similar to 1., they get the big money but only bring on those people they like or those angels that can help them later.
3. They delay VC funding to push up their valuation, and only pick a handful from the crowd of angels wanting in. The most bold of entrepreneurs who are on to a good thing will press their advantage by not taking big money now, which could mean they have to give up more of their company at this point, and wait to build their business a bit more which raises valuation for later and, thus, gives them a larger advantage for not giving up so much of their company later in exchange for a large VC raise. They instead raise a smaller amount (ie. $500k - $1MM) which gives them the ability to run for enough time to build their business to a more valuable state.
4. They want angels who are active investors and can bring value to their company. More and more I speak to entrepreneurs who only want angels who can help them in their business versus just bringing money alone. It makes sense; angels who can help are more motivated to help because they have skin in the game. It does make for a tough environment for those angels with only money to give.
5. They are limiting the number of angels and/or investors. Managing a lot of investors can be troublesome to entrepreneurs. Simply cutting all the paperwork (ie. stock purchase agreements, stock certificates, etc.) can cost more money. Collecting the money can be tough for those angels who are dragging their heels in transferring the cash into your account. Dealing with nervous investors can be a draw on resources as you need to respond to their requests for information and calming their anxieties about whether or not you're going to make money for them.
This all goes out the window for those entrepreneurs who don't have something hot enough to attract lots of investors.
The Investors' Perspective: Herd Mentality, Joining the Herd
As an investor, I want to get in on the great deals. Finding deals that are good but are hidden can be really tough. It's more often that there is a common opinion about a startup and that everyone wants to get a piece of the action.
I try to do my own due diligence. I also try to form my own opinion about a startup. But I do find it difficult to ignore what others' think about a company. Over these last few weeks, I've looked at bunch of deals where there was a large number of investors trying to get in. But I've somehow lost out on a number of them. Why was that? Some observations:
1. Herd mentality is inescapable. For some reason, when many people think you have a hot deal, then you tend to think so too. They must know something you don't, or you bank on someone else's expertise, or you just don't have time to do all the due diligence yourself. Thus, I tend to look more seriously at deals with lots of interest, even when I tell myself I'm going to be disciplined enough to do all the due diligence on my own.
2. The investor herd piled in, wanting to invest into a startup. It's a common scene around the valley. The hottest deals get shopped around the most popular and prominent angels who are all high value and high profile. They have lots of money and value to bear on a deal. But they also have their friends who come in on the deal. So a combination of being able to keep in an entrepreneur's mindset and haivng the herd not forget about you, thus keeping you in the entrepreneur's mindset, helps to get you into a deal...or not. I have not been really part of any investor herd before so it was literally impossible for me to stay in an entrepreneur's list of investors as they get deluged by a huge number of people and can barely manage the flow of communication. I know I've been dropped off investor lists because of not being part of a herd.
3. Joining a herd became a worthy goal. As I thought about reasons why I missed out on deals over these last few weeks, I started thinking about how I could join a herd. I don't like to bill myself as a guy who can do lots of investor intros now, but knew I could get there in a few years as I worked with more and more people. But now I think about the networking aspect more, and using entrepreneurs to introduce me to some prominent angels and VCs around the valley. Slowly but surely, I am starting to not be forgotten amongst the investor herds, which is a good thing. So far, I think a combination of personality and value has helped me stay in the mindshare of herds. I meet people and show them that I'm a cool guy and not a wonk, and that my experience can actually help a company that we may all be investing in, and things seem to be happening.
4. I am trying to standout in a herd. If you demonstrate that you can bring high value to the company, staying in the list of investors for a given entrepreneur becomes easy. I can sometimes stay in a deal where other investors with lesser or no value to a company beyond just cash get dropped. I have found a great variance in entrepreneurs in whether or not they find value in what I could bring to their companies. If entrepreneurs don't find value in what I bring, then the probability becomes much greater that I will get dropped from their investor lists.
