There is an interesting post doing the rounds on the blogsphere which talks about 17 tips for startups.
Most of these tips apply to the US, but some are universal, and the one I like the most: fire employees who are not workaholics. I totally agree with this one and strongly recommend that every startup apply it. You don’t need a big team, you need 2 to 3 people working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week with no vacations. Find them and keep them.
Anyway, that post was followed by a Techcrunch post, which was a startup not too long ago and the founder had his own advice.
If you have any additional advise then do share here in the comments section.
Here are some of my tips:
1. Try and outsource as much as possible. You may not be able to recruit great people because you are a startup, but you will find fantastic entrepreneurs who are available to work on your project in an outsourced capacity.
2. Cash is a very scarce in a startup. Try and do equity deals with outsourced companies, this will bring down your costs. You will be surprised how many are willing to take equity if they like your idea
3. Don’t recruit employees. Recruit co-founders. The best people no longer want to work for companies, they want to own them, so recruit co-founders. You will be amazed at the quality of people you get, far better than if you advertsied for employees. You will need to give them some stock, but that can come from the ESOP pool. Goto www.salary.com to see how much you should set aside for ESPOS
4. Drive the costs down of everything. Don’t be shy of bargaining.
5. Work like crazy, don’t relax, get everything done at 5 times speed. You will run out of money faster than you think. You customers will come later than expected. The only chance you have of beating the system is keeping costs low and working faster than money runs out.
- Fire employees who aren’t workaholics… - March 9, 2008
- How did you fund your startup? - February 7, 2008
- IAMAI Entertainment 2.0 - October 20, 2007
Workaholic can also be defined by someone who thinks about the work s/he is doing even while away from work … As I have personal experience of working 7 days a week but working as in like “Sitting in front of the cube” is not always being workaholic…
I agree that in a startup you need people who can give and think like startups but often you do not get people [even with BE, BTech] who are more after the moolah and fixed times rather than create something new.
JM2P,
Arup Bhanja.
I agree with you…at the startup level we need excellent performers and we have to share profits with them in order to succeed…..
Prizm u have raised Best point…..u can’nt hire good techies also ……..computer was never invented in india….we are simply users of foriegn technology. That’s it.
u hire and fire based on personal or company judgement……that is different issue………what owner do in the organization?….what if he is ineffiecient?…….can employee fire him as owner……seriously they do it……..they just quite with best codes and researchs done by them in the company.
it is circle of natural order…..things arrange themself to reach the perfection possible
Virat
Jaspreet,
I have a different take on workaholic, we tend to hire people who love their jobs. We bet on the time he would spend thinking about the products in his/her leisure time. Thats the most productive time.
Most of the people at Druvaa work 40 hours a week … but veritas legacy .. they deliver very fast. We also host code marathons … where we just sip beer and code for 32-48 hours continuously to solve long pending problems. But, these are rare and not compulsory.
Quality is important, very important.
Outsourcing, we have outsourced web designing and some doc writing. But, i guess you can’t outsource your core business.
Very interesting points everyone!!!!!.Here is my 2 cent.
This discusion might ahve generated different views if we all had same definition of “workaholic”
Here is how Wiki defines a workaholic:
“Colloquially, a workaholic is a person who is addicted to work. This phrase does not always imply that the person actually enjoys their work, but rather simply feels compelled to do it. There is no generally accepted medical definition of such a condition, although some forms of stress, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be work-related. Although the term “workaholic” usually has a negative connotation, it is sometimes used by people wishing to express their devotion to one’s career in positive terms. The “work” in question is usually associated with a paying job, but it may also refer to independent pursuits such as sports, music and art.”
Now by this definition we have both negative( majority) as well as postiive cannotation associate with this term.So “fire who is not workoholic” will give very bad impression about the leadership and working environment.
My next question is How will you identify and recuit a workoholic? Consider someone asking you ” Are you a workaholic?”. Now lets reposition this question as ” Are you passionate about your work”.In start-up we need peple have to passionate majority fo the time and workaholic many times.
Majority of us are no workaholic by nature.It depend upon my project, team and leadership when I decide to be workoholic for a definite period of time. Yes i can work for a porject for a year if I enjoy the work,team,rewardss involve and trust and respect the leadership.
Having a guy in your team who jo saari duniya bhool ke sirf aapney project per kaam karey are very rare,diificult to find and wont last long. Startup is a marathon not a sprint.I dont know how long it will take to get product out…how many revision we need and when we declare peace with development.
Firing is reaaly tought decison and really painful for both emplyee and employeer.What we as a founder or Hr of a start-up could do at best is to match and manage the expectations of both employee and employeer.Communicate well about your postion and your definition of “passionate” and “workoholic”.Ensure there is skill and attitude match.Most useful employee are those who love their work…love what they do and love doing it with quality.
Last but not the list its the resposibility of founders and team that create right environment so that someone willing to change for positive is encouraged and motived rather then feared with pink slip.