I’ve been interviewing startups across the UK about their quest for rockstar employees!  The idea is to give an insight into startup recruitment to folk who are interested in working for startups so that they might learn how to put themselves into a position of strength! Entrepreneurs might also be interested to see how their approach and perspectives compare to others’.

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(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

Introduction

A big thank you to co-founder Andrew Crump at Bluefields – a startup that aims to make football team organisation and management really easy – for making time to speak to me even though he had pulled an all-nighter and was clearly lagging from having worked so hard! Despite exhaustion he was warm and polite and happy to share with us his opinions and experiences of hiring.

WiS: Let’s begin Andrew! More and more startups tell me that they don’t like to use recruitment agencies. Where do you search for awesome employees?
Andrew: Well we found our front end developer through WiS! I found someone through Matchfounder and also we get referrals.

WiS: The recruitiverse is overflowing with advice about good-looking CVs. Is there anything specific you look for?
Andrew: Well for starters, I don’t look for degrees or judge a person based on the university they attended.  It’s impressive if you have a good degree, and it serves as validation, but it’s not what I look out for.  I hate boring CVs; our designer submitted a pretty one… but if you’re not a designer then just make sure you submit a simple, professional looking one.

I like cover letters as this is a candidate’s opportunity to communicate their personality, their behaviour, and their passion.  But recruitment documents aside, there are actually two main things that I look for…

WiS: And what are those?
Andrew: I look for someone who goes out and does stuff, a do-er, an enterprising person who can use initiative.  So for a web developer position, a candidate would need to show me something they’ve built and any sub-projects they’ve worked on.  I always look to see what else a candidate has done on their own – projects they’ve worked on in their own time, out of their own interest.

WiS: And what’s the second thing you look for?
Andrew: A learning disposition. We’re young guys, a young team, and we’re always learning and trying to improve.  I know that nobody wants to pay someone to learn on their own time but one of our developers learnt PHP on the job whilst working for us. One of my other developers came to me to ask about HTML5 and asked for books on development stuff.

I think that if someone is intelligent and they want to learn, then you should consider hiring them.

WiS: Right, you’ve decided it’s time to invite a candidate in for an interview. What do you look for at this point?
Andrew: I try to determine whether they’d fit into our company culture; and I look for honesty.  Candidates should be honest – about what they’ve done, what they can do, what they want etc.  They shouldn’t over-promise and under-deliver…but they shouldn’t underpromise either.

WiS: What could a candidate say in an interview that would make you sit up suddenly and take notice?
Andrew: An amazing response from a candidate would be “give me XYZ and I’ll try to put it together this weekend!”

There was this one guy we invited for an interview; his CV made sense but he was very nervous.  He tried to tell us what a mobile app is…that’s not a good sign… we know what an app is…

WiS: What should a candidate not say in an interview?
Andrew (smiles): Don’t say ‘I don’t like working as a team’.  Also, don’t bash the ex-boss. You may have had issues with the boss but find another way to communicate this.

Try to make sense. We asked one interviewee whether he liked sport.  He said yes.  We asked if he played football.  He said yes.  We asked which position he played in.  He said the midfields – but that’s not a position!
We still considered him because he had some good traits…he was passionate…he’ll get somewhere because of his passion.

WiS: How do you know if someone’s going to be right for your startup?
Andrew: It depends – you need to consider the size and age of your company.  In the beginning you need people in your startup who are entrepreneurial and can take initiative but eventually you’ll just need people who can execute on their role.  By the time you’re on to your 50th employee, if he’s a designer then you’ll just want him to concentrate on design.

You’re ability to do more than your core job is important but this doesn’t apply once startups get bigger.

We have an open desk in our office, and one thing we do to see what folk are like is tell them to come and sit there and hang out; they can use that space to work on one of their own projects or one of our own…it’s an early stage tactic. We leave the invitation open and flexible and see what happens – some of them stick and some of them don’t

WiS: When you advertise, are you clear about what you want and what you’re offering?
Andrew: Actually, who you want to hire and in which role is often up for debate. You might have four roles advertised but only have budget for one person.  This means you have to see which applications come in and see how many boxes each candidate can tick and then form a decision.

