Managing Startups

Via E M E R G I C . o r g, Heidi Roizen, a managing director of Mobius Venture Capital recommends to CEOs of startups:

Most of the successful companies from my generation of entrepreneurs did not find their success in their original business plan. But a great team with a deep understanding of a particular market usually finds the seam to mine over time. You just have to know the difference between evolving and wandering.

It’s lonely being a startup CEO. You are comrades with your co-workers but you still have to stand alone at times. Many, many tough decisions had to be made over the last few years. I think a great coach helps the entrepreneur think through the decisions and come up with not only the best decision but the right way to execute it as well.

My advice to CEOs is to hire the very best, act as if your life depended on every person you bring on your team, and put a ton of cycles into finding, referencing, recruiting, and retaining those people.

Every firm has its own challenges and opportunities, that is what makes this fun—and also risky. But all of them have much in common: hire the greatest people you can, be paranoid about the competition, listen to your customers, develop a business model that makes sense.