5. I need to constantly follow-up on deals I want in on. In the past, I've relied on entrepreneurs to contact me when they're ready to talk investing. However, a number of them have dropped me simply because I didn't do my part to stay in their mindshare. Shouting loud via email or phone works well and helps a lot.
Lots to keep track of in the ecosystem of investors and entrepreneurs in order to not be forgotten amongst the herds of investors roaming Silicon Valley.
Posted by dshen at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
The Three Faces of My Schizophrenia
In working as advisor and angel investor to startups, I find that I can be schizophrenic at times. Three faces I wear, when dealing with entrepeneurs:
INVESTOR
Characterized by:
1. Paranoia about losing my money.
2. Saying "sell the company"; starts when my return crosses about 5x my investment, and becomes a yell when my investment hits 10x.
3. Motivated by what my terms say for Notes.
4. Recommending courses of action which generate a lot of cash for the company, which increases value of the company and thus my investment.
ADVISOR
Characterized by:
1. Recommending courses of action which build the company.
2. Seeking the best ways to create product and do business.
3. Balanced view towards generating revenue in the company versus building product, which can be at odds if, for example, we're talking about advertising and internet users.
4. Might recommend against selling the company given what I have seen when bigger companies absorb smaller companies.
5. Seeks the best employees and resources to do the job. Pushes those resources to build the company bigger and faster to exclusion of other things like sleep.
DAVE SHEN HUMAN BEING
Characterized by:
1. Tends towards recommending humanistic approach to treating employees.
2. Wants to grow employees, sees them as learning over time, nuturing them to be better.
3. Coaches people to balance life, work, and family. Asks what makes people happy and what keeps them motivated, encourages people to find this in the company.
If you've been in the startup game for a while, you'll know that these three faces I wear are often at odds with each other and conflict in goals. For example, how can I counsel people to balance work and life and go home at 5pm to make time for family when as advisor, I want these guys to work 24/7 because the startup needs it, and as investor, I want them to work so freakin' hard so my money isn't wasted?
When I start working with someone, one of the first things I tell people is that I can be schizophrenic. They always laugh and sometimes I can see that they don't get what I mean; the more experienced ones snicker and thank me for being upfront!
It can disconcerting to have a guy like me advising you to do one thing and then tell you to do something else in opposition to what I just said a while ago. It's because I do wear many different hats, and the forces within me struggle every day to push/pull me in several directions. It's a challenge to find a balanced answer, and I like the challenge of finding a solution that satisfies all of my three "identities". I just hope I do not drive any of my entrepreneurs nuts by my triple schizophrenic state...
Posted by dshen at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2007
Ycombinator Demo Day: Summer Class in Mountain View
I went to my first Ycombinator Demo Day this last Thursday. I wasn't sure what to expect, except for the fact that a whole bunch of startups created by near-college grads would be presenting their projects. I definitely wasn't expecting any well-thought out business plans but was hoping to see some really cool stuff.
After the event, much has been written about the companies themselves, and you can read about them at VentureBeat: The Ycombinator List and at TechCrunch: Ycombinator Demo Day: The Summer Class. There has been enough coverage about the companies, so rather than do that I wanted to write about something else regarding the Demo Day.
Usually when you sit through pitches, they can be relatively dry. You see lots of graphs and how big the market opportunity is and it's usually a more serious and professional presentation.
For Demo Day, I was pleasantly surprised that each presentation had a healthy dose of humor cleverly injected. I found myself chuckling at funny demos, laughing at jokes made at competitors' expense, and smiling to see them laughing at themselves. During one of the breaks between presentations, I stopped to say hi to Paul Graham (co-founder of Ycombinator) and asked him about whether or not he encouraged humor to be part of the presentations. He said they were actually more humorous during the dry-runs and that he actually pulled them back from being too over the top. I shudder to think what they were like before he pulled them back...!
Sitting through 19 demos for 3+ hours could have been a truly grueling affair. I am glad that the young graduates of this summer's Ycombinator class threw some humor into their demos and turning a potentially boring, lifeless afternoon into a more lively event.