WiS: Finally, how proactively should a jobseeking candidate seek a response after submitting a job application/cv or attending an interview?
Andrew: I think candidates do need to push a little bit because we’re all so busy – I mean I didn’t sleep last night because there’s just too much to do.  Candidates should bug us; if a candidate cares enough to pursue it then I’m more likely to take notice of them amongst the sea of others.

There is this one guy who has sent me about 10 emails to ask about a job.  I haven’t seen his CV yet and I’m not that bothered to be honest…he’s been persistent and clearly wants to work here so I’ll probably hire him in some capacity.

Hirers might have a pile of CVs to get through and if someone keeps calling or emailing then that candidate will probably get put nearer the top of the pile.  Sometimes, there are so many CVs that this acts as a filter i.e. those that pursue will get considered and I’ll disregard the other CVs – there are just too many.

WiS: That’ll do for now Andrew. I think I’ll let you go and grab a shot or two of caffeine. Thanks for making time to chat.

Andrew: Sure, no worries!

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More about the company

Bluefields takes the headache out of organising and managing football teams.  It makes communication easy.  

How it works is that a sports organiser puts in relevant details and the system communicates to all players via SMS, email and iphone notifications etc for free. Players respond with a simple Yes or No and the system sends out reminder emails to those who haven’t replied and keeps you updated on all responses. An online clubhouse provides a space for match banter and an online payment system means organisers don’t need to worry about chasing payments.  If you organise sports you can find out more on their website: http://www.bluefields.com/ or twitter @bluefieldscom

You can find more on Andrew on his personal blog.

I’ve been interviewing startups across the UK about their quest for rockstar employees!  The idea is to give an insight into startup recruitment to folk who are interested in working for startups so that they might learn how to put themselves into a position of strength! Entrepreneurs might also be interested to see how their approach and perspectives compare to others’.

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(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

Introduction

Decoded is on a mission to demystify coding and make it accessible to everyone! This startup offers workshops to businesses to teach staff how to ‘code in a day’.

Bubbly and enthusiastic co-founder Kathryn Parsons, also co-founder of the agency The Scarlett Mark, is currently looking for new recruits and kindly agreed to have a chat with WiS about what she looks for during the recruitment process.  So listen up!

Bela: Firstly, code in a day?  How does that work?
Kathryn: We spend the morning putting code into context; there are lots of languages out there but we teach the web – HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Rather than just diving in, we show why these languages are important, where they’ve come from and where they’re going. We humanise the story and strip away the jargon

We also help eliminate the emotional barrier to learning how to code by making sure the environment is one where people can ask ANY kind of question without feeling uncomfortable.  By the time a group begins to code, everyone understands what code looks like – and we don’t leave anyone behind during a session so everyone is able to progress at the same pace. We’ve had some great testimonials. We’re now looking for more facilitators – these are the people who deliver the workshops.

Bela: What do you look for in job-seeking candidates?
Kathryn:  For the facilitator role, a good candidate would be a phenomenal communicator, very personable, and just absolutely brilliant in front of people.  They’d be able to simplify the complex – so a good teacher who comes with an ability to code in html, css and javascript.

We’ve just hired a guy who was a touring musician – so he’s got the creative side but he also has a PhD in maths and taught himself to code.  As a facilitator, you’re performing in front of an audience in a way, so we’re looking for actor/coders I guess!

Do you remember Eric Schmidt’s comments last year and the luvvy/boffin debate?  Well we’re hiring a nice combination of the two – someone who can demonstrate showmanship but is a nerd at heart!

Bela: What do you look for in people who want to fill any non-technical roles?
Kathryn: I need people for business admin roles.  These guys will be involved in setting up meetings, dealing with logistics, coordinating etc.  These roles will involve wearing many hats, as you’d expect in a startup, so I’m looking for hardworkers who are willing to get stuck in!

Any recent graduates who have some work experience behind them should get in touch. Decoded isn’t a place for candidates who are just in it for the money, but it’s exciting as employees would be much closer to the big decisions than they’d be in a larger organisation.

Bela: Where do you source your recruits?
Kathryn: Well, we mainly use our personal networks and go by recommendations.  Steve (co-founder) is extremely well connected and uses his network, and I use mine.  Ali (co-founder) did actually post an advert in the coding community.  So we use a mix of traditional and non-traditional methods.

