Start-ups have no room for VPs

November 13, 2009 | Chris Morris | Comments |
|

You’ve heard the advice before: You’re a small company, act like one. Yet more and more entrepreneurs tend to think of their businesses as a small version of a large company – and they plan and hire accordingly.

Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, in this entrepreneurial though leadership lecture at Stanford University, points out the folly of this path and explains why segregating your company early on can be disastrous.

Next Story:
Previous Story:

Email
Print
Bookmark
Google
Delicious
Facebook
Twitter
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Digg
Live
More…

Tags:

Photo of Chris Morris

About the Author, Chris Morris

Chris Morris is editor of the Entrepreneur Corner on VentureBeat, helping start-up business owners launch and grow their companies. He previously worked at Yahoo! Finance, where he was managing editor, and as director of content development at CNNMoney.com. His work has also appeared in Variety, CNBC.com, AOL and Forbes.com.

  • A very short and very instructional video, from someone who has been in the trenches.

    My own experience is that most entrepreneurs do not understand is that building startups is not just about building products and features but about mitigating risks for your customers. Until you can successfully do that, no one can put their career and their families at risk by buying your products.

    So the best way is to get all your co-Founders and early employees together and have them focused on what it takes to best serve your customers. When you can do that then you will find that customers do expect a CEO and a bunch of VP's because their managers (who must approve the purchase) expect the same.

    So this is about helping your customers who are becoming your champion within their organization.

    But the trick is to make sure that everyone on your team knows that their titles and positions are only temporary (including the CEO) and their job is to build the company to the point when they can find their own replacement.

    http://www.StartupForLess.org
  • Srinivasa
    I think if you hired a person that acts like a VP (whether his/her title is VP) then you hired the wrong person period. It is not about their title.
  • I agree it is not about the title, it is all about the person
  • This is a tough one. There is often a lot of value that a seasoned executive can bring to an early stage company. VCs look for the team, early customers like interacting with executives they are comfortable with, and it serves as a guide for compensation that is essential for attracting talent. That said, I agree with the premise that early executives have to be contributors first and not managers. I posted on this clip and have a survey up on my blog "Do Startups Need VCs?" http://bit.ly/1SZA8i
  • arzvi
    Cant view the video!! was that removed from youtube or something?
  • Can't view this video.... :-( Anyone with the same problem?
blog comments powered by Disqus