Posted by dshen at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
"The Business Opportunity" and the Epiphany
I was just recommended this excellent book called The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank. It describes a particular problem I've encountered with some of the startups I've met with.
Some of the entrepreneurs I've met with lead with the business opportunity. They say that the market is this big. They have charts and research to back that up. They show millions upon millions, if not billions of dollars spent in this market alone.
Then they present this product that fits into this market. They go on to say that we can attack this market opportunity by building a product to gather all these eyeballs, users, consumers, whatever and then sell this market to advertisers and marketers.
It always worries me when they lead with business opportunity.
Most likely what I discover after is:
1. The entrepreneur is not a model customer of this market. They have come upon this opportunity through research.
2. The entrepreneur has researched business opportunity but has not researched what customers want. While it may be true that marketers spend millions and billions of dollars trying to reach these consumers, the entrepreneur has not asked consumers whether they want the product he is building.
3. I often get a defensive response when I tell them this is an issue.
Which brings me back to The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Author, Steve Blank describes the Customer Development Model, which is an iterative method of figuring out what customers actually want, versus driving a business with financial projections and product development and assumptions that the product will be accepted by consumers. He argues that every successful startup runs by this model, and that running it by traditional product development models brings a huge amount of risk into whether the business will be successful or not.
Reading about the Customer Development Model brought me back to those meetings with entrepreneurs who are trying to build companies using traditional methods. Those meetings left me feeling uncomfortable and ultimately, following my instinct on these matters, I would often let the opportunity go. I am glad to be reading this book, because now it frames my uncomfortable feelings into a way of articulating them better.
As an angel investor, I want to reduce risk whenever possible. I find that when entrepreneurs resonate with the market and are building a product that they are target markets for, then it minimizes risk. This also means that you get extra passion for the product because the entrepreneur wants the product for himself, and you may reduce the need for external research to figure out what customers want, which reduces cost and time which could be used in building the product.
That's not to say that someone couldn't be successful if they don't fully or completely resonate with the product and are the target market. Success is a probability game and when entrepreneurs are themselves the target market and they resonate with the customers, then you stack the odds in your favor by a great deal.
Posted by dshen at 08:34 AM | Comments (2)
July 21, 2007
Allocation of Shares at Company Formation
A new entrepreneur recently asked me about how to allocate shares at the company formation stage. I asked around and here are some highlights on what I found:
In talking with my lawyer and some entrepreneurs, you could start with 10MM total but it's not uncommon to create more upon formation, like 20 or 30MM. The reason for doing this is to not have to file additional paperwork (and incur legal fees) in creating more shares when you need them.
Also, you don't usually allocate the whole bunch of shares at the outset. Note that the existence of shares does not mean ownership, but only those you allocate. So if you have 3 founders and each has 1MM shares out of a total pool of unallocated 30MM shares, you have officially created 3MM shares but still hold 27MM in reserve. Thus, the 3 people officially own the company at 33% a piece; the additional 27MM does not come into play until they get allocated.
As for allocating a bunch for additional employees, people have allocated about 10-20% of the total for employees and the options pool. As for sheer number, that could be upwards of 4MM set aside for employees, advisors, and board of directors, which is pretty large for an early stage company.
So if you go with 10MM total shares and you want 20% of total for the options/employee pool and let's say you have 2 founders who want to own the company at 50/50, then you would have 10 MM shares allocated, 4 MM goes to both founders for 50/50 ownership split at 8MM shares total, and then the rest at 2MM (20%) reserved for hiring key people.
FYI - advisors jumping in at this stage typically get .1% to 1 or even 2-3% as options depending on their level of involvement.
Early employees coming in really early stage could get multiple-100s of thousands of options, which rachets down dramatically as the product gets built and time goes on. Certainly this balances with whether or not they get market rate salary or not.
