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Archive for Wil Schroter

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Management (53)
March 4, 2009
The definition of a startup means you have very few resources to employ and little time to get them to do something valuable.  The clock is always ticking, and the money (if you even have any) is running out by the day.  With so little to leverage, you need to make sure that the focus of your company's product offer is as razor sharp as possible. Don't be all you can be.  Be as little as you can be.Most startup companies fail because they try to be too many things to too many people right from t ...view entire post
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February 4, 2009
When it comes to a startup, the luxuries shared with established companies are few and far between. Chief among them is the luxury to close at the end of the day. Big companies have the benefits of capital, customers and receivables.  Startups, on the other hand, have jack squat.  They need to work twice as hard to make half as much, and even then they’re not working nearly enough.  If you had any delusions going into this new venture that things were going to be easy and you were going to be  ...view entire post
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August 7, 2008
Take a look around your office right now and ask yourself – is everyone happy? You may think so. People may be working hard, putting in long hours, and cranking through project after project to get your new startup company launched. You may feel like you’ve got the entire team energized and ready to go at the office. But the real question is – are you winning the war at home? Startup company managers need to realize that attracting and retaining key talent is ...view entire post
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June 25, 2008
No matter how well your startup company does, sooner or later you're going to be faced with the fact that someone has to go.  It may be a disgruntled co-founder or it may be the intern that looked great on paper but turned into a disaster when they walked into the office. While parting company is a tough thing to do, there are definitely better and worse ways to go about it.  There's an art to ending a corporate romance on a positive note, and it s ...view entire post
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May 21, 2008
 Wil has written a new article in Forbes that explains how to lower your legal bills when starting a new company. "The most common legal expenses start-ups incur are associated with the process of incorporation. In the past, this often required either navigating a bunch of state or federal forms--or hiring an attorney to do it for you. These days, the entire process can be done online in less than an hour, for an average of $200 (before filing fees)."Read the Full article - How To Lower Your Leg ...view entire post
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May 1, 2008
In this episode, Wil discusses with Jim of MyPersonalBrilliance.com his formula to create an innovate company. Wil also explains how questioning your business decisions and the answers can guide entrepreneurs to a better company. You can listen to the second interview with Wil here. ...view entire post
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April 30, 2008
Hello there young entrepreneur, I’m your investor.  Remember me?I’m the guy that sat in front of your heartfelt and emotional presentation to raise capital for your business.  I listened closely to your entire plan, and made a few comments about what I didn’t think would work.  You of course ignored my comments and assured me that with the right amount of my money, you’d be able to solve all of your problems.I wrote you a check, you spent the money, and those problems haven’t gone away. So asid ...view entire post
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April 29, 2008
Wil Schroter discusses with Jim Canterucci of MyPersonalBrilliance.com his definition of success and the difficulties of evaluating the market for your idea. Wil also explains how to build a strong team for your venture, being aware of your weaknesses and how to best use GoBIG as a resource. You can listen to the interview with Wil here.  ...view entire post
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April 7, 2008
Sooner or later, no matter how sweet your new startup company is, someone is going to hand in their resignation.  It could be the gal you’ve been working with since the day you founded the company, or the person you hired last week.  Regardless, the thought of losing people may sound like a bad thing – but in fact it’s not. Not all employee attrition is a bad thing. I’m not talking about sitting around your conference room like Dr. Evil and eliminating anyone that doesn’t please you toda ...view entire post
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March 5, 2008
In the movie Liar Liar, Jim Carrey plays attorney Fletcher Reede, who’s been cursed with the inability to lie. Every attempt Fletcher makes to lie results in him blurting out the God’s honest truth instead.Imagine what would happen if an entrepreneur were cursed with the same affliction. What would their pitch really look like? The Sales Pitch “Hello, I’m Wil Schroter, and thank you for being the only client that was willing to return my phone call. I’ve borrowed my roommate’ ...view entire post
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February 6, 2008
Leading a startup company is nothing like leading a big, established company.  Startups are focused foremost on survival, while big companies direct their efforts toward growth or in the worst case, slowing decline.It’s natural that many entrepreneurs start companies with a task list that looks a lot like it did at their old job. After all, they’re likely coming from an established career in a big company. Big companies (usually) have the critical infrastructure in place and as inefficient as th ...view entire post
