Brad Feld wrote 16 posts detailing each item of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. However, there are 18 items in the manifesto and he never got around to writing the final two. I prodded him several times; but after a year without the posts appearing from him, I volunteered to write them; and he has graciously accepted themContinue reading “Mentor Manifesto 17/18 – Be Challenging/Robust but Never Destructive”
Tag Archives: leadership
Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
I’m about 10 months into helping a bunch of startups through organizations like TechStars, MassChallenge, and others. And I’ve seen an emerging trend among startups that I want to discourage: The over – and inappropriate – use of “Chief (fill-in-the-blank)” titles. “What’s the problem,” you ask? “Why not give people CxO roles?” There are a bunch ofContinue reading “Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages”
Families – not age – affects startups
On February 17, 2013, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe wrote an article Exploring the Age Divide in Boston Start-Ups. It infuritated me for two reasons: 1) It’s probably true, but 2) for different reasons than Scott asserted. Scott’s premise is that start-ups are only the domain of young, 20-somethings. He concludes “older people” (over 30?)Continue reading “Families – not age – affects startups”
Culture matters even at the start
A few days ago, Todd McKinnon asserted in a WSJ blog article that “long term success is not predicated on creating a world-class company culture.” He also states “Forget about cultural fit and instead get people in the door that can create a beautiful product and bring passion to the problems your company is out to solve.” My friend BobContinue reading “Culture matters even at the start”
Founding CEO succession
In both my venture-backed companies I was founding CEO; but wasn’t CEO forever. The data says this is quite typical. Noam Wasserman’s book The Founder’s Dilemmas, cites the following statistics out of 3,600+ startups surveyed (9,900 founders) over 10 years: Founding A-round B-round C-round D-round On its 3rd (or more ) CEO 0% 0% 9%Continue reading “Founding CEO succession”
JAB Ventures 