Bela: What do you scour CVs for?
Kathryn: I look for any evidence of passion for working in a company like ours or about teaching people how to code.  It can be hard to demonstrate passion on a CV, as opposed to a cover letter, but this could be demonstrated on the summary section at the top of a CV.

Candidates should absolutely tailor their CV, and keep it short.  Also, the CV should cover the basics.

Bela: What do you mean by the ‘basics’?
Kathryn: Well we’re looking for people who have teaching experience, so if you have some – even if it’s TINY – you should mention this in your CV.

Also, we need to know about any technical experience, so even if there’s only a little bit, candidates should definitely mention it.  In fact, I’ve found that some of the best people out there, don’t know how GOOD they are! They are the ones who say things like ‘oh well I did this tiny thing blah blah blah’ and actually what they’ve demonstrated is exactly what we are looking for!

Candidates should be honest about what they can do and then we’ll try to offer them at least 30 minutes of our time and see how things go.  We try to do this as much as we can. At the moment, I am very excited at the talent that is currently out there.

Bela: What do you want to see in someone who’s made it to interview stage?
Kathryn: Zen!  We look to see whether a candidate will fit with the team.  We look for positivity and eloquence!

Those who get through to the second interview then have to present to each other.  So we look for the things I’ve described above…ability to teach, to simplify the complex, etc.  We also put coders and non-coders together and get them to code together.  Once they’ve passed this stage and been selected, they receive training to deliver the workshops!

WiS: Kathryn, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us.
Kathryn: You’re welcome!

(End of interview)

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Conclusion
Interestingly, yet another startup in this series highlighting the use of personal networks to source desirable job-seeking candidates.  So perhaps a better approach to blindly sending out cvs and cover letters would be to see if you know anybody that could refer you to the startup that you are interested in.  (That said, Kathryn did seem genuinely excited at the talent that’s out there so any curious, young, hardworking and ambitious recent graduates should email her on jobs@decoded.co).

In addition, it would appear that your ability to fit in with a team/company is equally as important as who you know and what you know.  Together, these three factors form the (cue dramatic music and deep, booming voice): Holy Triumvirate of Startup Recruitment!

Until next week folks…

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More about the company

Decoded  is working to get coding placed in the UK school curriculum in an effort to transform the skillset of the next generation of the workforce.

Founded in January 2011 and launched in August 2011, this startup offers workshops to businesses to teach their staff how to ‘code in a day’ in an effort to give them greater confidence in their roles and ability to communicate with designer/developer colleagues.

Workshops have been delivered to staff at BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty), Ogilvy, Omnicom, WPP, BBC, BBC Worldwide and O2.

You can find out more here: http://decoded.co/

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(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

This week I interviewed the intensely-driven entrepreneur Charlie Delingpole from the internationally expanding financial-tech startup MarketInvoice to encourage him to share his recruitment experiences with us, and find out what he looks for in job-seeking candidates.

Charlie has been advertising vacancies for various roles for some time now, and after viewing truckloads of CVs and conducting many, many interviews, certain roles remain unfilled.  I wanted to find out why.
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INTERVIEW

Bela: How do you find jobseeking candidates?
Charlie: Mainly through word-of-mouth, referrals, personal networks etc.  We don’t go to recruitment agencies.  It can take three months to know whether a new hire will be any good, and if they are not then you’re left with having paid a hefty recruitment fee that you won’t get back, and an employee that you need to fire. I’m not confident about the effort recruitment agencies put into sourcing and vetting candidates, and not convinced that the fee is worth it.

We have a good personal network which we rely on.  The best candidates tend to be referred but are usually already in jobs and quite successful.  Unfortunately these candidates are also already receiving much higher salaries than we can afford to offer!

Bela: You’ve been interviewing people for quite a while yet positions remain unfilled.  You get what you ask for but you don’t seem to want what you’re getting.  Do you need to be clearer in describing what you’re looking for?
Charlie: Well it can be difficult to know what we need in a candidate.  Take marketing roles as an example.  At the moment we’re not sure which marketing channels will work best for us, and this makes it difficult to judge which traits we should be looking for in a marketing professional – different marketing roles require different characteristics and skillsets in a person.  But I think you get a gut feeling when you come across the right person.