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November 19, 2007
In less than 2 years from its launch, YouTube sold for $1.65 billion to Google.  You hear startup stories like that and you start to ask yourself "What's taking so long in my business?" It's not taking too long for your startup to be successful.  You probably just don't have realistic expectations! Companies take a long time to become successful, if they even make it at all.  The fact that some of them start and blossom so quickly doesn't mean all other startups by comparison are ...view entire post
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November 15, 2007
Hiring startup staff is always tough because you rarely have the cash to pay salaries.  Instead, you beg, borrow and beg some more for people, time, and resources.  You settle for some weekend hours from a programmer, one night a week from a corporate CFO, and some off hours from a college intern.Sometimes those bits and pieces add up to something valuable.  Most of the time they don't.When it comes to recruiting staff, if you're not getting at least 51% of someone's time, the chances of gettin ...view entire post
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October 31, 2007
In Vegas, if you keep on winning, you can keep on playing all night.  But if you lose it all just once, you’re done for good.  The only way to ever get ahead in the long term, is to take some money off the table when you’re lucky enough to have it.Pouring money back into your startup is a lot like betting at Vegas.  Ideally if you keep winning you’ll be able to keep pouring money back into more growth, and more profits.  But if you lose just once and have already invested all the capital you had ...view entire post
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October 18, 2007
Becoming successful is a stressful process. Aside from the trials and tribulations of building a company we often create an entirely separate bucket of anxieties just worrying about our own career paths. We worry that we’re not already successful enough. We worry that we’re not growing as quickly as our peers are. We worry that if we can’t take our company public like that twenty-something kid did, we’re just not worthy. All of this anxiety is not only self-imposed, it’s largely se ...view entire post
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September 18, 2007
This is the second part of Free Labor Ain't Free at All (Part One of Two) So now you have a whole bunch of people willing to work for free, but how do you actually get some productivity out of them?  There are lots of misperceptions about what to expect of your free help once it's on board. Common Misperceptions about Free Labor 1. They'll stick around.  If you expect free labor to work just as hard and effectively as paid labor, that's the first mistake.  They will work as  ...view entire post
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September 13, 2007
We get a lot of requests at Go BIG by companies looking for interns, college students, and part-time work-for-equity types.  It's the golden resource - free labor - and it's what startup companies are best known for, since they usually have very little money to spend. But "free labor" ain't free at all.  It costs you in more ways than one. As much as it may sound great to have a pack of interns working around the clock trying to get work done, that theory doesn't usually hold up well in pra ...view entire post
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September 11, 2007
A lot of what I talk about is facing the challenges of building a company.  We tend to think of stuff like raising capital, bringing a product to market, and hiring staff as the biggest challenges. But what about the challenge of dealing with the people around us? A commonly overlooked challenge is the problems created by the people around us.  I'm talking about the friends you interact with both in and out of the office, the members of your family, and of course those working strictly agai ...view entire post
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August 30, 2007
Tell me if this sounds familiar to you: You're walking into the office, and you notice there's a management meeting taking place that you're not a part of.  New employees are showing up that you've never interviewed.  The investors are interviewing a "seasoned" CEO to run the company. You and your startup are breaking up - you just don't realize it yet. Ah, the sad cycle of a startup.  An entrepreneur busts his ass to turn his vision into a company, management comes on board to help (via in ...view entire post
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August 23, 2007
We all know the perfect scenario for doing a startup looks like this: 1.  I'll keep my current job (income).  Instead of sacrificing my lifestyle I'll just stay fully employed and eliminate any cash concerns. 2.  I'll quite my job when the startup takes off.  I'll keep working at my startup until the income from that venture surpasses what I'm currently making. 3.  I'll work nights and weekends.  I'll find the time I need in my free evenings and weekends to make up ...view entire post
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August 13, 2007
At Go BIG, we work out of a startup company incubator with about 40 other companies.  It's kind of like a big dorm room for startups, with every office being another company, another idea, and another opportunity. If you leave our office incubator on any given night, chances are you'll see my car in the parking lot long after the other cars in the parking lot have left.  Really that's kind of weird, since I've sold a few companies and should be living it up while these other guys are still stu ...view entire post
