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Your explanations for why employees at an early stage startup might care about upcoming business deals seem to be missing the obvious one to me, that you’ve emp

Your explanations for why employees at an early stage startup might care about upcoming business deals seem to be missing the obvious one to me, that you’ve employed people who are thinking about the business as a whole rather than their tiny slice of the picture. The single most vital thing in an early stage startup is acquiring customers, and these deals are how that’s done, why wouldn’t one of seven employees at the company want to know about how the business is doing? I’d go far as to say if early stage employees aren’t engaging with every part of the business you’ve employed the wrong people because at that stage of the game there isn’t space for people who just sit in their box and don’t venture out of it.

trombone5000 4y ago
> why wouldn’t one of seven employees at the company want to know about how the business is doing? If the early-stage employees have significant equity in the company, then they'll be very interested in how the company is doing. If their upside is paycheck, bonus and equity proportional to their salary (as you'd find in an established company), then one employer is as good as another. I think the question of how much information to share is heavily dependent on how loyal the employees are to the company, and loyalty is almost entirely a matter of how much equity they hold (and more specifically how much equity they hold relative to the founders.)
- etothepii 4y ago
  I doubt this is true. I can believe that it's a good idea to give people equity at the margin. But in my experience loyal people are loyal. People who put themselves first put themselves first. I think there's very little correlation between how good people are and how good they think they are. Take a good, valuable or loyal employee and treat them badly and you can probably lose them. Take a bad, incompetent or disloyal employee and no matter how much you compensate them I suspect you can not change them.
- yAt8Pirng5fSxax 4y ago
  In my experience loyalty is almost entirely a matter of who feels trusted and valued... in which sharing information freely (or appearing to) is a major factor. Especially when that information is directly relevant to them and their own financial security - even if you're just making wages it's still nice to know that your employer is stable.
rmk 4y ago
It's not beneficial to have every single person at the company thinking about the business as a whole. Now more than ever, we live in an age of specialization and it's counterproductive for all the people at the company to be thinking about the business as a whole. That is why there are departments, teams, and other groupings with discrete responsibilities: the separation of responsibilities and focus on small, manageable areas of responsibility helps people do a great job, efficiently. This is true even with a company that's just starting, because there are way too many aspects of running a company for a single person to contemplate, let alone do efficiently or well.
- ketzo 4y ago
  thinking about =\= working on I can learn about my company’s deal flow and benefit from that without needing to spend six hours in Quickbooks It’s good for me to know the feature I’m building is important to a prospective customer who has an emphasis on security, even if I don’t sit on a call with them
- yAt8Pirng5fSxax 4y ago
  Those departments, teams, and other groupings - none of which probably exist in a 7 person company, by the way - have to interact with each other.
  - rmk 4y ago
    Yes, and trust plays a huge role in that more than anything else. Information sharing is unlikely to make a huge difference for a close-knit group that likely knows one another quite well to begin with. Even in a 7-person company, there aren't many direct interactions between disparate functions that are called for, or even desirable, for that matter. Employees and founders/co-founders have massively different incentives and need for information. Some functions, such as HR, actually rely on keeping a lid on certain types of information to function properly!
- borski 4y ago
  I would argue that the specialization you’re referring to is what causes very many early stage startups to fail. Before you’ve found product market fit, you need everyone to be thinking about the whole product, even if they’re not working on the whole product. Also, give “Range” a read. It’s a fantastic book and may help change your mind.

trombone5000 4y ago

> why wouldn’t one of seven employees at the company want to know about how the business is doing? If the early-stage employees have significant equity in the company, then they'll be very interested in how the company is doing. If their upside is paycheck, bonus and equity proportional to their salary (as you'd find in an established company), then one employer is as good as another. I think the question of how much information to share is heavily dependent on how loyal the employees are to the company, and loyalty is almost entirely a matter of how much equity they hold (and more specifically how much equity they hold relative to the founders.)

etothepii 4y ago
I doubt this is true. I can believe that it's a good idea to give people equity at the margin. But in my experience loyal people are loyal. People who put themselves first put themselves first. I think there's very little correlation between how good people are and how good they think they are. Take a good, valuable or loyal employee and treat them badly and you can probably lose them. Take a bad, incompetent or disloyal employee and no matter how much you compensate them I suspect you can not change them.
yAt8Pirng5fSxax 4y ago
In my experience loyalty is almost entirely a matter of who feels trusted and valued... in which sharing information freely (or appearing to) is a major factor. Especially when that information is directly relevant to them and their own financial security - even if you're just making wages it's still nice to know that your employer is stable.

rmk 4y ago

It's not beneficial to have every single person at the company thinking about the business as a whole. Now more than ever, we live in an age of specialization and it's counterproductive for all the people at the company to be thinking about the business as a whole. That is why there are departments, teams, and other groupings with discrete responsibilities: the separation of responsibilities and focus on small, manageable areas of responsibility helps people do a great job, efficiently. This is true even with a company that's just starting, because there are way too many aspects of running a company for a single person to contemplate, let alone do efficiently or well.

ketzo 4y ago
thinking about =\= working on I can learn about my company’s deal flow and benefit from that without needing to spend six hours in Quickbooks It’s good for me to know the feature I’m building is important to a prospective customer who has an emphasis on security, even if I don’t sit on a call with them
yAt8Pirng5fSxax 4y ago
Those departments, teams, and other groupings - none of which probably exist in a 7 person company, by the way - have to interact with each other.
- rmk 4y ago
  Yes, and trust plays a huge role in that more than anything else. Information sharing is unlikely to make a huge difference for a close-knit group that likely knows one another quite well to begin with. Even in a 7-person company, there aren't many direct interactions between disparate functions that are called for, or even desirable, for that matter. Employees and founders/co-founders have massively different incentives and need for information. Some functions, such as HR, actually rely on keeping a lid on certain types of information to function properly!
borski 4y ago
I would argue that the specialization you’re referring to is what causes very many early stage startups to fail. Before you’ve found product market fit, you need everyone to be thinking about the whole product, even if they’re not working on the whole product. Also, give “Range” a read. It’s a fantastic book and may help change your mind.