Entrepreneurship Tips

When A Startup Founder Hires A Professional CEO, Does He Need To Have An Industry Background?

Posted by Robert Norton on

When A Startup Founder Hires A Professional CEO, Does He Need To Have An Industry Background?

  A good question, and one most professionals get wrong. Even professional recruiters. Although this can depend on many factors, generally speaking the CEO does not need to come from the industry.  The existing employees and team should bring the industry and domain expertise. If it is a raw startup with no staff, that is really a co-founder, not a “CEO hire”. And no good CEO is going to work for a founder that has little experience. Most experienced CEOs do not want to take raw startup risk, they come in later when the risk is fleshed out and scaling...

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How Big A Market Should A Startup Company Target?

Posted by Robert Norton on

How Big A Market Should A Startup Company Target?

There are many factors, and it is too complex to offer a standard answer. You need to hire a consultant that is a CEO/Founder with lots of experience to discuss things for 1–2 hours. One way around this is to set hourly rates for the founders and track time to allocate it according to contribution. Shares are earned with seat equity. A simple spreadsheet with monthly invoices submitted by everyone is easy to do. There are plenty of software solutions for this too, but likely best only when it gets complicated with many founders. People and Founders are never “equal”...

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How Do You Determine The Distribution of Equity Among Co-founders When Starting A New Company?

Posted by Robert Norton on

How Do You Determine The Distribution of Equity Among Co-founders When Starting A New Company?

There are many factors, and it is too complex to offer a standard answer. You need to hire a consultant that is a CEO/Founder with lots of experience to discuss things for 1–2 hours. One way around this is to set hourly rates for the founders and track time to allocate it according to contribution. Shares are earned with seat equity. A simple spreadsheet with monthly invoices submitted by everyone is easy to do. There are plenty of software solutions for this too, but likely best only when it gets complicated with many founders. People and Founders are never “equal”...

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The Top 26 Reasons No One Should Ever Support Donald Trump in Any Capacity

Posted by Robert Norton on

The Top 26 Reasons No One Should Ever Support Donald Trump in Any Capacity

  It continues to amaze me how ANYONE is willing to vote for Donald Trump. Sure, we need to get back to more conservative values (obliterate DEI, quotas and the out of control woke nonsense like pretending transgender people are normal and educating young children that this is okay), fiscal policy and reduce government by maybe 50%, or more at all levels. Do not get me wrong, I am 100% for equality of treatment of people. Just not equal outcomes. It seems our younger generation cannot tell the difference. Trump is clearly not very bright, is totally unethical, is a...

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If I Pitch an Idea to a Private Investor, What Happens If They Steal It?

Posted by Robert Norton on

If I Pitch an Idea to a Private Investor, What Happens If They Steal It?

Ideas are worthless. And it would be totally legal for them to steal them. Maybe you are confusing patents, copyrights and other intellectual property. An “idea” has no legal protections. And you can be pretty sure you are not the first one to have any given idea too. And if anyone can steal a single “idea” and replicate your business, it is a very bad business. What you need is lots more including many things like a business model, target market, product/service and hundreds of ideas. Companies need a team, plan and many protectable ideas. These are protectable intellectual property...

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