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July 31, 2007
I was having lunch with a good friend of mine who was talking about acquiring a new startup company. When I asked him if there was any overlap in duties, he responded "Well, at the CEO level yes, but we're going to put the new CEO into a 'special consulting' role going forward." There are lots of ways to be shown the door as an executive.  Being given a meaningless, bad title is the weapon of choice for acquiring companies. If you've been given or about to be given any of the following titles ...view entire post
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July 3, 2007
Last week I was talking to an incredibly talented developer from a local startup company about coming over to Go BIG. He told me that he liked his existing company, and his stock was fully vested, but since he joined a few years ago, he didn't get the sense that the company was still growing (although it was).  He lost the excitement that drove him to that company and kept him there.  He lost it because the Founder stopped cheerleading.  He was ready to leave. As the Founder, it ...view entire post
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June 27, 2007
As entrepreneurs, many of us one day dream of trading all of our hard work for a big fat paycheck from an acquiring company. It's the stuff headlines are made of, the cover of a magazine showcasing a newly minted millionaire beaming with delight at his newfound wealth. Selling your company sounds like holding the winning lottery ticket to heaven. But dealing with your company after you've sold it can feel more like a trip through hell! Most entrepreneurs don't really understand what being acqui ...view entire post
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June 18, 2007
Many entrepreneurs go from "working for the man" to "being the man" with the start of a new company.  What gets lost in translation is what you can and cannot say to your co-workers along the way. There are lots of things you can't tell your team - these are my favorite three. Before I start, though, let me first say that I'm all about transparency.  The more you can tell your team the better.  It's just that not everything is appropriate. Leave it at home - Whether you spent al ...view entire post
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June 13, 2007
If even remotely qualify as being a young person, go start a company. This is the one time in your life where you can bet the farm without worrying about the consequences. If you succeed, you’ll win big. If you fail, the consequences are so minimal it barely matters. Now you may think that it can’t be that easy. You might think of a million reasons that you’re not ready to start a company. And while some of them may be valid, there are a few incredibly valuable reasons why starting a company whi ...view entire post
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June 5, 2007
(Author's Note - This was written to be sarcastic.  I got some people fired up about the article until they read the comments!)  For the past 14 years I've played the role of "evil startup boss."  I'm considered "evil" not because I'm literally doing something bad but because I'm the mouthpiece of your tired startup reality.  I'm the guy telling you to stay later, work harder, forgo pay, and risk more.  I'm the guy your spouse hates.  I'm the reason your childre ...view entire post
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May 30, 2007
Staying focused on the big picture of your corporate vision is difficult when you’re mired in the details of the day-to-day operations. Yet staying focused on the day-to-day details is what makes your big vision come to life. So how do you do both? There’s a bit of an art to managing the present while focusing on the future. The goal is to stack up the details in such a way that they continually build a stairway toward the big vision. Having a ton of energy and enthusiasm for the future is of co ...view entire post
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May 16, 2007
Sometimes the most brilliant thing an entrepreneur can do is pack his stuff and go home. There’s a time to go big, and then there’s a time to go home. Let’s talk about going home. We’re not talking about flushing your dreams down the toilet and going back to the crappy job you couldn’t wait to leave. We’re talking about knowing when to let go of an idea that truly isn’t working to make time for one that is. Not Every Idea is a Winner As en ...view entire post
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April 18, 2007
In the movie Blade Runner, there were a species of sub-humans called Replicants that despite their human appearance and actions were just robots. In order to discern a replicant from a regular human, one had to administer the telltale Voight-Kampff test. The Voight-Kampff test involved a series of questions designed to evoke an emotional response from the subject. Humans would answer the questions with passionate, emotional responses. Robots would answer the question like, well, robots. Recentl ...view entire post
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March 16, 2007
A few days ago I was having a whiskey with Phil Kaplan, the Founder of AdBrite and the famed Web site, F*ckedcompany.com.  As another serial entrepreneur, we had a lot in common. Phil and I were talking about the evolution of our startups, and where, as entrepreneurs, we are most effective.  Phil just hired a CEO at AdBrite, which is the hallmark of a startup Founder handing over the reigns. I told Phil that when we hired a CEO at Blue Diesel, the first company I started, I was pretty  ...view entire post
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March 7, 2007
