Thursday, April 09, 2009
My Advice- Take Startup Advice from folks working in Startups
For the record, I don't know Eric Ries, but he seems all the rage of late with my twitter-stream flowing glorious with his Web 2.0 Expo wisdom about running a lean startup. He's more than likely earned it, most recently as co-founder and CTO of IMVU. And, I bet that we'd get along wonderfully, and that he's a great guy (given the posse he travels with, and friends of friends).
But, last I checked, he's a Venture Advisor at Kleiner Perkins, and I'm quite sure Kleiner Venture Advisor's aren't working for extra equity right now, firing their own staff to survive the next 6 months, filing and resolvings bugs on weekends, or doing PR outreach late into the night to get a little extra traction from their most recent product launch.
My hunch is that memories are forgetful when it comes to doing whatever it takes to make it to your next milestone.
So, if you have to make binary tradeoffs on who to take your advice from, I'd recommend that you take it from someone who's in the trenches, like Glenn Kelman, Andy Liu, or Ev Williams (and here) as their feedback may be a little more moist, with recent blood, sweat and tears (that is, if they have time to talk with you -- my hunch is that you'll be more likely to get a 4 sentence e-mail, as they won't have the time to prepare for and attend a multi-day conference).
Labels: andy liu, eric ries, ev williams, glenn kelman, kleiner perkins
Comments:
love this advice Dave.
I'd add that startups thinking of formalizing the advice gathering process by bringing on advisors should skip this and simply take those from the trenches out for a cup of coffee every so often.
BTW, I hear you'll settle for a short SBUX drip.
I'd add that startups thinking of formalizing the advice gathering process by bringing on advisors should skip this and simply take those from the trenches out for a cup of coffee every so often.
BTW, I hear you'll settle for a short SBUX drip.
How uncharacteristically sour of you! :-)
The guy worked in a startup recently enough and had some good success. He's entitled to offer advice, IMO. And his advice is largely really good.
That being said, I'm not a big fan of the "formula for startup success" ("do the 5 whys with 6 sigma for 7 minute abs!") efforts. Markets are wildly different and timing can be everything. There are some great guidelines out there-- and lord knows I've tried to offer a nugget or two when I feel like I've stumbled onto one. But I wonder how much of startup advice is us trying to create patterns and rules where there really aren't many.
The guy worked in a startup recently enough and had some good success. He's entitled to offer advice, IMO. And his advice is largely really good.
That being said, I'm not a big fan of the "formula for startup success" ("do the 5 whys with 6 sigma for 7 minute abs!") efforts. Markets are wildly different and timing can be everything. There are some great guidelines out there-- and lord knows I've tried to offer a nugget or two when I feel like I've stumbled onto one. But I wonder how much of startup advice is us trying to create patterns and rules where there really aren't many.
tom - agree entirely - i love my advisors, but i take advantage of their experience far too often in official capacities; much better to underformalize and make it happen where you can
tony - yes, that's my sourness at its maximum output -- really, it wasn't a comment on @ericries directly - moreso on punditry/fandome that seems to flood through the echo-chamber every few weeks
ok... back to the salt mines...
Post a Comment
tony - yes, that's my sourness at its maximum output -- really, it wasn't a comment on @ericries directly - moreso on punditry/fandome that seems to flood through the echo-chamber every few weeks
ok... back to the salt mines...
Links to this post:
