In the fast-paced world of tech start-ups, one thing hasn’t changed. It’s all about people. That was the clear message communicated by company founders like Paul English, co-founder of travel site, Kayak, at the Momentum Summit on the campus of MIT this week. During his interview by venture capitalist and Harvard Entrepreneur In Residence, Jeffrey Bussgang, English made the point that he is aggressive (his word) about hiring and firing. He commits to each new hire that every seat around them “will be filled with electric people.” Anyone who doesn’t measure up gets a pink slip. So what’s at the top of his desired skills list? Bandwidth, attitude, no dysfunctional behavior, broad experience, and no neutrals (meaning every management team member has to be excited about the candidate). If English gets a “rock star” referral, his goal is to bring them in and close the deal within seven days of the referral. People are his secret sauce to generating more revenue per each of his 130 employees. With a run rate of $200 million since their launch in 2004, this has proven to be a prime differentiator for English and his management team.
Once a small team is up an running, Ric Fulop (@ricfulop), co-founder of A123 Systems (an MIT spin out) and General Partner at North Bridge Ventures says “every developer has to be a product manager.” His point was that small teams have to be “aggressive (there’s that word again…) about locking down the first vertical…focus on the least amount of stuff possible and outsource everything!” According to Fulop, “If your first product doesn’t look like a feature, you’re doing something wrong.”
When small start-up teams meet with large partners to discuss a deal, Fulop shared a key point for CEO’s to remember, “These companies are so big, they’re like small countries. They don’t know technology, they’re politicians at the top.” Point being that a highly technology conversation will immediately be lost on the group, however, one centered on benefits and value-add will resonate.
Turning from technology to marketing, Brian Halligan, an MIT Sloan School alum/EIR, as well as co-founder of Internet marketing company, HubSpot, took the stage. He’s your typical high-energy marketing guy, fully caffeinated and passionate about content. He carried his coffee cup around as he paced the stage making his point that “success is equal to the width of your brain, not the width of your wallet.” Eighty-five of his 200 employees blog demonstrating his belief that today’s marketers are publishers. In his world, it’s all about creating a hub on the Internet of valuable content. He understands that not every blog will be a home run, but if 1/10 goes viral, it’s worth it. “Viral co-efficient” was a favorite term from his session representing the growth curve of viral content as it relates to followers, links and ultimately dollars back to the company.
Another favorite term of the day, pivot, was explained by Lee Hower, of NextView Ventures, as the nice way of saying, “near death company experience.” As an early PayPal employee and founding member of LinkedIn who now invests in seed stage Internet companies, he’ s seen his share of pivot points. Hower interviewed the CEO of Swipely, Angus Davis, who sold his former company, TellMe, to Microsoft for a reported $800 million. Their discussion centered around the three reasons why today is a great time to open a business versus the bubble days of 1999: 1. Open source software makes it dramatically easier to develop at a reduced cost. 2. The ability to “rent” infrastructure (think: Cloud services through Amazon). 3. Access to distribution channels.
During lunch we each selected a relevant table discussion topic. There were several good ones, but in the end I chose to hear from Matt Douglas, CEO of Punchbowl. We bantered about the Top 10 business development issues.
The full session was hosted by the likable tech journalist, Scott Kirsner, writer of the Boston Globe’s Innovation Economy, whom I had the chance to meet at SXSW last year and follow on Twitter (@scottkirsner) for industry trends and interesting company innovation.