The hiring of a Seasoned Manager is a tried and true tradition among young companies. At some point we feel like the knuckleheads that started the company (that’s us) are suddenly unfit to grow the company. Inevitably we get lulled into believing the “Myth of the Seasoned Manager.” The myth goes something like this - there is some super-smart, experienced, well-polished professional that can fill in all of the gaps that we clearly cannot fill ourselves. Once we’ve found this miracle-worker, our ...view entire post
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February 28, 2007
Not all business strategies apply to all companies, especially when it comes to startups. The worst advice often comes from "Seasoned Executives" that have spent their entire life in big company cultures.  They know what it means to grow big companies, but really don't know how their experience applies to small companies. Here's a few ways big company strategies will land you in a heap of trouble: Stop the Planning Big companies can afford to spend months creating marketing plans, business  ...view entire post
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February 22, 2007
I was reading an article from Fortune Small Business entitled "Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?" and started thinking about both sides of the question. Most entrepreneurs and investors seem to think the answer is "no" while most academics and students think the answer is "yes."   No surprise there. However, I would say people are asking the wrong question. Business can be Taught When academics respond to the question they talk about the business principles of entrepreneurship, like fina ...view entire post
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February 15, 2007
Of all your greatest accomplishments, how many of them were the result of a half-assed attempt to accomplish something? My count is exactly zero, despite many attempts. Yet somehow, regardless of this overwhelming statistic, we continually make half-assed attempts at ventures we expect to be a success.  What I would like to do is see you ditch any idea that you can't put 100% of your effort into.  100% Effort = One Success (maybe) Most of us are fortunate if we ever have ONE successfu ...view entire post
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February 13, 2007
Attrition is standard fare for startup companies.  The problem isn't so much losing people - you're going to lose them - it's how to detect and manage the problem before it becomes devastating. There are two parts to dealing with this problem.  The first is how to detect the problem before it happens, and the second is to react accordingly. How to know your employees are about to leave This isn't rocket science.  Your star performers are anxious about building the company and ...view entire post
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February 12, 2007
I've had the good fortune to sit on quite a few Advisory Boards for all types of companies.  In every case the intent is the same - get a bunch of smart people in  a room and help solve some of the problems the company is having.In theory it sounds great, but in practice, most Advisory Board meetings fail.Here are 3 suggestions for making your next Advisory Board meeting succeed:1.  Solve Problems, Don't Recite Updates Email everyone the updates prior to the meeting.  Spend 15 minutes at most r ...view entire post
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February 6, 2007
It's entirely possible that you will be overwhelmed with work this week, put in 80 hours, and still get nothing meaningful accomplished.  Of course you're working hard - you've got a task list a mile long and you're motoring through it as fast as possible. The problem is that completing tasks often keep us from achieving goals. Goals versus Tasks It's easy to get lost in a series of tasks at the expense of your goals.  Goals are the big things that you want to get accompli ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Imagine for a moment that you’re on a lifeboat desperately rowing your way to shore. You’re not alone, though, you’ve got a handful of people that you trust helping you row like crazy to save yourselves. If everyone works together and works hard, you’ll make it to shore safely. Now imagine what would happen if some of the members of your little crew weren’t rowing. Imagine if they were just sitting back and watching everyone else work like mad while they simply watched and ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Entrepreneurs often ask themselves when the right time to start a company might be. They hang around waiting for the stars to align, for their moment of inspiration to hit, and for their career to prepare them for something big. Well I have some bad news for you. The stars will never align. The brilliant flash will probably never come, and nothing you will learn or do working for someone else will make you more ready to start your own company. Now here’s the goo ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
If you’re like 99% of the entrepreneurs in the world that have never started a company before, then there is one trait you inevitably share – you have no idea what you’re doing. And that’s just fine, because despite how much we pretend otherwise, none of us really know what we’re doing. Entrepreneurs are Type-A personalities comfortable taking charge and leading the way, so it generates anxiety when they realize (often without telling anyone) that despite all of ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
In the early days of the Wild, Wild West, a cowboy had to use his wits to survive in a brave new world. What worked in a civilized world -- negotiation, planning, and diplomacy -- were better settled with a six shooter and a 12 gauge in the Wild West. The cowboy didn’t have time to write a fancy plan for taming the west. He shot first and asked questions later because that’s how the job got done. It wasn’t the most elegant solution but it was certainly effective. More oft ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
