Some Comments About Rework

Dave and I are taking the less conventional road with Protoven. Instead of taking that one idea, raising an absurd amount of capital around it, leasing everything to our eyeballs, and praying that the 200 people we’ve hired can “execute”, we’re starting small.

We had an idea. We’ve had lots of ideas. But fundamentally we had ideas that have have turned into ideals. You see, we’ve been at this startup thing for most of our careers. We’ve never been the directly responsible decision makers, until now, but we’ve seen what has worked and what hasn’t. Let me contrast a couple of things for you.

In the early days at my former employer we had weekly staff meetings, that were quite enjoyable. We could sit in a circle and see everyone. We would discuss customer opportunities. I could look around the room, but at the end of the day I knew, if I didn’t jump straight into the fire to get things done, then there’s a good chance it wouldn’t get done. Everyone felt that way. There was a real sense of urgency. We were on the brink of a technology shift called adaptive streaming. I guess we were onto something because Microsoft, Adobe and Apple have all copied us. I consider that validation of the technology anyway. Rework talks about keeping the team small. I love the ideas of hiring when it hurts, making someone in the organization learn a job so they know exactly what characteristics and skills candidates need to do the job, and not immediately hiring replacements when employees leave. If you have no need to hire, why incur extra expenses? Reward your current people.

Another topic that Rework just nails is capitalization. Starting small, staying hungry, with the incentive of putting food on the plates of your children is great motivation to create something and get it out and testing in front of customers. Protoven is taking the long route to bootstrapping our own ideas. We understand the power of partnerships, and have taken equity stakes in some of the projects we consider “sure things”. For the most part our business is “for hire” work for clients at this time. We’ve structured income so that a portion goes into our war chest, and every month that war chest grows a little bit. Those funds will make it possible for us to afford a couple of months where we can focus specifically on our own projects. That’s what we feel comfortable with. This allows us to keep ownership of our projects. This let’s me spread around the big payoff with my great people. Raising money, as Rework mentions, means giving up control, and at the end of the day, profits. Find any means necessary to avoid fund raising.

These are just a couple of the dozens of gems included in Rework. The book opens by discussing the types of readers the book is meant for. If you’re reading this blog, that book is meant for you. Budding entrepreneurs or cubicle slaves alike, you’ll find some motivation to improve your situation.Order your copy today.

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