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I am going to engrave the above mentioned quotes in gold* and put it on my wall.
* - Or just have my young kid write it with a pencil on a paper and put it on my wall.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
VC gibberish? I found this to be pretty insightful, and valuable life advice in general.
You are getting valuable life advice from an internet venture capitalist? I will say a prayer for you.
As a side note, the picture at the end shows the last second of the great fight between Diego Corrales and José Luis Castillo[1][2]. Round 10: After being knocked down twice and hardly beating the clock, Corrales turns the match, traps his opponent against the ropes and causes the referee to end the fight. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Corrales_vs._Jose_Luis_Ca... [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imZaiGJgb…
I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things started going south. Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked out (BAD BAD BAD)…
Come on. If you don't trust someone enough that you cut their pay, then really you should just fire them and get someone else in - the mixed signals are what killed this place.
I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things started going south. Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked out (BAD BAD BAD)…
Reading this I think the CEO is only half of the problem - the board / ownership decided to give him a pay cut, then take pay from him entirely. Come on. If you don't trust someone enough that you cut their pay, then really you should just fire them and get someone else in - the mixed signals are what killed this place.
I think he was hedging that he would have been able to raise more VC to get through the snag, and when that didn't work It didn't appear there was a plan B.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No need to add identifiable details, but what sorts of things were part of "we hit a snag and things started going south." I can imagine someone checking out in the ways you describe, but only in the face of mind-melting obstacles, the kind that cause people to lose all hope and throw in the towel once spotted.
A lot of it was just execution problems. But I think it summarizes into a perfect storm of moving the development team to a new product and putting the existing money maker on bug fix only, two rounds of dedicated sales staff that woefully underperformed (sometimes comically so looking back), and the landscape of paying customers going into insecure funding situations of their own. On those points: 1- Moving the staf…
Or at least did you work with me? Exactly that same thing happened at a place I used to work at, about three or four years back.
I hope you worked where I worked and we're just ships passing in the night, and not that this story is just so common.
"If you focus on the wall, you will drive right into it. If you focus on the road, you will follow the road. Running a company is like that. " and “I didn’t quit.” I am going to engrave the above mentioned quotes in gold* and put it on my wall. * - Or just have my young kid write it with a pencil on a paper and put it on my wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_fixation
What amazed me more was how the fundamentals of riding a motorcycle contained many great life lessons. It's not just target fixation, but rider awareness, maintaining margin, and all sorts of other little things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reading this I think the CEO is only half of the problem - the board / ownership decided to give him a pay cut, then take pay from him entirely. Come on. If you don't trust someone enough that you cut their pay, then really you should just fire them and get someone else in - the mixed signals are what killed this place.
I'm split on this myself. Devil's advocate, siding with the board he failed to make his goals during that time period and he also had opportunity to simply leave himself. I think he was hedging that he would have been able to raise more VC to get through the snag, and when that didn't work It didn't appear there was a plan B.
I still say its ownerships problem - Someone cuts my pay and still keeps me in post - its clear I am polishing up the CV. I have been under someone (C*O not CEO) in similar situation, they put brave face on it but by second day everyone had called them a lame duck (behind their back) and routed around them for 3 months.
Hard to route around a CEO, but I suspect that the company was not setup to be the kind that could do dynamic routing. So Schumpter is just round the corner. Was not best of times and I suspect much worse in your case.
(#) I am sure there are actual words I could use but caffeine / blood ratio is dipping.
Edit: tidying up
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm split on this myself. Devil's advocate, siding with the board he failed to make his goals during that time period and he also had opportunity to simply leave himself. I think he was hedging that he would have been able to raise more VC to get through the snag, and when that didn't work It didn't appear there was a plan B.
Meeeahhh....(#) I still say its ownerships problem - Someone cuts my pay and still keeps me in post - its clear I am polishing up the CV. I have been under someone (C*O not CEO) in similar situation, they put brave face on it but by second day everyone had called them a lame duck (behind their back) and routed around them for 3 months. Hard to route around a CEO, but I suspect that the company was not setup to be the…