The Startup Journey

Sara Tavel compares "Good" employees with "Rock Star" employees (whom she calls as the Mitochondria of the company) 1. Both are good at their jobs 2. The difference being in the  scale of adding value.  For good employees, it is is linear (more pay or higher the hierarchy = more value), while rockstar employees - "they add value to the company beyond their job description and responsibilities. They ask and do what is best for the company" The  "founder’s job (is) to attract and retain mitochondria through all stages of a company. At the early stages, this rare group of individuals is the core of the company. As your startup scales, they are your leaders." How do you spot them? - Do Value Interviews "Don't just hire for competence, interview for values" Typically the founding team should check if the candidate is going to be a match with the core values of the company. If you had a chart for that you'd want someon...

Derek Sivers has a great step-by-step guide: Go to the following sites to open an account at each: upwork.com, guru.com, freelancer.com ...You'll get many offers, but if they don't have your magic phrase at the top (“I AM REAL” or whatever), delete them. This is very hard to do, since you'll feel thrilled that so many people are offering to help, saying things like, “We have looked at your project and would be glad to complete it immediately,” but trust me and delete those. If they didn't read something marked as VERY IMPORTANT already, you don't want to work with them. ...Here's the real reason why you're stopping at a simple milestone: you're going to hire at least two different people to do this first step, expecting that one will go bad, one will be so-so, and one will be great. Yes it means you're paying multiple times for this first milestone, but it's worth it to find a good one. Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture ...