The second class is now over. Again found myself learning things that matter. I feel that this course makes me think different about startups than before.
This lecture was about the execution of becoming an entrepreneur, the right reasons and the wrong reasons, things to keep in mind when getting a team together such as cofounders, investors or employees.
Bala said that choosing a co-founder should be really carefully done, because in most cases it can be like getting married, even worse because it may be harder to split up. Choose someone who you think you are willing to spend enourmous time with, even at times when things are hard. Another thing that might put your startup into the ground soon is if you and your cofounder are not gonna find an understanding about possession, ownership and control which are the main reasons why startups die.
Important things started piling up as Bala continued speaking and his next subject was about staff recruiting. Try to avoid hiring peoble until you have found yourself an investor and your businesss model is ready. Payroll slows things down and may put you in difficult position. Instead you should convince peoble to become a co-founder with you so that peoble have all their heart in the project as well as being likely to keep pace when hard times come for example if the company is out of money tempory. If you however fail to follow these guidelines you should be confident about firing all of them if you need in order to achive your goals.
Finding an investor is sometimes necessary and can be hard work. It's just like hiring an employee. You should not get an investor that you don't think fits your company or does not understand your startup. It has happened so may times that investors have ruined startups. You want someone who cares and is willing to put some effort in helping the startup meet it's goals. Another thing also very important mentioned by Bala is that you should also keep in mind to always have a minimum of two investors bidding for entry. And if you do the mistake of getting a investor who does not fit your startup fire him.
When the time comes when you have found yourself an investor you should consider hiring people. You should be looking for the best people and be aware that there is demand for them in other exciting places such as Google. However some people may want to work for you instead of Google if they find it more embassious. You need to be able sell them why they would wanna work for you.
Now over to roles and duties. If you manage to hire great people, maybe suddently about 10-20 employees, you should be focused of making some kind of positive culture and taking care of things which make them feel comfortable because you might loose them elsewise. You therefor need to be sure that you have someone in the role of an operator, who makes sure everything runs smoothly, bills are getting paid and necessery things are in good hands. You will definately need a technical person and the most important role is the communicator. The communicator is the one who can tell the investors why they should invest, he will be able to get ask the right questions and get the right output you need from your people.
When things pile up and you need to be focused in order for things to work . We need to be aware of what we need to exceed and what we need to be without to exceed. Like Henry Ford once said: ,,The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time". I've seen it so often in my life how little things can ruin much. For example inpolite waiter at a place which serves great food does make me visit them again. When I start my own business I'm gonna focus on these ideas above. ,,Remember: Your focus determines your reality." - Qui Gon Jinn
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