I’ve worked with multiple startups. They’re exciting, and the potential for growth, opportunity, and massive fame and fortune is always dangling right in front of you and (usually…) just out of reach. Success, therefore, becomes infinitely more meaningful, and helps keep the ego fully fed. Good stuff, indeed.
In this startup environment, the one role that always perturbed me is that of “guru.” These’re the folks who tend to fit into three specific categories:
1. They’re nauseatingly wealthy.
2. They’ll tell you all about how to run your company.
3. Invest? Oh no, I don’t invest my money.
Most amusing is when the guru makes his/her money in the non-startup world, but seems to think they can tell startups how to succeed. Again, I welcome anyone’s advice, but if I can’t qualify it, what good is it? And when a guru tells me that my company has everything it needs to be successful, and he’s excited to offer advice, I say “gee, I appreciate that, and if you’re so extremely confident, why not invest?” Then the backpedaling starts. Confidence gives way to statement #3. Incidentally, they’ll almost always take equity in your company in exchange for offering you advice. No sacrifice on their part, but definitely on yours.
Sometimes you have to do this. The “big name” is worth something on your Board of Advisors. But what does it actually get you: Is this Advisor going to work with you, help you cultivate investors, strategize, or even show up to meetings every few months? Or are they simply looking to assuage their egos by having a position that lets them dispense knowledge from their mountaintop? In one startup, I had an extremely famous rock band on the roster. But they weren’t paying their bill. Soon the amount they owed was into the thousands of dollars. After threatening to disconnect them from the service, we got the reply that “having XXX band on your roster is worth far more than the cost of service we use.” Guess what, it wasn’t. They got cut off with no discernable effect on anything else going on.
Personally, I’m a big advocate of “put your money where your mouth is.” Hypocrisy of any kind is an unnecessary distraction. Recently, in launching the Boston Rock Academy, I had someone tell me, “when you’re ready for donors and investors, call me.” So when the time came, I did. Apparently it wasn’t a good time for him. But within two days, I got a letter from him asking for a donation to his project. Guess what, it wasn’t a good time for me either.
Alternately, I’ve had quite a few people who have made the effort to offer whatever they can to launch many of the projects I’ve worked with. Some offered their time, some offered money, and others actually gave both. Rather than act like the guru, dispensing advice to the lowly people below, these folks were willing to act on their belief, not just talk.
These people earn my respect.
