| TC08 Chicago - Ask The Wizard Live - Dick Costolo Talks Entrepreneurship |
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 29 May 2008 12:31 | |
|
Dick Costolo gave a really raw, heartfelt talk about Feedburner, venture capital fund raising and venture capital. I won’t dwell on it here, but even though I’ve never worked directly on anything with Dick, we’ve had an amazing exchange of ideas and conversation over the years. Someday I hope I can take that relationship to an even higher level - mostly for the personal growth that I know it would cause rather than the monetization events it would likely bring. He gets it. Dick never stops learning and interacting every day. That restlessness is critical to his perpetual personal growth. Sorry, I think I did dwell on it a bit….anyway, here are my raw notes or his passionate speech that bordered on a rant at times…in the most positive way: 4 startups including Feedburner Feedburner all founders had same equity percentage – very important to teamwork dynamic and success Entrepreneurs worry too much about valuation Market Opportunity – sizing, does the market need it, team, product, market Location – No Black Swans Funding CCs, your misunderstood friends – finding the right one Options/Equity - options, pool, common stock, dilution Board Meetings – Should be strategic discussions, not operations, board package, timing and who should attend… Hiring – Best Available Athlete, Roles and Flat Organizations, Hierarchy begets bureaucracy, replace with tools (eg SFA)…Don’t hire for position…hire people that can do almost anything…a jack of all trades…this reminds me of a lot of what BlackRock was like…I sat at 23 desks in 4 years, I don’t know how many projects I worked on during my time there, I understood every process in the company. No offices. Open culture and communication are critical… Experience or Enthusiasm? Performance – performance reviews and subjectivity KPIs Growing the team Product Development and Business Strategy Launch Late to Launch Often – data models and programs architected for extensibility can beat point solutions every time (I agree this is critical) Focus and Speed of Execution are a competitive advantage Competitive advantage Let people you don’t know help you win (open/api) and provide your products/service with the best opportunity to evolve in the market Startups who ask people to sign NDAs are stupid! Gave a great (and way too fast!) discussion on this…I wish he’d write a detailed blog post of his rant. ? Quantum barriers to entry and market share - Get market share, market share is the only thing you should focus on. Revenue plan: Don’t kid yourself. Revenue ALWAYS ramps slower than you think it will. Don’t do unnecessary things because you think you’re supposed to Try to let the business model come to you Don’t worry about an exit strategy, worry about everything else Be a big small company Be competitive on your merits ---Related Articles at David Dalka - Creating Revenue and Retention - Chicago GSB MBA:Jason Jacobsohn of Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Center InterviewedVenture Capital Speed Dating - Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford UniversityDick Costolo’s Tips on Raising CapitalLarry Levy – A Chicago Original |