Entrepreneur’s Perspective on Non-Competes (Note: I just found this post in the “drafts” folder and realize I never put it up! It was written months ago, although I just updated it a bit.) Bijan Sabet kicked off the discussion about non-competes by asserting that they are a barrier to innovation and that they are unenforceable in California anyway, so why bother? Fred continued the discussion and made some good assertions about the value of non-competes, summarizing his points as: Non-competes are very much in the interests of our portfolio companies. But the non-competes need to be tightly defined and the term of the non-compete needs to be paid for by the portfolio company if the employee was forced out of…
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Entrepreneurship
Book Short: Catchiest Title in a Long Time
Book Short: Catchiest Title in a Long Time You have to admit, a book called The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich has a pretty enticing title. The email geek in me thinks that if it were a subject line, it would have a good open rate. Anyway, the book, by Timothy Ferriss, is a breezy read that blends self help with entrepreneurship, has a lot of good resource lists in it, and is worth reading if you don’t take it too seriously. There are some good central points to the book. First, life has changed, and people don’t want to slave away until they’re 65 any more so they can do all the fun…
Curbing My Enthusiasm
Curbing My Enthusiasm For the first time since I started blogging over four years ago, I have recently run into several examples in a short period of time where I’d love to blog about something happening in the business, and I think it would make for a great blog posting, but I can’t do it. Why can’t I? Lots of different reasons: – Don’t want to telegraph strategy to the competition – Don’t want to compromise an employee (current or former) – Worried about downstream legal ramifications There are other reasons as well, but these are the main three. I love transparency as much as the next person (and more than most), but these scenarios have to trump transparency in…
Driving Out of the Bubble
Driving Out of the Bubble It’s easy for those of us who live in the Internet bubble to confuse the words “startup” and “entrepreneur” with the word “technology.” Every once in a while, I am struck by a fantastic entrepreneurial idea that’s low-tech or no-tech. In the last few weeks, I’ve learned of two of them — oddly, very similar ideas. They’re both going after the New York City black car limo market (all those car services that take business travelers to and from airports and meetings), which is a lucrative but kind of gritty business. I’ve used black car services for 16 years now, and while I’ve found one that’s pretty good, they all have massive customer service problems…
Do Business Books Suck for Entrepreneurs?
Do Business Books Suck for Entrepreneurs? Ben thinks they do. Some of his reasons are pretty good, but I’d challenge a few of them, or at least his finer points. My experience over the years is that while most business books are not geared toward entrepreneurs, a good entrepreneur will figure out how to milk them for what they’re worth quickly and apply key learnings to his or her company. The reality is that running a startup or high growth company is a multi-faceted and incredibly dynamic experience, and having a bunch of outside inputs in the form of business book examples and theories can be really helpful. Even bad ideas can spur good thinking.
You Have to Shoot to Score
You Have to Shoot to Score Fred’s recent post called From Messes to Successes left me thinking about the reasons why successful companies often have rough patches along the road to their ultimate success — the times Fred refers to when he says “they’re a mess.” First, his premise is right. Good companies are often a mess. Probably more than most outside Board members (even good VC ones) even realize! And while his explanation as to why this occurs, which is that the company focuses exclusively on the product to the exclusion of infrastructure, scaling, and planning issues, may be right some of the time, let me offer an alternative explanation. I always tell people internally that You Have to…
Executive and Closed Sessions
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…
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…