Still, the message is "don't be greedy". Incent your employees to get the job done and reward them. Don't try to hold on to too much or else you may run into trouble later. Same goes for the financing stage. Be prepared to give up part of the company for monies received, but don't try to hold on to too much or else you may never get funded. On the flip side, be realistic and don't give away the farm, which could land you in trouble the other way.
Posted by dshen at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2007
Why and How Do Startups Move So Fast?
The question of how do startups move so fast comes up surprisingly often. I finally gave it some thought, after the question came up again in a recent meeting with one of my companies. Over the last year or so of working with startups, I came up with some observations:
1. Small teams, 1-3 people. Makes sense right? Less time lost, less arguing, etc. Less meetings.
2. Everybody resonates with the idea and generally agrees with direction. Since everyone is either a participant or expert in the field in which the site is created for, then everyone does not need to learn but knows instinctively what to do. Nobody is working on a product that they do not use themselves. It's a great way to find people like yourselves, when you recruit from the level of common interest in a certain product area.
NOTE: It's really hard sometimes to get someone to resonate with your idea. You may hire them for their intrinsic talent, but it may be really difficult to get them to feel the instinctive bond with your product area.
Sometimes it's impossible. Doesn't mean that great work can't get done, but it does mean a level of independence can't be achieved, as non-resonating employees need more directional advice than those who do resonate.
3. Along with 1, the teams usually only consist of engineers cranking away. Most of them are multi-talented to a point, so they play multiple roles of programmer, GUI, html/css, product manager, product visionary.
4. Strangely enough, I have not found location to be a common factor for moving fast. Certainly it enhances the process, but a lot of teams are working with people remotely, since engrs are so hard to find and many just don't want to move. Somehow, they have found ways of working together and can still make progress. Lots of travel involved and constant communication are two of many key points in making it work. If I get a chance, I'll dig into it more with some of the startups I work with as to how it's working and how it's not. In my startups, 6 out of the 8 companies have resources external to their main location, mostly engineers who are working in remote locations. I have not seen any dramatic slowdowns with their teams.
5. People are generally just cranking. They see something needs to get done and then they just do it. There is less the asking for permission. Everybody needs to get on the same page and just keep moving forward in a very independent way. Early on at Yahoo!, many of our engineers would just do stuff and we would rarely ask them to do some particular thing. The product would constantly evolve while we worried about other stuff. Although when we asked them to actually do something and if they did not agree, it never got done which was frustrating from another viewpoint. So it worked until they got to a point when their initial sensibilities finally turned out to be wrong. Sometimes they could be convinced that they were wrong, but sometimes not...
While speed may be intuitive to some, I think it's harder to achieve than you think, unless you have the right people with the right sensibilities and right alignment in thinking.
One of the hardest things I've seen is when a non-engineer comes up with an idea and tries to get it done. Because they can't write code themselves, they need to find someone who can. But more often than not, they find only someone who can code but not become resonant with the idea to just work on it and take vague direction and execute on it.
It's the magic bullet that everyone searches for:
"Dang it, I just want to describe my idea to someone and that someone just deals with the details and makes it happen!"
Unfortunately, it's the details that often count...you want something done right, you better sweat the details!
Posted by dshen at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Avoiding Blur
I was just talking to a startup about their website and we were strategizing what it could become. We noodled, talked, brainstormed, argued, and finally agreed for over 5 hours and developed a sense for what we want the future site would be like.
At the end of the session, I was still feeling uneasy about what we came up with. The main reason was that it was merely a combination of what other sites were doing in part. One site would have this feature, but not the main direction for the site. Another site had people doing the activity, but in a different way. Some of the bigger sites out there also had the ability to do what we were doing, but of course their missions were much more broader and not focused like ours. Could we do better by simply having a niche, focused mission but having many of the same tools as other sites, and also competing against the fact that users were already using our competitors for that same mission we wanted them to focus on with our site?
This was the source of my unease. If there are competitors or near competitors, or even non-competitors, who allow users to accomplish the same thing on their sites, whether it is their main mission or not, AND these competitors exist already, this is a danger point. I call it "blur".
