People and Places - Crucial Start-Up Decisions

During the stealthy ramp up period, an entrepreneur needs to make a many important decisions. Having been through it before, I have a bit of an insight into how to go about it, but there are no easy answers in this game.

Two of the questions that I want to touch upon briefly are a) when to start growing the team and b) when to to move into corporate digs.

On the first question, and important truth is that having the strongest people possible is always a key goal. If you read the 'Good to Great' exploration of this area, the premise there is that it is the be-all, end-all of corporate success. I'm not sure I agree with that, as I've seen successful organizations where there were some sub-optimal people in some non-critical roles. They would meet the needs of the position, though one could imagine someone more optimal excelling beyond the strict needs of the situation. A much worse situation would have been to have such roles unfilled while waiting for an optimal candidate, resulting in other people being dragged down by the missing skill-set.

In a start-up situation, the needs are all multiplied three fold. When you are doubling your staff on a monthly basis, every position is critical. By the same token, there is both a propensity for people to stretch to cover holes, as well as a need to acquire people with that ability.

Now where the question above comes in is that with each added person, there is administrative and orientation effort added to the leadership positions to absorb those people. At the wrong time, that can pull you away from progress, crucial decisions and foundation building and may mean the difference between success and failure.

My current approach is to concentrate on building the initial framework before pulling in other people, and thus hope to have some structure and some direction established before distractions and dissenting opinions start pulling at me.

On the second question, I'm still not settled. When you first get commercial space, you begin to burn cash, and keeping the burn-rate low is so important before you have funding. When you have more than one person working, space becomes more important. I've come to develop a pretty good work ethic in a home office environment, but what I've noted over the years is that many, perhaps most people find that difficult. Thus it's good to create a traditional workplace environment as early as possible, to ensure that you get the focus which might be lacking if your collaborators are in their home environment.

While on my path toward a first demonstration of product concepts though, I'm leaning toward staying in the home office and keeping costs at next to nothing. It's a fine line, though, between the easily accessible work environment here, and need for something more formal, and I'll have to be sure not to hesitate when the need becomes apparent.

For now though, my days are well defined - simply push ahead and try to progress quickly enough that the proverbial iron is still hot enough for blow or two.

Researchinator winds up for another strike...