Also, rather than filter people out right now, I’d prefer to see as many CVs as possible.

Bela: Hmmm, you mention gut feeling…but this could be based on any number of things including the mood you’re in that day?
Charlie: Yes, it could.

Bela: So what should a jobseeker do to prove his/her worth?
Charlie: In an interview they’ll need to be able to defend their answers.  If they can’t explain their choices, and if their decisions and rationale fall to pieces under my scrutiny then they will not make the cut. To vet candidates, I may interview them many times.  I’ll keep questioning them, drilling down to the details, in order to see how they think.

Bela: What kind of questions do you ask?
Charlie: I’ll pose questions to simulate situations a candidate will encounter in the role they’ve applied for. Interviewees will be asked competency-based questions but again these will depend…e.g. if looking to fill a sales position the kinds of questions asked will depend on whether we’re looking for someone to do creative sales, consultative sales, telesales – there are lots of different types of sales.

Bela: The questions you ask, and what you are looking for, will vary from day to day if you don’t know what kind of vacancy you are trying to fill. Does this mean luck will play a factor on whether a candidate gets hired?
Charlie: Yep, but only to some extent.  I’m looking for very smart people and evidence of their ability to think.  Your thoughts affect your actions, which form your habits, which forge your character which determines your fate!

Cold, hard facts matter to me and so I look for things a candidate can’t fake.  E.g you can’t fake getting a first class degree.  Good grades matter – these demonstrate your ability to think.  References don’t help much – very few employers want to negatively affect someone’s chances of gaining employment elsewhere so they may say wonderful things about a candidate who’s been fired.  I need to look for things that can’t be faked or exaggerated.

Bela: What do you look for in terms of experience?
Charlie: Something tangible.  Can a candidate quantify the contribution they’ve made in previous roles? E.g. if involved in marketing, how have the marketing efforts affected company revenues?  Can they describe in specific detail what they’ve have learned, applied and affected? If not, then it’s useless.

For some roles we hire for potential rather than experience.  Again, a candidate would need to demonstrate their potential by quantifying their past efforts, clearly articulating their strengths and confidently selling themselves.

Bela: Will you bother to look at a CV if a cover letter is poorly written?
Charlie: I don’t care much for cover letters – anyone can write anything in them. Do you know what I mean?  So I look at CVs and scour them for excellence.  I don’t care about a candidate’s listed hobbies – waste of my time.  I look for things that are going to directly benefit my business.  I look for things that are off-the-wall impressive.

My business is everything to me and I work hard to make sure things get done. I’ll do things myself and work through the night rather than hire the wrong person.  You’ve heard the expression it’s better to have a hole than an a-hole, right?

Bela: Can you give a specific example of what you look for in CVs?
Charlie: As mentioned, I look for cold, hard facts. So aside from grades, I look at where a candidate has studied or worked.  So if they’ve studied at Oxford or Cambridge, or worked at places like Google, Proctor & Gamble, a big bank etc then they’ll catch my attention.

I went to Cambridge and I worked at JP Morgan, so I know firsthand how tough the selection process is; these places have tough recruitment processes and so it tells me a lot about a candidate if they’ve been accepted.

That said, you still need your basic skills to be up to scratch.  I interviewed someone from a big bank who was earning £45K but demonstrated poor spelling and grammar – he didn’t get hired.

Bela: Okay, so you want the best…and are you offering the best?
Charlie: (Smiles) Nope..if you were to draw a Venn diagram of the candidates that we’re looking for and what they are currently on or want, and what we can offer – there’s no overlap!

But I’m not going to make concessions; it’s an employers’ market at the moment and I can afford to be aggressive – I’d rather hold out for the right person and do the job myself in the meantime.

Bela: Out of the interviewees who were nearly ideal but didn’t make the cut, what was the reason for not hiring?  What was missing?
Charlie: An ability to sell themselves.  If you can’t sell yourself then you won’t be able to sell the product. I recently hired someone to do PR and marketing, and this candidate was able to push himself forward and sell himself.  If you don’t believe in yourself then why should anyone else?

