Executive and Closed Sessions Brad has a good post up about what he calls “closed sessions” in Board meetings — time at the end of the meeting reserved for a conversation with Board members ONLY, no other observers or non-Board management. While we differ in terminology, I agree completely with the sentiment and with his logic. We call the part of the meeting that Brad describes the Executive Session. We’ve always done them. And the Board and I find it incredibly useful, and a good practice, even if there are no contentious or puzzling issues during a meeting. Not that our Board holds back much, but the Executive Session is a good time for us to connect 100% freely about…
Category
Entrepreneurship
Closer to the Front Lines
Closer to the Front Lines When we started Return Path, we added a little clause to our employee handbook that entitled people to a sabbatical after 7 years of service (and then after every 5 incremental years). Six weeks off, 3/4 pay. Full pay if you do something “work related.” Sure, we thought. That’s an easy thing to give. We’ll never be 7 years old as a company. Now, 8 1/2 years later, of course, the first wave of people are reaching their sabbatical date. A couple have already gone (one trip around the world, one quality time with the kids). A couple others are pending. Four of us at the exec level are overdue to take ours, and we…
Sophisticated Negotiation Technique
Sophisticated Negotiation Technique Brad and our co-tenants in Colorado, Still Secure, have already documented this — including a dedication from Still Secure (thanks, guys – you took the words right out of my mouth). But still, the story must be recorded here for posterity as well, if for no other reason than how absurd it was. We share a lease in Colorado with Still Secure (the lease used to be Brad’s/Mobius’s), and the lease ends this fall. Both we and Still Secure have grown to the point where we’re bursting at the seams, so someone is going to have to move out. After months of polite wrangling, it was clear there was no easy solution. Sometimes, win-win just doesn’t exist….
Advisory Boards
Advisory Boards This is a topic that’s come up a fair amount lately here. Advisory Boards can be great sources of help for entrepreneurs. They can also be great things to participate in. Here are a handful of quick tips for both sides of the equation. If you are building an advisory board: – Figure out what kind of Advisory Board you want to build — is it one that functions as a group, or is it one that’s a collection of individual advisers, and a Board in name only? – Clarify the mission, role, and expected time required from advisers on paper, both for yourself and for people you ask – Be prepared to pay for people’s time somehow…
Book Short: Tech Founder? Varsity Basketball Captain? Both! At the Same Time!
Book Short: Tech Founder? Varsity Basketball Captain? Both! At the Same Time! Ben Casnocha’s My Startup Life has some of the same appeal as The Mousedriver Chronicles (which I reviewed years go here) in its tale of a startup, its successes, failures, and lessons learned. If you like that kind of book or are starting a company and are looking for kindred spirits, it’s a good book for you. Ben’s story is more remarkable in some ways because he started his eGovernment software (SaaS of course) company Comcate at the age of 13. That’s right, 13. When I was learning how to shave, having a bar mitzvah, and dealing with acne and a voice dropping at terminal velocity. Starting a business was the…
Book Short: A Must Read
Book Short: A Must Read Every once in a while, I read a book and think, “This is an important book.” Microtrends, by Mark Penn, was just that kind of read. Penn is the CEO of one of our largest clients in the market research business as well as CEO of Burson Marstellar and, more notably, the Clintons’ pollster and strategy director for much of the last 16 years. He’s a smart guy, and more important than that, he’s awash in primary research data. The premise of Microtrends is that America is no longer a melting pot, where lots of different people come together to try to be the same, but rather that it’s a big tent, where lots of…
Eight is NOT Enough!
Eight is NOT Enough! Today is the eighth anniversary of the founding of Return Path. No offense to Dick Van Patten or Grant Goodeve, but Eight is NOT Enough. We are just hitting our stride here! Congratulations to our incredibly hard working and dedicated employees, and thanks to our clients, partners, and investors for all their support these past 8 years. Eight may have been Great…but Nine will be Fine!
VCs Are Full of It
VCs Are Full of It …at least that’s what Brad says. Well, he says a lot more than that, but certainly makes for a good pre-holiday headline, doesn’t it? Brad’s brilliant advice is not to confuse data – or even worse – anecdotes – with fact. I’d add to the axiom my own observation that “just because someone says something with extreme conviction doesn’t mean it’s true.” His whole post is very worthwhile – one of the best ones I’ve read in a long time. Read it here.
Academic Inspiration
Academic Inspiration I just read in my alumni magazine that at Opening Exercises for incoming freshmen this year, Princeton President Shirley Tilghman closed her remarks with the following: For the next four years, you will be encouraged – and indeed sometimes even exhorted – to develop the qualities of mind that allowed Katherine Newman, Simon Morrison, and Alan Krueger to change what we know about the world. Those qualities are the willingness to ask an unorthodox question and pursue its solution relentlessly; to cultivate the suppleness of mind to see what lies between black and white; to reject knee-jerk reactions to ideas and ideologies; to recognize nuance and complexity in an argument; to differentiate between knowledge and belief; to be…
The Social Aspects of Running a Board
The Social Aspects of Running a Board I’ve posted about the the topic of Boards of Directors a couple of times before, here and here. We had one of our quarterly in-person Board meetings yesterday, which I always enjoy, and one of my directors pointed out that I never posted about the social aspects of running a Board. Since this is a critical component of the job, it is certainly worth mentioning. A high functioning Board isn’t materially different from any other high functioning team. The group needs to have a clear charter or set of responsibilities, clear lines of communication, and open dialog. And as with any team, making sure that the people on a Board know how to…
Child Prodigies, or Misspent Youths?
Child Prodigies, or Misspent Youths? I just got an email from a reader of this blog with a subject line of "15 year-old entrepreneur" and a series of engaging questions around starting a business (and actually, quite a good idea for one as well). It got me thinking about being a kid and being an entrepreneur at the same time. The author of this email is impressively savvy and focused on the world of business and startups. Ben Casnocha is another one. Ben is 19, has already started two companies, and has written and published a book called My Startup Life. When I was 15, I actually did have an inkling that I was going to go into business someday,…