Andy Price’s Post

Getting some VC-backed definitions straight - Job Title & Equity Version. Seeing a lot of confusion and pain here. 🤪 Founder Definition Timeline: not a job - its your life, started early, dedicating "as long as it takes" Role: full-time, contributing to a major role in the business, not just through connections or advice Risk: understand that their upside is in the outsized equity they have. Don't always get paid a lot. Willing to leave other things behind by the time they raise VC money. Equity: double digits percentage-wise 🦾 Strategic hires (CTOs, CROs, VPs, founding engineers, etc): Timeline: a job, but some serious committment, multiple years (3-5+) if things go well Role: ties directly to building or selling in the early days. Risk: get paid well, but maybe not what they would get paid elsewhere. May keep a side hustle here or there, as the responsibility to investors and company is slightly less. Equity: low single digits or less. 💪 Early hires Timeline: this is truly just a job for most people, although it still takes a special kind of person. 2-3 year commitment typically. Role: They kind of do everything and often free up people above to do what they need to. Risk: get paid, but maybe not what they would get paid elsewhere. Equity: If they don't fall in the strategic hire level, don't expect a full percent. Maybe not even 1/4 of a percent. You are relegated to the option pool like everyone else, and there isn't much to go around. 🤓 Advisors: Timeline: could be long or short, but should be determined in advance what that looks like, including vesting Role: could be connections, domain expertise, $$$, clout, etc. Risk: they don't risk anything other than their reputation typically. They aren't working full time or risking other sources of income. Equity: Similar band of percent as early hires, but not if they are also getting paid. I have found lots of people who start as founders end up being advisors after a few months in the early days, and this should be reflected on the cap table. 👉 Know what your track is, and help everyone on the team know their track. Super important to have expectations aligned for the success of the company. #founders #venturecapital #startups

*** Exciting News *** Last week I was onboarded as a Fractional Chief People officer onto two internal Tech VC supplier networks in the US. My role there is to advise their portfolio companies around all things talent based including, go to market strategy on hiring, cultural alignment and hiring delivery. The benefit of working in this way is that I get to sit on the side of the VC and the Tech scale up, to fully understand the business needs, to create an intuitive plan and plug the opportunities into the right talent partner. Creating a win win and most importantly, heading towards our stated mission. “To reduce the failure in 5yrs ratio for tech start up / scale ups by collapsing the timeline to A1 Talent” If you’re a VC out there looking to support your portfolio companies, ignite their growth and save some money then you know what to do… #bettercallpaul We also have a small handful of rockstar start ups in our Founders and Funders program who we can introduce as your next investment… 2x VC meetings this week….🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🤞🏽🚀

Why I turned down $1,987,654. I was recently offered an executive position, with equity, as COO for a tech startup. 𝗜 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻! As the company begins to grow without me, I’ll never know if I actually turned down $2M.
(Maybe it will be more.) I sincerely appreciate the offer and opportunity. There were a couple of reasons why I turned it down. 1. I did not feel aligned with the vision. 2. Equity and compensation. If I feel a negotiation is... • Too far apart straight out of the gate, • Too many negotiating points, • Complications, I’ll avoid it. Also, I ‘preach’ a lot about vision and hiring talent aligned with your 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 and 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀. This is important if you want your business to sustainably scale. I wasn’t fully aligned with the vision. But, this startup will do great! I can also help them fractionally, when needed. Sharing this is not about the roads not taken, but rather the paths we choose to pursue. My focus remains on opportunities that → Align with my values, → Leverage my strengths, → Have a clear opportunity for growth. To the CEOs and Founders in my network: Especially those navigating scaling challenges, 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧: The right opportunities are those that align with… → Your vision, → Your values, → Your ability to execute strategically. I am always open to future equity opportunities. I am always interested in helping companies scale. I want to bring my operational expertise and leadership to foster growth and drive success. If you’re looking for someone to help… // Translate your vision into reality, // Sustainably scale your business, // Overcome operational bottlenecks, // Remove yourself from the day-to-day Then Connect —> DM me ----------------- I’m Jason King 🟠 Click my name → Follow → Book Appointment ----------------- WORK WITH ME I solve business scaling mysteries.   I drink coffee and I know things. ☕️

For my friends who are either Founders (or founders to be) as well as Executives. Below is a good view on the different sides of the same coin.

Attention Startup Visionaries! Before you start hiring people to join your team, make sure that your business model, capital planning, and asset acquisition are in place. Neglecting these key aspects can lead to irreparable damage, including delayed salaries, redundancies, and frustration. Take the time to ensure that your foundation is strong before building your dream team. #StartupTips #BusinessAdvice #EntrepreneurMindset #HumanResources

Founders want to have trusted and experienced executives by their side to help them scale the product and reach new heights. Executives are drawn to startups, eager to leave behind corporate bureaucracy and office politics. At first glance, it seems like a perfect alignment of needs. Yet, the reality is that founders and executives often struggle to work together. Why is that? - Founders expect experienced people to join and immediately start fixing sh*t. - Executives want 30, 60, 90 days onboarding. - Founders expect executives to roll up their sleeves and deliver tangible, early wins to maximize success odds. - Executives expect to start by building a great team that will follow their guidance. - Founders want strategic advice that considers resource constraints. - Executives assume the strategies that succeeded in past roles will be effective again. - Founders want a trusted lieutenant who can run the business in their absence. - Executives want to implement a series of processes to prevent all possible mistakes instead of making bold bets. This mismatch in expectations frequently leads to frustration for both parties. My two cents on the topic are: For Founders: Before hiring your first executive, consult with other seasoned founders who have been through hiring their first executives. Understand their challenges and what didn't go as planned. For Executives: Start a side hustle. Build it from 0 to 1. Use your own money. It does not matter whether it will be successful. Only then join a startup. 

