"When you’re not in your office on a regular basis you’re not showing leadership. You’re not setting the agenda. You’re not establishing culture, inspiring people or resolving conflicts. When you’re on the road all the time you’re not as productive. You reach diminishing marginal returns of the next person you met in relation to all that you’re sacrificing by not being in the office working."
Reference: Be Careful not to Become a Conference Ho
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Start-up: Beads of Sweat
It is very hard to articulate at any given time what is it that start-ups feel the biggest pinch for. When faced with the question "what are your biggest challenges", every entrepreneur I am sure goes deep into retrospection, trying to evaluate "now how do I rank them?". Most may list hiring, funding etc and I think the following broad classification can be a start. These are a few of mine that comes to mind and there are many more that I will keep adding!
Of-course funds is always one of the biggest challenges.
Co-founding Team
This is the most defining element of a start-up, the team of co-founders. When it comes to co-founders, it would be best if each of you complement the other. There have been times when a few good friends would sit over beer and discuss an idea, get excited and start working on it, not realizing that they are the same skills-wise. While that is not a bad thing at all, but the sooner you realize this attribute, the sooner you would want to either hire or bring on board another partner who would complement the existing personnel.
Complementing roles plays a very vital element. If each manages different aspect of the company efficiently you would be able to gauge the pulse of the enterprise more thoroughly. Needless to say such a setup would be more dynamic and more responsive to most of the shortcomings.
Team & Culture
The first few members of the team, defines the health of the start-up. Carefully choose the few first few members of the team as they not only set the ball rolling for the company but also help in defining the culture of the company. The number of people to define the "first few" is very hard and very subjective. But when you look back after a few months or the first year you should be happy that the culture is forming well.
Hence getting the first few folks is a mighty challenge. They are also the folks who will stick by in times of low or in times of glee. They would also be the folks who are as enterprising as the founders, 'cause after-all they are working through as much in setting up the company, thus being listed as the co-founding team.
Culture though very subtle is very much a necessary attribute of any start-up. Valuing customers, valuing quality software, process of validating and enforcing conformity are few of the very challenging cultural artefacts. Carefully hand-hold the team in setting the culture right. The first few are the torch-bearers for all.
Discovery
Whether it is hiring or whether it is finding clients the most important thing is setting in a process for discovery. How would fellow start-upy individuals find you? How would potential clients discover you?
It is painfully hard going through job portals, making listings and reviewing thousands of resume, keeping expenses aside. Job portals shouldn't be the only form of engagement. Start getting involved in any every start-up event or mailing lists, not just to post jobs but also to start getting those nuances of your company heard. A few minutes of a talk about your company in a start-up event will put you on the radar. A few minutes of your time in answering the query of an individual (facing a problem) on an email list will get you heard loud by the individuals and others. Put in a process where you start blogging or addressing forums and vola you will have a steady flow of good qualified resumes. Also I found it helpful putting up job listings on startup sites like "pluggd.in". Though the source yields less but yields quality.
This similarly applies to enabling clients find you or atleast hear about you. Maintain a blog, a good website and good steady branding. It needn't be expensive at all. An occasional tweet on a forum relevant to your company or a response answering a question relevant to your line of business would help potential clients discover you.
Fraternity
Active involvement in the community forms a solid bond of brother-hood. Time and again the community has helped me with many little things that I owe them my gratitude and bear the strong sense of paying back. Not able to contribute to the community is I think a challenge that a start-up could face. It is not because of lack of desire but the lack of setting aside time for contribution.
Please take it upon your-self to become actively involved with the community. I am sure everyone of us these days feel that our startup forums are like "wikipedia". If you shoot a question you will definitely get a response back. And now I guess is the time that I also should help a fellow questioner.
Of-course funds is always one of the biggest challenges.
Co-founding Team
This is the most defining element of a start-up, the team of co-founders. When it comes to co-founders, it would be best if each of you complement the other. There have been times when a few good friends would sit over beer and discuss an idea, get excited and start working on it, not realizing that they are the same skills-wise. While that is not a bad thing at all, but the sooner you realize this attribute, the sooner you would want to either hire or bring on board another partner who would complement the existing personnel.
Complementing roles plays a very vital element. If each manages different aspect of the company efficiently you would be able to gauge the pulse of the enterprise more thoroughly. Needless to say such a setup would be more dynamic and more responsive to most of the shortcomings.
Team & Culture
The first few members of the team, defines the health of the start-up. Carefully choose the few first few members of the team as they not only set the ball rolling for the company but also help in defining the culture of the company. The number of people to define the "first few" is very hard and very subjective. But when you look back after a few months or the first year you should be happy that the culture is forming well.
Hence getting the first few folks is a mighty challenge. They are also the folks who will stick by in times of low or in times of glee. They would also be the folks who are as enterprising as the founders, 'cause after-all they are working through as much in setting up the company, thus being listed as the co-founding team.
Culture though very subtle is very much a necessary attribute of any start-up. Valuing customers, valuing quality software, process of validating and enforcing conformity are few of the very challenging cultural artefacts. Carefully hand-hold the team in setting the culture right. The first few are the torch-bearers for all.
Discovery
Whether it is hiring or whether it is finding clients the most important thing is setting in a process for discovery. How would fellow start-upy individuals find you? How would potential clients discover you?
It is painfully hard going through job portals, making listings and reviewing thousands of resume, keeping expenses aside. Job portals shouldn't be the only form of engagement. Start getting involved in any every start-up event or mailing lists, not just to post jobs but also to start getting those nuances of your company heard. A few minutes of a talk about your company in a start-up event will put you on the radar. A few minutes of your time in answering the query of an individual (facing a problem) on an email list will get you heard loud by the individuals and others. Put in a process where you start blogging or addressing forums and vola you will have a steady flow of good qualified resumes. Also I found it helpful putting up job listings on startup sites like "pluggd.in". Though the source yields less but yields quality.
This similarly applies to enabling clients find you or atleast hear about you. Maintain a blog, a good website and good steady branding. It needn't be expensive at all. An occasional tweet on a forum relevant to your company or a response answering a question relevant to your line of business would help potential clients discover you.
Fraternity
Active involvement in the community forms a solid bond of brother-hood. Time and again the community has helped me with many little things that I owe them my gratitude and bear the strong sense of paying back. Not able to contribute to the community is I think a challenge that a start-up could face. It is not because of lack of desire but the lack of setting aside time for contribution.
Please take it upon your-self to become actively involved with the community. I am sure everyone of us these days feel that our startup forums are like "wikipedia". If you shoot a question you will definitely get a response back. And now I guess is the time that I also should help a fellow questioner.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Sokrati is Funded!
After about 2 years of working boot-strapped, Sokrati has secured Series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners!
A special thanks to all, our clients, Sokrati team, fellow entrepreneurs in Pune, Hyderabad, US (the list is enormous) who helped us reach here. Pune is a great start-up bed and has helped me numerous times in answering few of my most stupid questions without even batting an eyelid!!
More information on Sokrati Blog: Sokrati Raises Series A Funding
A special thanks to all, our clients, Sokrati team, fellow entrepreneurs in Pune, Hyderabad, US (the list is enormous) who helped us reach here. Pune is a great start-up bed and has helped me numerous times in answering few of my most stupid questions without even batting an eyelid!!
More information on Sokrati Blog: Sokrati Raises Series A Funding
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)