Building a Software Company: How to hire an idiot
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URL Tag Cloud
- startup
- , HR
- , blog
- , story
- , wisdom
- , work
- , startups
- , recruitment
- , worklife
- , Parachute
- , to_read
- , strategy
- , career
- , software
- , article
- , rubyonrails
- , humor
- , hire
- , e-learning
- , business-startup
Bookmark History
Saved by 6 people (-1 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-08-01
- Kandesbunzler on 2008-08-04 - Tags article , blog , worklife , career
- Jonaston on 2008-08-04 - Tags work , wisdom , to_read , story , startups , startup , software
- Pallefridsvensson on 2008-08-04 - Tags recruitment , strategy , HR , startup , hire
- Newsmaven on 2008-08-02 - Tags startup , humor , rubyonrails
- Colcord on 2008-08-01 - Tags Parachute
Public Sticky notes
Only problem was, I couldn't quite afford an employee yet. By then I had been
working a couple years by myself, earning good profits in the $200K range but it
was based on just one or two sales a year, and each sale took 6-12 months to
finalize. With so few customers I could easily go a year without sales, I
feared, so had to set aside my profits to cover that. And if I were going to
hire someone, I'd really want six months or a year's payroll set aside for them
as well. I just couldn't afford that yet.
Highlighted by joel
Serendipitously, I was approached a little while later by a former VP of my big
competitor, at my industry's main exhibition where I had a small booth. He was a
friggin' VP of a $100 million a year company! Well, their former VP, he said.
Wow though, I was flattered. I demoed my product to him, explained my company,
and his mouth dropped open. He started gushing about how incredible my product
was (well, it was, I guess) and asked why the "fuck" wasn't I selling $100
million a year?! I said well, I'm sort of at capacity... and... errrr... I'm
more of an engineer, and, uh.... I don't know why. I didn't want to tell him
what I feared, that it was just this thing I made on my own, some of the code
was crap, and things like that just don't sell for millions.
Highlighted by joel
We talked a little more and I couldn't believe when he asked to work for me for
free! Well, on commission. But hey, that's money I wouldn't have made anyway. If
he brings in a million bucks a year in profit, he's worth 10% of that,
certainly!
Highlighted by joel
I mentioned to my uncle (an experienced big-ticket salesperson) about this new
guy I was bringing on board, and he told me to be careful because "guys like
that will do anything to make the sale and don't care if they leave you high and
dry. I've seen it LOTS."
Highlighted by joel
So I set off on my promises of being a great boss. I let my new sales guy do his
thing, trusted his judgement, didn't ask to be CC'd on things, gave him the
resources he needed, just set him loose. $25K in stuff he said we absolutely
needed -- slick brochures, sponsor some conference, ads in the trade journal,
coffee mugs, pens with our logo -- I readily paid for. I wanted him and us of
course to succeed.
Highlighted by joel
Public Comment