Tips for Startups

There are load of articles giving advice for startup companies, but one that caught my eye recently was over at TechCrunch.  It was actually written in response to the furore caused by another similar post which talked more about specific decisions and their financial impact. However, Arrington’s article focussed in on two key points :

• Startups Must Hire the Right People

So who are the right people and who are the wrong people? It’s not that hard to tell. They actively look for problems to solve, and then solve them. This is a personality type that is very easy to spot once you know what to look for - they have fire in their eyes. They’re warriors. I’ll take the fired up warrior any day over the more experienced but otherwise meek alternative. If you hire badly, it isn’t just that employee who’s not performing. They poison the entire organization.

• Watch Every Penny

Startups cannot waste money. If they do, they’ll fail. As I said above, they don’t probably fail, or maybe fail. They just plain fail. That means a really cheap office, to start. Don’t even think about an administrative assistant. Or flying business class. Double up in hotel rooms. And even things like telephones are probably not needed. You have cell phones and skype for that. Matching 401k plans? HAH. Three weeks vacation? Not going to happen. You cannot waste money because every dollar is an amount of time you can keep running the business before you have to shut down.

Ok, so it’s generally a fairly hardcore line, and companies are capable of being succesful with a marginally more moderated approach than some of the article suggests. However, there’s always a difference between the theoretical principles you start out with and the actual fact later. Compromise these principles too easily, or before you even start, and you’re in trouble. I’m sure the Deadpool is littered with companies which would have found themselves better off had they adopted a slightly more extreme mindset to start with.

Overall it’s excellent advice and I recommend you the full article here