I'm in talks with a sales / marketing guy who knows a niche extremely well, having been a customer himself and having done a substantial amount of market research. He's looking for a hacker to implement a startup in that space, but I don't know if he has the chops to execute on the management side. Any advice?
- Superficial knowledge, but claim they know the field. When you dig deeper you find knowledge lacking. Wikipedia can help uncover this sometimes, amazingly.
- Do not read new business books.
- Haven't heard of "classic" books in the business world, e.g. good to great, crossing the chasm etc
- Business model based on a poor understanding of technology (e.g. "User generated content but restricted access site")
- No track record
- 50 years old and not rich.
- Afraid to execute (give them a hard task to complete which they could fail at and it won't get done).
- I'm always right about stuff I know nothing about syndrome. You want a partner who is complementary; he should be able to recognise what you bring to the table and should defer to you when he doesn't know.
Good luck!
If a top business guy in a startup spent a meaningful amount of time reading new business books, I'd be a bit suspicious.
Your other 'warning signs' seem right on to me.
Perhaps you are overestimating how long it takes to read a business book. Most can be finished in a few hours due to their padding, and reading 10+ new books per year shouldn't be hard even for the uber-busy. It's not like reading a tome on prolog.
P.S. Don't let him write the contract.
Also, sales & marketing != biz management
Set specific performance goals for both yourself (modules released, SEO rankings, whatever's relevant) and "the suit" (capital in the bank, number of users, number of paid subscriptions, etc). Tie each goal to percentage ownership. If goals are met, you vest. If goals are not met, you find another partner or scrap the project altogether.
Also make sure that the goals are on a somewhat concurrent timeline. "Suits" generally have trouble executing on a "beta" product so if you do not set concurrent goals, you will keep developing new features and never, ever have the chance to see your partner in action.
What I mean is, push really hard for a bare-bone set of requirements that you both agree to be "good enough" as the first iteration of your product, and as soon as that feature set is in place, your partner needs to execute (again, whatever's relevant to you - sell some subscriptions, get some marquee clients on board, raise capital, etc).
Good luck!
Seems to me you should simply take the flip side. For me, savvy isn't the right word. There is something very self-interested about it. Instead, I would look for a business person who has actually helped build something. Preferably something very interesting.
Also, while im not big on references, it might be nice to talk to another hacker, whose work you respect, who had a positive experience working with that business person.
Lastly, I would definitely not judge a business person by which business books he has read. Business people should help you build something of value, not regurgitate the most recent tagline of a management fad.
Business books are a primarily a source of other peoples failures and successes. Businesses have such a long gestation cycle that it doesn't make financial sense to make the mistakes yourself.
In those business people I have met that aren't well read, often times their entire business strategy could be drastically improved by reading a couple of seminal pieces. But, for them, ignorance is bliss. I know which one I would choose.
Good sales people design a repeatable process around selling. They investigate the market, build a call list, and execute through the call list. They then refactor based on results. They do not throw shit wildly at the wall and hope something happens.
Good management people design business process in similar ways. Customer service is a system. Calls come in, they are processed, logs are created, and evaluations are done quarterly of the system. Apply similar methodology to hiring, to finance, to marketing, to accounting, etc. The hardest people to find are those with good strategic vision -- so if this is your idea, you need to be that person.
Some of these things are harder to assess than others. Look for people who use data to make decisions, who are 'doers', and who can describe to you the process they plan to take. Look for people who have a track record of these things in other, perhaps non-startup ways.
"Yes, Bob, we should do what you're suggesting but we should also do X, Y and Z."
If they don't say "No" or something to the effect of: "Those are good suggestions but I think we really need to focus on getting a prototype out the door, some real customer feedback, etc. Then we can revisit these great suggestions and see if they are still in alignment with the product."
Cheers
The only advice I can give to accelerate this process is to ask lots of questions. If he has an answer for everything, that's actually a bad sign as it typically means he's BS'ing.
You want someone who's humble enough to admit where he isn't sure what will happen or how things work.
Absurd certainty and BS'ing is ok although not preferred for salespeople. But it's a sign of impending doom for a manager, especially for a startup.
I've had similar concerns and got lucky meeting people through either acquaintances or through work. So before there was ever a business partnership relationship I got to see how the person worked with customers and other coworkers.
Good luck.
Perhaps past employers might work, but I think what you say about their track record is really the only way, outside of just knowing someone or a referral from someone you trust.
Listen carefully and dig deep. Don't just settle for "I know this guy and he made me a bunch of money." Ask the reference what the guy did to make money, what was his plan, how they met, why he decided to work with him, why they aren't working together any more.
Imagine you're sitting down for lunch with the reference and having a conversation about the person he's referring and you'll do a better job of understanding what he's all about.
There are a lot of people that hit the tech lotto because of being in the right place at the right time (e.g., google employee #20). There are many fewer that have hit after hit.
My experience (direct and indirect) says that someone that is business savvy will likely leave you feeling fucked over. To be successful in business you often have to push the boundaries of what is legal and acceptable to most people.
You could also ask him to defend his management experience to you. Has he demonstrated results in a particular area before (winning new business for a similar product, for example)?
this reminds me of this post I read a while ago, hacker started a startup...it took off, so he decided to hire a sales guy to take it to the next level. The guy was "awesome", a genius at sales or so it seemed. Well he hired him, gave him some equity(I think), and then sat and waited for $$$ to roll in. Well it turned out the guy was just a big bullshit artist and didn't really know anything