The blur occurs in users minds when they hear about what you want them to do, but can't figure out where to do it. They may already be doing it on some other site, by either using some existing functionality, or jacking some other functionality to get the job done.
Blur is heavily related to product differentiation. You want something to cut through the blur. When they think of something they want or need to do, you want them to think of you. Whatever functions you have must be cool, creative, and original enough to attract them to you despite being in a similar place with other existing sites.
Here is an example. Suppose you want to build a site to allow users to connect with friends. Let's say your main interface is email, as a possible differentiator. However, as a user who hears about your offering, "connect with friends via this new way, but with email", they'll think all sorts of things like:
Hmm I'm already on Facebook and that works for me.
I have my address book on Outlook and email people just fine.
All my friends are on MySpace. Why switch?
I don't have time to try something new, let alone learning it and THEN getting all my friends on it.
The problem here is that when you express your mission to users, they get caught in the blur of other competitors being able to do pretty much the same thing and you don't have something to justify the switching cost of going to your service to do something they can do already somewhere else.
You need to find that one (or more) things that people can do on your site that no one else offers, AND is cool enough to get them to come over and learn something new.
It's always a danger point for me when I hear of entrepreneurs who design something supposedly really cool but then I point out that people are already doing these things on other sites. I ALWAYS get pushback because they think their creation is the best out there, and nobody has mashed up the functions in such a focused manner.
It might actually be great. I'm just talking about risk here and the realities of getting users attention in a crowded space. You might actually have something that is a ton better at doing something, than for them to do it on some existing site.
I'm into risk reduction. Why try to fight with through user blur with something that isn't shouting "Come here and try me because I'm different" loud enough? You could run out of resources and funding trying to bulldoze your way into users' attentions. If you had several million dollars in the bank, yeah potentially you could market your way to success in a certain category.
Or you could spend a little more creative time and figure out something to build that is actually cooler and hasn't done before, and that users will want to spend time with. Enough to get past the switching cost and try your service.
WIth that previous startup I mentioned, after 5 hours of discussion, we spent another 20 minutes talking about something that wasn't mentioned and was something very unique in their offering. I think that 20 minutes is going to turn out to be most valuable part of that day. Because I think we added back something that would cut through the blur and thus reduce our potential risk in attracting users to our site, to do something that they could do somewhere else in general, but being able to do that one thing that they CAN'T anywhere else.
We could have gone home after 5 hours. But spending that little bit of extra time and effort to find something to avoid the blur was worthwhile and I believe, critical for the success of the company.
Posted by dshen at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2007
Are You Startup Material?
It all started with my recruiting woes. I dutifully plowed through my contacts every time one of my startups was looking for new hires. I talked to many of them but almost all of them refused to leave where they were to go take the leap to a startup. After many conversations, I figured out that startups aren't for everyone. It was a frustrating but interesting learning experience into the changing lives and minds of our workforce, and what was appropriate for one person would be inappropriate for another, and that which could change over time.
Are YOU startup material? Looking now at who you are, what motivates you, and where your life is - would you want to make the leap to join a startup? Some questions to ask yourself (and some discussion on each):
How young/old are you?
Startup people are typically young. At least from a physiological standpoint.
Young people have lots of energy and stamina to stay up late for nights on end. They still have the ability built up from pulling constant all-nighters from college so they still retain this ability even after they graduate. Their youthful bodies still have strong hearts bolstered by endless, sleepless nights partying on beer and chicken wings. Their brains are quick and agile and not dulled by age. The older you get, the more your body has reduced stamina to stay up all night and hack. Old brains just don't work so fast without proper sleep.
And it really sucks that as you grow older, your chances of entering a startup diminish greatly. This is a shame because the most experienced people you want tend to be older.
Can you go for a long time with a reduced salary? With no salary?