Fancy hires don't mean squat. You can quote me anywhere. When my co-founder and I were running PAQcase, we hit a wall. We weren't sure how to take the business to the next level. So we decided to bring in a CMO-level executive with 20 years more experience than us. He had an impressive track record of building and selling companies. We thought he would be our silver bullet. But there was one big problem—we couldn't really afford his salary. That didn’t stop us though. We stretched our budget thin, assuming he would pay for himself. We were dead wrong. Our new hire wasn't willing to roll up his sleeves and do the actual work. Sure, he had grand visions and high-level strategies like building sales teams and launching fancy marketing campaigns. But when it came down to execution, he was nowhere to be found. As the founders, we were used to doing it all: Thinking strategically while also grinding away in the trenches. Getting on the phones, closing deals, putting in long hours. Our fancy hire, on the other hand, expected others to handle the implementation. There was a fundamental mismatch between his working style and what our business needed. What PAQcase needed was an exec willing to lead from the front lines. Someone ready to roll up their sleeves and dive into the nitty-gritty alongside us. But that's not what we got. I've come to believe that early-stage companies require a special breed of employee. People who are as hungry and driven as the founders themselves. Team members who will get their hands dirty and do whatever it takes to succeed. That mentality is rare among folks who are used to the stability of a steady paycheck. Most experienced hires aren't looking to take on the risks that come with building something from nothing. They want the upside of startup life without the personal sacrifices and sleepless nights. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with that mindset. It's just incompatible with the demands of a fast-moving, resource-constrained startup. My CMO misadventure taught me that fancy credentials don't guarantee real contributions. In the trenches of entrepreneurship, what matters most is a scrappy, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude. Grit and adaptability beat pedigree and polish every time.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a good weekend and this week is off to a great start for you. I have received a ton of messages and I'm going to try my best to get back to everyone. I also still have 250 resumes to sort through and have been working on creating roles that can be filled by people with operations experience in various sectors. I want you all to know that you are appreciated. For the record, I am not a VC because I came up on a bag of money and now I want to be an investor. Quite the contrary. I spent time researching and creating an investment strategy that I think has the potential to be very lucrative. Now I'm putting myself in position to raise the capital. I don't have the money to pay salaries or seed startups yet, but I will. When that time comes, I will start hiring and investing. Also, I've said this before, I do not care about your color or your creed. If you think you have a billion dollar idea and you want me to help you build it, feel free to reach out. Remember that Venture Capital is very much reserved for businesses with the ability to experience exponential growth. If you think you got one, holler at a player. I'm here for you. That said, I hope you all have a great week. May all your deals close and all your revenue be profit. Peace profound.

Is it better to invest in first- or second-time founders? I lean much more toward investing in second-time founders over first-time founders. The nice thing about second-time founders is that by the time they decide to be a founder again, you've already de-risked one of the main things, which is perseverance. I would much rather invest in somebody who is 100% going to stick with it and try to make it work, and is maybe 80% as smart, than the other way around. There are a lot of people who are smart but end up giving up because it gets hard. And it always gets hard. So when they're second-time founders, you know they're willing to put themselves through that punishment again. That alone is a strong signal to me. Plus, they've learned a lot the first time around. I'm much better because of what I learned building my first company. I also think clock speed is important in going from 0 to 1. Part of clock speed is assembling the best team to take you from 0 to 1. And as a serial entrepreneur, your network is so much better than a first-time founder who's hiring friends and anyone who will join at that stage. The caliber of person that I can hire today is far, far better than the person I could have hired when I started out. You can hire much better if your first company did well or if you sold it - this helps a lot when hiring employees who have the option to work anywhere. Is this a hot take or do you agree?

Making a bad senior hire is PAINFUL. What if it wasn't so risky? 👀 Five years from now, I'm betting startups rarely hire senior team members beyond the founders. At least not before $10M in revenue. It's already possible to build faster and cheaper without the headache and RISK. Recruiting, hiring, growing. It's all evolving to be more efficient. More proportionate. More scalable. The time will come when you have to commit. You have to put your chips on a few critical hires. And if you lose, you lose. Except that one bad hire at $10M ARR isn't likely to kill your business. Before, we took that risk WAY too early. There wasn't really any choice. But the days of building your senior team one: 🤞 Big Commitment 🤞 Chunk of Precious Equity 🤞 Guess at future performance 🤞 Fat pile cash and benefits 🤞 FTE ...at a time. Those days are on their way out. They are the: 🐢 Waterfall development 🐢 On premise 🐢 Web 1.0 Version of the startup playbook. Jeff Bezos talks about two types of decisions: 1. consequential and irreversible 2. changeable and reversible. It's important to move slowly on the first, while the second gives you speed. We've always treated senior hires like the first. Which is understandable. That's how it's always been. But it's not that way anymore. You can test drive an exec in 30-90 days on the fractional model. It might take you 3X that long just to get to a start date on a FT senior hire. In other words, you could have tested three senior hires AND seen their output in the time it takes to simply DECIDE to make one hire the old fashioned way. It's not perfect. There are trade-offs, for sure. But they aren't: 🐇 Speed 🐇 Repetitions 🐇 Cost 🐇 Pain And if you're on your 17th interview for a key hire... well you're sacrificing speed and cost, just to avoid the pain. There's a better way. Namaste. #cmozen #fractionalcmo #startupgrowth