5 ms·
On my first startup right after university, we were doing an IoT device (hardware + software), our MVP was good enough to make a couple of sales amounting to 55
by gfarah 8y ago
On my first startup right after university, we were doing an IoT device (hardware + software), our MVP was good enough to make a couple of sales amounting to 550 consumers. At that point the board decided the best way to grow was to bring in “adult supervision” aka a seasoned CEO to run the company.
Even though I did all the software, I had only around an 8% stake in the company at the time.
The person in question decided we needed to “perfect” our product before taking it to market. She had us working 12 additional months and since we did not have “enough tests over the new features yet” she cancelled the 550 orders and gave the contracts to one of our competitors. At that moment I and the 2 electrical engineers in the team left the company and they ran out of money and close 6 month later.
Lesson learned: Big-corp CEOs don’t make for good startup CEOs 99% of the time.
- NNScientist 8y ago> Big-corp CEOs don’t make for good startup CEOs 99% of the time. Doesn't sound like she would make a good big-corp CEO either. Moving up a big corp is a very political battle and not a good indicator of actual competence.
- mikekchar 8y agoInterestingly, I wonder what the effect of you and the 2 EEs leaving was. If you had written any reasonable amount of software, that must have added an addition 6-8 months onto the 12 that they already estimated. Possible lesson: Don't piss off the staff in an early stage startup. Edit: spelling
- catwell 8y agoAlso probably don't give up a controlling share of equity too soon?
- fauigerzigerk 8y agoI trust that the product wasn't a health and safety critical device where having too few tests could have resulted in charges of criminal negligence.
- gfarah 8y agoIt was a consumer hardware device, not a safety critical device or related to health. Totally understandable in those cases.
- phonebucket 8y ago"Lesson learned: Big-corp CEOs don’t make for good startup CEOs 99% of the time." While this may be true, I don't believe it is fair to reach this conclusion on the basis of a single experience.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y agoI suspect a search would discover other supporting data.
- SkyPuncher 8y agoAnecdotal, but I tend to agree with it. Large companies are optimized for a different set of outcomes - usually including extreme concern about quality and public image. That doesn't fly in a startup.
- softawre 8y agoThe point of this thread is for people to share their anecdotes.
- gfarah 8y agoFair point. As other comment pointed out, it would be interesting to see if there is data around this.
- tixocloud 8y agoThat’s poor oversight by any CEO, big corp or not. In my view, the biggest asset is you guys, the engineers. Without you, there’s no product - should’ve focused more on landing prospects and contracts and getting them to define features rather than blindly come up with a go-to-market strategy.
- gm-conspiracy 8y agoIt doesn't sound like she was working for your company, really. Reminds me of kozmo.com at the end, when they started hiring "experienced" executives from traditional logistics companies. Best way to take out a competitor is from within?
- maayank 8y agoGetting to 550 consumers sounds impressive. How did you achieve that? Any resources that in retrospect helped you most?
- gfarah 8y agoIn our case we approached construction companies. After a lot of one on one talks, we convince a couple with upcoming projects to sell the new houses they were planning on building with our devices pre-installed and use that fact as a selling point when pitching to prospective home owners. Prospective owners then, could decide to opt-out from having our product pre-installed and save that cost, but the majority wanted it and that’s how we got those 550. From my experience hardware is hard all around and finding partners, even no traditional ones like we did on that occasion can help a lot.
- anitil 8y agoIt's these little ideas that make this place so great. Most of the time I would think 'I want to sell to X so I will try to sell to X'. This extra step of almost pre-selling and then making it an opt-out is such a brilliant idea.
- pq0ak2nnd 8y ago99% of the time? Sounds like 100% of the time since we're only talking about a sample size of one company. Serious generalization. More like "a bird in hand".
- EpicEng 8y ago>99% of the time... Serious generalization. More like "a bird in hand". id·i·om ˈidēəm/Submit noun a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light ). ------------ "99% of the time" almost never literally means 99% of the time. C'mon, don't be that guy.
- pq0ak2nnd 8y agoActually, I AM going to be that guy. I have zero tolerance for people who claim to be experts. You had one experience and used an idiom (incorrectly) to sound smart. So tired of smug upstarts like you.
- coupdejarnac 8y agoHow can you only have 8% equity if you did all the software? Did you take a seed round and give up a bunch of equity or something?