Once you enter a startup, you're entering a place where reward is typically bound to options and stock, not weekly salary. This reward can be long in coming, ranging from months to years. How long can you survive with reduced salary, given your dependents and lifestyle? Are you willing to risk that? Do you have enough saved up to last for a long amount of time, say months or even years?
Startups can't pay market salaries. If you need immediate cash, startups aren't for you. Go find a job at a stable, growing company.
After a startup raises money, they can pay you more, but it can still be reduced from market levels. After all, the money is a great motivator for you to work long hours for the big win; if you get it all upfront, then where's the motivation? You're not hungry.
How many attachments do you have? Are you married and have family or dependents? Do you have a lifestyle that requires attention and/or capital?
As for age, young people have little or no attachments like spouses or children or possessions, which is another reason why you find young people in startups. Starting from almost nothing, they have nothing to worry about except themselves. It is very easy to throw your life into a startup when your life is not occupied already.
But perhaps you have other interests which take time. You may like to volunteer at a non-profit and gain lots of satisfaction from that, or train for Ironman. You like these so much that you are unwilling to give them up for something else which will undoubtedly be all-consuming.
Owning expensive things like houses and boats take up resources. You need immediate cash to pay for mortgages and bills. Do you race cars for a hobby?
Are you married? A spouse and family will put demands on your energy and time. Are they willing to give up their time so that you can pursue your interests in a startup? Are they truly OK with not seeing you at home for dinner many nights? Be warned: those that have not experienced the startup world may think they know what it's like time-wise, but I will guarantee you that they may have zero concept of what it's REALLY like. Make sure you sit down with them and talk it through in excruciating detail and get their support and buy-in. More than one family has been wrecked because of too much time spent at a startup. Make sure YOU know you're joining the startup for the right reasons and with the right familial support.
Are you comfortable where you are in life, job, family, etc. or are you hungry?
If you're comfortable, you may not be willing to give up your current job with nice high salary and which supports your current lifestyle. You may not want to stay up all night working for little pay and for a risky return some unknown time in the future.
If you're hungry, then perhaps you could be right for a startup. You may want more out of life, more money, more fame. Whatever it is, it's more than now and you want it fast and not wait decades. The only way you can get this faster is if you take more risk at a startup which could vault you to whatever it is you're lacking.
Which leads to the next point....
Are you conservative or a risk taker?
If you are a conservative person, STAY AWAY FROM STARTUPS. If you cannot risk your entire career, fortune, whatever, at all, you shouldn't consider a startup. You'll drive yourself nuts and everyone else around you.
Can you deal with ambiguity, adapt well to change, be ok with constant chaos?
A startup is not known for stability. Things don't work as smoothly as you want and you have to be OK when things aren't perfect, or forgotten, or done in haphazard ways. If you require order in the way you do things and need that around you, a startup is probably not for you.
Do you like to learn and do everything? Do you not mind taking up tasks outside your areas of expertise?
Startups are typically short staffed. Everyone typically pitches in and does a little of everything. Marketing people code HTML pages, Business Development folks take out the trash, Engineers open up photoshop and crank out graphics for the site. If you like to learn and either want to become or are a jack of all trades, startups are the perfect environment to grow your ADD.
If you just like to do your thing and pass the buck on everything else, I am certain you will be shunned by everyone on the team.
Lastly, are you passionate about the startup you may join?
Passion drives humans to do amazing things. If the startup you're joining seems cool but your heart really isn't in it, I would highly recommend not joining it. Wait until you find something that you can really get behind. Passion will give you strength and stamina to work long hours, to really resonate with what you're working on, and give you extra motivation to keep working even when you've been not sleeping for days.
Startups can give you the experience of a lifetime. I would not have given up my experience at Yahoo! for anything and it taught me a lot about passion, the thrill of working together with a whole bunch of smart, motivated folks, and a lot about myself and what I am made of. But like it or not, we're not all startup material. It's something we need to be realistic about, and also, for us on the other side trying to recruit for startups, it's frustrating but we understand.
Posted by dshen at 08:08 PM | Comments (0)
