Startups and angels: Along the way to success

Finders, Binders and Grinders

I heard someone say this at a board meeting the other day.  "To be a successful entrepreneur," she said, " you need to be good at a couple of these three traits - finding, binding and grinding."

That is, finders - those who discover new prospects for the enterprise - including identifying new people and companies to sell to, new markets, competitive advantages, - in a word the essential entrepreneurial selling skill.

Binders - relationship builders who keep the voice and the mind of the customer at the forefront of the company every day.  They make sure the company is focused relentlessly on the outcome its customers require to be successful - today and tomorrow.

And Grinders - the people whose passion for detail and quality makes the company real and complete in its actions.

Are you one of these?

Listen to Who?

Innovation is a tough go.  There are so many steps between an idea and something that will really work and fill a market need that a lot of rational people would never try it.  That's what makes entrepreneurs different, at least in part.

Yet the part after that is even harder.  Often the entrepreneur is now in uncharted waters - for them.  They know a market and a product - but as they enter the world of growth for their new startup, the cacophony of competing voices is overwhelming.

As one - perhaps small - example, think about corporate form.  There are good strategic reasons for an entrepreneur to decide to be an LLC, an S, or a C corporation - or maybe none of the above.

But whose advice you take in making this decision is fraught with future consequences.  Your long range view of your plans for the business, for example, substantially affect what the "right" choice might be.  Planning on keeping this enterprise forever?  Generating a lot of cash flow?  Maybe an LLC is wise.  Plan to sell to a larger, perhaps public, company?  Be breakeven along the way?  Maybe a C is wiser.

Why?

Right.  Making sure you know the answer to "why" can make all the difference to you later. 

Get the answer wrong and you can put yourself in a real box. 

The Big Idea

For those of you who did not see it, here is a 5 minute excerpt from CNBC's "Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" show a couple of weeks ago, on angel investing.  Let me know if you'd like to know where to get a copy of the entire 60 minute broadcast. Download the_big_idea.wmv