Also, a candidate has got to really WANT to work with us; they’ve got to want to work with our team and they’ve got to believe in and want to work with our product.

Bela: What puts you off during interviews?
Charlie: I don’t like it when people say things and they don’t know what they’re talking about – e.g. when they interchange words and ideas as though they mean the same thing when actually they mean different things.

One candidate told me we needed to get our marketing synergy right.  When I asked him what he meant by synergy he said we needed to get our marketing strategy right.  He talked about the two things as though they meant the same thing, even when I quizzed him on it, and they don’t!

Bela: When can candidates ask you about equity in your startup?
Charlie: You can’t just come in and demand equity.  Firstly you need to prove yourself and make yourself indispensable.  Then you can ask about equity.  Same with salary.  If you come in at a low salary and prove yourself during your probationary period, then you can ask for your salary to go up – that’s fine. But if you come in demanding a high salary and fail to prove yourself then you can expect no mercy! You’ll be fired if you can’t deliver.

Bela: That’s plenty of insight for now – thanks Charlie
Charlie: No problem, you’re welcome!

(End of interview)

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Conclusion

So there we have it.  Charlie acknowledges that while he needs to hire more people he can’t be sure about what he needs, can’t pay enough, can’t vet candidates, and won’t use recruitment agencies.

The setting of selection criteria such as good degrees from prestigious universities is a risk management exercise.  Employers want to avoid the risk of entering into a relationship with an employee that will be a waste of time and money. There is an expectation that the better your grades, or the higher the quality of the institution in which you have gained your education or work experience, the greater the likelihood that you are a quality candidate and able to perform well.

This is not to say that people who don’t have these credentials are incapable of being effective and awesome…but it does mean that such candidates will need to work harder to prove an ability to deliver and that they don’t present a risky relationship.

In a nutshell, job seekers must get better at articulating what they can do and quantifying their experiences to give employers a solid picture of what kind of performance to expect and to present themselves as a sound investment.

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More about the company

MarketInvoice is an online marketplace where businesses can selectively auction their invoices to a network of high-net worth and institutional buyers raising flexible working capital.

The way it works is that an invoice seller auctions an invoice at a minimum value and maximum fee.  Invoice buyers then make offers of how much they’ll advance and the fee that they’d like to take.  The invoice seller picks a buyer and the auction closes.  The seller receives the advance in their account that very day.

When the client pays the invoice, the invoice buyer gets their advance returned as well as their fee.  The invoice seller gets back the difference between their advance and the invoice total – minus the fee paid to the invoice buyer.

Market invoice then takes a fee from either side. Simple. Check their website for more information…www.marketinvoice.com

I’ve chucked in a few images to break up the text here but otherwise these helpful tips are all his!  I am hoping for many shiny pearls of wisdom from Mr Black over the coming months so watch this space….

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So you’ve decided to have your web site/business cards/logo redesigned and you’re going to hire a professional designer to do it. But how can you get the best from this strange, tieless, jeans-wearing creature?

Well, there’s no doubt that designers can be odd, and the design process can seem impenetrable and arcane.

But there is actually method in the madness and there are things you can do to help your designer create something that’ll both do what you want and suit your tastes. So here’s our quick guide to briefing a designer…

Describe Your Target Audience

Your designer needs to understand who buys your products or services since they may not be one of your customers themselves.

Quickly summarise a target audience – how much do they usually spend per person? What countries are they from?

Set the Design Aims

What do you want the design to do for your business? Do you want more customers? Fewer customers paying more per person? Do you want to look like a bigger company? A friendlier one?

Put down some aims – they’ll really help your designer fit the design to your company’s needs.

Brand Neighbourhood

You probably know a few of your competitors. In fact you may even daydream about strangling one or two of them. But they’re probably not all idiots…look for two or three of the ones who have designs you really like and give a reason why you like them.

Designers often work with customers in a lot of different sectors and may not understand your industry well, so it’ll help if you can show them who the leaders are.

The No-nos

If there are colours you really hate or companies your design must absolutely not look like at any cost, tell your designer.

Designing for someone you don’t know is a lot like buying a present for a stranger: it has to be really nice but that’s difficult if you don’t know the recipient very well.

