Team
- Choose Co-Founder carefully
- Analogy of Great Co-Founder is James Bond
- You want tough and calm co-founder
- 2-3 co-founders is optimal number
Hiring
- Try to not hire
- Be proud of how much you get done with a small number of employees
- Try to stay small as long as possible
- At beginning hire just if you desperately need to
- cost of hire wrong is really high
- PRIORITY: Get the Best People
- Will I bet future of a company on this hire ?
- Look for these things:
- Are they smart ?
- Do they get things done ?
- Do I want to spend a lot of time around them ?
Keeping Employess
- Give employees credit for GOOD and take responsibility for BAD
- You have to NOT Micromanage
- Give people new areas of responsibilty
Firing
FIRE FAST
You want fire: People creating politics and people persistently negative
Execution
Execution is what creates value to the Idea
CEO’s jobs:
- Set the Vision
- Raise Money
- Evangelize
- Hire and Manage
- Making sure the entire company executes
Two parts of execution is FOCUS and INTENSITY
Focus
Altman asking founders:
- On what you spending time and money ?
- What are 2-3 most important things ?
Say “NO” a lot
Communicate Clearly
Maintain growth and momentum
Intensity
- Outwork competitor by little bit in long run
- Relentless operating rhytm
- Obsession with execution quality
- Bias towards action
- Quick
- Do whatever it takes
- Show up
- Don’t give up
- Be courageous
Always keep growing !!
Martin Novak 