Start-up founders I’d want as partners

I love to observe start-up software companies in operation and the talent within. And, it’s made me think about who I’d love to have as a partner in any software start-up. In general, I’ve observed that successful companies succeed based on at least 1 of 3 factors in their respective CEO’s.

Unusually Charismatic Founder
Scrappy, Street-fighting CEO
High IQ Software CEO

Assistant professor of business administration Rakesh Khurana, Ph.D. wrote a book titled, Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs. Khurana drew on interviews with CEOs, board members, and executive search consultants, plus extensive data on the country’s 850 largest public corporations. In short, Khurana said that charisma and rationality cannot coexist and cited German sociologist Max Weber’s own studies on the matter; “Separating the individual from the office is one of the great victories of Western society.” Khurana found no evidence for the charismatic CEO and determined the person at the top matters less than the business situation itself. However, in a start-up environment I entirely disagree. Khurana never mentioned the need for dynamic CEO personas at the varied stages of company growth. Yet, this is something that the valley VC’s have known for decades. What start-up companies would be the companies they grew to become without the Unusually Charismatic Founder? Expedia? AtomFilms? SalesForce.com? Dare I say it? Had one removed any one of these three founders from their posts too early and the companies would not be where they are today.

Which brings me to the Scrappy, Street Fighting CEO. My former boss, Dave Pool, was the founder of Spry. Exactly before founding Spry Dave worked selling seafood for a Seattle fish distributor. Spry first sold fax machines and related office equipment. Then, they sold enterprise software. Then, they sold consumer software. Then, they sold to CompuServe for $100 million. Frankly, Dave is also a charismatic CEO. But that wasn’t his greatest strength. He’s a street fighter. He never had the high profile press or venture capitalist money at Spry. A google search on Pool basically confirms it. Little press but good outcome. He had gut reaction and “chutzpah”. In the right circumstances and to the right degree chutzpah may intimate spunk. But in the wrong situation or to an improper degree, chutzpah implies insolence. I suggest it simply need mean utter nerve and drive. I think Dave demonstrated that you can “force success”. The scrappy CEO does more with less. They achieve with less education or less training. They cut corners in a balanced way that benefits when it all nets out. They find inventive ways to save a few bucks. They compete without the highest paid employees. The scrappy CEO wants it bad. There are also many good examples here in Seattle. Brian McGarvey, founder of MyLackey.com didn’t fade away into obscurity. Most people don’t know he’s now VP America’s for a major division of Vivendi. The Scrappy CEO doesn’t quit until they are satisfied. Often, that means more (work) than 99% us are willing or capable of driving towards.

The High IQ Software CEO is often churned out by the software giants like Microsoft and Oracle. Locally, I’ve gotten to know a few CEO’s (most are new start-ups) like Alek Castro of Pluggd, Josh Hug (formerly of RealNetworks and now working on his own start-up) ,Dave Richards (former Real VP), Steve Banfield at Sony and Marcelo Calbucci at Sampa. This CEO understands the software process very well but also has a deep desire to be a start-up CEO. Typically, they are technically balanced. They could be called Solutions Architects or “Development Architects” because these folks have to master the development tools and frameworks such as Ruby on Rails or J2EE that are available to create the next great MySpace. They also understand the other disciplines well enough. They work with the operations group and provide opinion for the network, hosting servers, redundancy, security and other qualities upon which their application shall be delivered on. But above all else, they are great product managers who have shipped big products. They are technical leaders within their organizations or have strong influence over development teams. The best of them gain influence with peers and customers in the way they communicate—both verbally and in the documents that they write. They build confidence within the team because they solve problems or propose solutions in a studied, coherent way. They are able to balance desired software features with existing and future technologies against a backdrop of the business strategy. They are strategic thinkers in terms of putting solutions into production. Their developers hold them in esteem because they know enough to have useful dialog. These types of CEO’s typically develop the best products that delight their users. But in fact, CEO’s in this category do not get the label without having been battle tested first. Their skills can only be gained through years of experience. In short, the High IQ Software CEO is a geek who has shipped big products and who secretly always wanted to start their own company. Developers sometimes think they fall in this latter category but they do not appreciate the people skills required to be a part of it. Going before a board of directors to defend your position can be a pretty scary experience. They have to keep their calm and respond to many different questions and enjoy the sport of the process. Here, many developers fall short and don’t realize that they do not know what what they never knew in the first place.

Candidly, I’m always on the quest to find partners like this for Curious Office.

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Start-up founders I’d want as partners

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