In times of a sales crisis, companies turn to all sorts of activities to keep the ship moving forward and above water. They cut expenses, they lay off staff, and they look for more efficient ways to stretch their dollar. It’s the equivalent of the Titanic hitting an iceberg and the entire crew plugging the holes in the boat to keep the whole thing for sinking like a rock. The problem with saving a sinking ship isn’t that you can’t plug enough holes – it’s that you just ran ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
When is the best time to recruit employees, find capital, and go after brand new customers? When you don’t need any of them. A fast growth company becomes a fast growth company by smart preparation. Though there can be much uncertainty in a startup, they know they will constantly be hungry for resources. They take action to ensure that there will be plenty to eat, especially when they’re not hungry. The problem with waiting until you have an immediat ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Alright fellow entrepreneurs, it’s time for some tough love. I know you’ve mortgaged the house to make payroll. I know you’ve quit your high-paying executive job to work for nothing. And I know it’s taken far longer for this big idea of yours to ever make a penny. But you’re not the only one who’s suffered to start a company – so you’d better get used to it. Show me a successful entrepreneur and I’ll show you an entrepreneur giving blood, sweat and tears to mak ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Although startup companies tend to be small, they all share one unique advantage over their larger competitors - they are naturally agile. Small companies have the ability to make management decisions quickly and rally their entire team to capture emerging market opportunities while larger companies are still mired in committee. The trick is knowing how to leverage your smallness to take advantage of these opportunities. Craigslist - the enormous small guy  ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Some entrepreneurs like to gloat about their successes. Me, I like to brag about how often I’ve been rejected. And with the number of times people have shut me down, I have a lot to talk about. Unfortunately many entrepreneurs don’t share my brazen approach to utter failure. They look at their own failure and rejection as a Scarlet Letter to be worn shamefully which is a bunch of bull! As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not getting turned down, you’re not really trying. ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
If you’re one of the few entrepreneurs that have the opportunity to sell your business today and are contemplating whether our not you should, I have only one piece of advice for you – take the money and run! For every one entrepreneur that actually cashes out of their business by selling it to someone else or (hopefully) taking it public, there are a million who could have, should have, but didn’t. And they are wallowing in their sorrows wishing they had. The  ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
The definition of a startup means you have very few resources to employ and little time to get them to do something valuable. The clock is always ticking, and the money (if you even have any) is running out by the day. With so little to leverage, you need to make sure that the focus of your company's product offer is as razor sharp as possible. Don't be all you can be. Be as little as you can be.Most startup companies fail because they try to be too many things to too many people right from the  ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
When it comes to a startup, the luxuries shared with established companies are few and far between. Chief among them is the luxury to close at the end of the day. Big companies have the benefits of capital, customers and receivables. Startups, on the other hand, have jack squat. They need to work twice as hard to make half as much, and even then they’re not working nearly enough. If you had any delusions going into this new venture that things were going to be easy and yo ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
People read fantastic stories of companies like Google and label them overnight successes because they seem to have quickly grown so huge from nothing. While the rapid success of these companies is awe-inspiring, most of these “overnight successes” took a very long time to materialize. The myth of overnight success easily becomes the basis for a great deal of frustration among wannabe entrepreneurs and the people who get into the startup company game. They get six months  ...view entire post
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January 5, 2007
Take a moment to look around the room at all of the great talent you’ve assembled for your new startup company. You’ve had the long conversations over a few (ok, more than a few) beers where you’ve talked about how big and great your company is going to be. You’ve convinced people to trade their salaries for stock options because they’re so excited. You’ve assembled the most talented team you could possibly find. Now take a moment to consider this: most of these people wil ...view entire post
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December 18, 2006
We know that people can learn how to become better accountants, better salespeople, and better programmers. But why can’t we teach people to become more motivated? I had this discussion with a fellow entrepreneur as we tried to understand why the people around us didn’t seem to share our intense motivation. We tried to inspire them, coach them, and advise them, but in the end what we couldn’t seem to teach them the most important aspect of entrepreneurship – motivation.So why is it that motivati ...view entire post
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