Sack the Committee

Design is highly personal and very subjective.

Be careful who you ask to look at a design. Ask enough people and eventually you’ll find one person who really, really hates it.

Restrict your review team to the real decision makers and pass changes to your designer in batches, not one at a time.

Remember the Triangle of Truth

There are three things every client wants: they want their design cheap, they want it to be brilliant and they want it soon. Unfortunately in this universe a client can only have two out of those three at any one time.

So the design can be brilliant and cheap – but you won’t get it until doomsday.

It can be brilliant and you can have it tomorrow – if you don’t mind a bill that’d embarrass a pelican.

Or it can be cheap and you can have it right now – but it’ll look like a dog’s dinner.

The Golden Rule

Above all else, designers are by and large sensitive about their designs and they really, really want you to like them. They can be thin-skinned and sulky but you can avoid this by following one easy rule: be constructive.

Being constructive doesn’t mean pretending to like things you don’t, it means that if you do dislike something, you say so – but at the same time you supply a better idea of your own for discussion. Just saying, “don’t like it” isn’t especially helpful – say why you don’t like it and what you’d like better so the designer can address those points.

You can ask the others who help you choose a design to follow this rule too. Everyone knows a colleague who picks holes in everything for the sake of it (you know who I’m talking about) and this rule can defuse disagreements which can end in partnership-ending screaming matches.

The Money

No one likes to talk about the bill. But it’s crucial to have a realistic budget in mind and be honest with your designer about it.

Don’t turn the budget issue into a guessing game where the designer has to read your mind (or wallet), hoping not to either underprice himself or price himself out of the running. If you don’t have a lot to spend, say so. A good designer who likes your company will always find a way to do something for whatever budget you have.

Dealing with a designer should be one of the fun things you do and a lot more interesting than most tasks!

Pick a designer whose work you like or even better just a designer who you like and follow the above rules.  You’ll stand a much better chance of enjoying the process and getting a result which will do your business some real good.

Good luck!

The reason is not usually because of technology.

The reason is usually connected to the project sociology.

What does this mean?  It means people.  We are a complex conglomerate of cells and when evaluating the success of IT projects most of us need to stop thinking that we are in the high-tech business and realise that we are actually in the human communication business.

This is what I’m getting out of the first chapter of Peopleware which is about productive projects and teams in the software development industry.  The book reminds us that though we develop our products or organise our affairs using technology components, we do so via teams and projects.

The authors studied 500 project histories from real world development efforts and found:

• 15% of all projects were cancelled, postponed or the products were never used
• 25% of projects that lasted 25yrs or more failed to complete.
• For a huge majority there was not a single technological issue to explain the failure.

I haven’t been involved in as many software development projects as these guys, but their findings do not surprise me.  In my limited experience, there are usually a variety of non-tech factors, usually relating to communication and information management, that hurt IT projects.  E.g:

• Failing to communicate any changes appropriately to the rest of the project team resulting in people not ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’
• Failing to check the documents from which you are working to ensure that you are working to the correct /most recent spec or brief
• Making assumptions about what is needed and not communicating those assumptions resulting in loss of opportunity for those assumptions to be corrected
• Not having decent (or any) systems or processes in place to effectively and efficiently capture incoming information and direct the flow of information within the organisation

There are many others of course.  So if we believe that people, and not technology, are responsible for the failure of development projects, what should we do about it?  I guess the first thing would be to reflect on our deeply held views on the people we are managing. Later this week I’ll relay what Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister (the book’s authors) suggest.

TV has changed significantly since then, of course, with the creation of on-demand (iPlayer) and hard drive recording (Sky+). Both of these models have turned the entertainment paradigm on its head: shifting from a pull rather than push medium. I can watch exactly what I want, when and where I want. No longer do I have to sit around waiting for the 8pm show before watching the 9pm show. As an aspiring productivity ninja, I’ve found that TV does not feature high on my sources of procrastination anymore. In fact, when I do watch TV, I really do want to watch it.

On the other hand, a bunch of other things have filled this void of mindless entertainment, the gulitiest of which is Facebook. Described as the ‘cigarette break’ of the 21st Century, Facebook ‘solves’ a problem in-built into our brains: the need for social connection. Just like a fag break though, while you might get the fun in the short term; in the long run, it’ll be detremential to your health.

