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Happy Holidays!!!

From the team at SDYE.. Happy Holidays! See you in the new year!!

Marissa Mayer’s Simple Advice On Who To Hire: Smart People Who Get Things Done

Hi Group,
After last nights meeting, one thing really stuck out, aside from the funding everyone is always looking for, it was obvious the next and most cruticial element to get your ventures to the next level is the right people to help you along. That being said, check out this article I found on Techcrunch this morning written by Michael Arrington but focused on Marissa Mayer's hiring process.
You can view the original post here

Marissa Mayer’s Simple Advice On Who To Hire: Smart People Who Get Things Done 9 Comments
by Michael Arrington on December 10, 2008

Google’s Marissa Mayer said a lot of interesting things on stage today on stage at the Le Web Conference in Paris. We covered the Chrome and Search Wiki news.

But the most important thing she said, in my opinion, was also the simplest. An attendee asked Marissa how she went about building her team over the last decade.

Her answer: “I like to hire people who have two traits. They’re smart, and they get things done.”

She also talked about the joy of working with a team where every member was passionate about the project. But the key message resonated. Smart people who aren’t closers tend to flail. Small startups get rid of these people fast because they stand out. But sometimes they can find a place to hide in larger organizations where they fester like a cancer. If a company the size of Google can avoid hiring them in the first place, it’s a serious competitive advantage.

From my own experience, team members that you can rely on to just take on work and complete tasks are rare, but worth spending the time to find. It’s not always clear from interviews or reference checks that they have these traits. But you know within a month of hiring them. That’s why most of the people we hire we try out for a month before either side commits. And we also end up hiring a good percentage of our interns on a permanent basis, too. After spending a summer with them, you know what they’re made of.

Does Your Product or Service Stick Out in a Crowd?

In our efforts to define the value of our web based service to our customers, Matt and I have learned a great deal about the concept of the "Competitive Adavantage".
Seasoned experts will tell you (or at least us) that a true company is built on an unfair or competitive advantage and that success is largely based on how strong or defensible the said advantage is.
Here is how I see it, and I am in no way an expert, infact I still have a lot to learn, so take this all with a grain of salt.
A competitive advantage can come in a variety of forms:
- Go to market strategy (Apple, Hulu, Rent.com)
which can include but may not be limited to partnerships, relationships, exclusive deals.
- Defensible technologies or methods (Microsoft, Oracle, Guinness Beer)
which can include but may not be limited to patents, licenses, methods, ect..
- A unique and clear understanding of your serviceable market and how they use your product or service (Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin)

If you have not defined your competitive advantage yet, fear not, as all is not lost.
I have learned that listening to your customers is more important than trying to build something defensible, after all, if you build something your customers will not use because you focused your efforts protecting it instead of using it, you most certainly will be the only person protecting it and using it when the smoke clears. A perfect example was/is all the digital music copy protection issues over the last 5 years.
Some of our greatest ideas for Asirent came directly from our customers. They know what they need and they know what they want. Do not assume anything, ask a lot of questions, build solid relationships and grow your advantage from there.

How to Bootstrap Your Way Past Recession by Noobpreneur on December 5, 2008

This post comes via SDYE member Caleb Granger!
Thanks Caleb for bringing the post to our attention to share with our other members.

How to Bootstrap Your Way Past Recession

It’s time for entrepreneurs to do what they are supposedly good at - bootstrapping.

I don’t know how about you, but I view business owners can only call themselves entrepreneurs if, and only if, their main focus in business is cost-cutting - one major element of bootstrapping.

The successful entrepreneurs I know are guarding their money like a maximum-security prison guarding prisoners - Money coming in is encouraged, and money coming out is inspected many times with security measures.

Those entrepreneurs are bootstrappers - In my opinion, only a few entrepreneurs start their career in the business world NOT as bootstrappers.

Bootsrapping tips

I learn from my fellow entrepreneurs on how to bootstrap your way to thrive in today’s recession - From what I learn, there are several similarities in bootstrapping methods among them; To name a few:

* They purchase everything on business credit cards - this way, they reap point rewards that can be redeemed with various rewards, such as traveling the world - this is effective as long as they pay their bills on due date to avoid late fees or other fees incurred.
* They do balance transfer - they ‘reshuffle’ their business credit cards, and transfer the balance - or aggregate some, to the most attractive credit card issuers offers possible.
* They always think, “Substitute, substitute, substitute” - i.e. if printing their own business card is cheaper, they’ll do it for sure.
* Their motto, “Save the money, save the world” - free advertisements, free classifieds, consignment, dropshipping, viral marketing, etc. are their keywords.
* They choose NOT to hire employees, if they feel hiring ones will not add to their business’ revenue significantly.

* They outsource - avoiding the headache and costs of having their own employees, they outsource and sub-contract non-critical business operations to a third party.
* They use the recession as their marketing tool. i.e. one of my colleagues use emotional or paranoia marketing to get customers in without costing a lot to attract them - one pitch example: “Don’t invest in today’s lackluster stock market that has bankrupted investors - invest in gold with us”

Focus on balance transfer

With today’s eminent threat on everything that incurs interest - credit cards, mortgages, business loans, etc. - doing a balance transfer for your business credit cards is, in my opinion, a must do.

I encourage you to consult your financial advisors or your trusted credit card issues about the possibility to do balance transfer.

Better yet, there are many websites on the Net offering advices and recommendations on balance transfer and which credit card issuers offer the best financing solutions.

One, single, best tip of all

Related to those I outlined above, I have one, single, best tip of all tips :)

Keep small, dream big

Keeping your business team smallish has its own perks: More responsive to changes, cost effective in running your business, and minimal bad-corporate-culture-thing.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know and befriend with run a 2 or 3-person company that rakes in six figures in US dollars, annually.

One last tip - never run your business on your own, if you are really serious about getting your business going through the recession - you need every help available.

Ivan Widjaya
Bootstrapping
The orignal post can be seen at www.noobpreneur.com

Bill Attinger - C-Level Startup and Turnaround Specialist AT SDYE's DECEMBER MEETUP

You are not going to want to miss this one!
With Mobile blowing up and opening a whole new marketing and technology channel for most ventures, it may somehow tie back to your strategy!
Come meet Bill Attinger at the Dec.9th SDYE meetup up in La Jolla!



Bill has been a leader and innovator in growing, financing and grooming young companies for almost twenty years. His specialty is helping young companies install a sound strategy critical and the necessary corporate governance, processes and culture on which to grow and succeed. Bill prefers to do this as a full time member of a company's management team, but also considers opportunities to help a company as a Director or on an Advisory Board member.

While most of Bill's experience is in bringing new technologies and young companies to market, he is becoming increasingly involved in helping stalled or struggling companies turn their operations back around.

During his career, Bill has founded three companies, advised many more, grown venture-funded companies from conceptual to operational within nine months, secured investment capital from multiple investor sources and structured more than $1 billion of publicly-offered securities as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley.

Bill's industry and domain expertise is focused on wireless services and technology companies, with an emphasis on “SaaS” (Software as a Service) business models. His breadth of experience, however, includes other industries, including retail and manufacturing.
Specialties

Executive level experience in all facets of establishing an new operation or turning around a struggling operation, including strategy, organizing legal and operational infrastructure, recruiting, developing marcom materials, building financial forecasting models, recruiting, defining pricing structures and partnership/channel models, writing business plans, and devising scalable sales and pricing models. Subject matter expert on mobile marketing & wireless, SaaS models and startup businesses.