Why?

To the normal, average person, being on Facebook is for fun. Its about keeping in touch with friends and checking out fun views and links that people have sent. It’s about that bit of fun you have while watching TV, or having a tea break at work.

For the startup founder, things are a bit more lonely – a lot of the time its hard work being on your own: even when you have a small team, you’ll find that a lot of your time is spent managing people and talking to investors/clients etc. and the amount of ‘frivolous’ discussions is not as regular as your normal 9-5er.

Hence, the need for that social bond is greater than ever – especially the desire to feel part of a community that the workplace environment does not necessarily provide. (Facebook fulfils that by having a ready made community of your friends for you to broadcast to.) Now, compounded by the desire to fill the void for mindless entertainment that on-demand TV has eliminated, you get this compound effect where Facebook checking is about as bad for your productivity as TV was back in the olden days: hours and hours of mindless entertainment. To an extent, this type of entertainment is worst: because with the TV kind, at least it provides escapism (unless you’re watching Eastenders, which is just depressing). With Facebook, it is pure mindless entertainment: hours reading through reading what your friends have been upto – even though in reality you haven’t seen that friend for weeks or even months. Do you really care that they’ve posted yet another photo of their vacation/kid/farmville award?

To an extent, I’m in two minds here. On the one hand, I would encourage FB use, especially when you’re on your own and need a set of cheerleaders to help you keep going.

On the other, I find that Facebook has sucked out time that I could have spent doing other more productive things. Whether that’s the numerous blog posts that I haven’t written, or simply some time out during the day to reflect on myself or the company, I have found that Facebook is now my number 1 procrastination tool.

In startup life, there will always be a ton of things that you have to do. It is up to you to create time and carefully decide what to do with it. So if you want the support, take it. If you want the time, take that. I doubt you’ll be able to do both.

For me, I’ve realised that I value time > social (at least for the time being). So for the next month, I’m going to run a little experiment. I’m going to not use Facebook and see whether I find the extra time (that I’ve been concerned that I don’t have) with the result of seeing 1) whether my productivity improves, 2) whether I will spend more time with people physically rather than virtually, and 3) whether I feel less connected.

Would you cut Facebook out of your life? What have been the benefits and negatives? What do you think?

Also read: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19939-why-social-networks-are-sucking-up-more-of-your-time.html

Angel investing is like marriage; it is the celebration of hope over statistical reality. So the world is celebrating the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton tomorrow and on a personal note of course it is something worth celebrating. But I have to admit that I am a complete party pooper and as a proud Republican I find the national celebration of a royal wedding depressing.

Many people do not care about it and perhaps I am worrying about the wrong thing. I just find the idea that we in the Commonwealth are still subjects rather than citizens depressing. We are supposed to show respect to members of this family purely on the basis of birth right rather than on merit.

My background is as a Sikh. A central principle of Sikhism is the utter rejection of the very cruel and barbaric caste system. The idea that your life ambitions and aspirations should be determined by accident of birth is a shocking and alien concept. People across the world are at this moment in time giving up their lives so that they can be governed by people that they elect rather than by the children of dictators.

I love the opportunities that this country has given me. I came from a very modest working class background and have not had that hold me back in any way whatsoever. However, there is the backdrop of the Royal Family which lets me know that I could never aspire to be the head of state of the country that I was born in.

Lets compare that to the USA. And it interesting to look at the USA where Donald Trump is leading the charge into questioning Obama’s Americanism (by the way I do think Trump is the perfect candidate for President as he has more experience than most of being able to declare a business bankrupt and then start out again – where the only losers are the banks and shareholders). The truth is that a black kid from the UK could not become the head of state for this country. It is also still true that a Catholic can’t become part of the succession.

It is still problematic for a Catholic to be prime minister of the UK (Tony Blair converted once he had left office). As someone who loves the entrepreneur space, I think it is wholly incompatible to believe in social mobility and the role of the crown. The principle behind the royal family is exactly the same as the principle behind the caste system.

And I concede that the problem we have in this country is that the queen has done a magnificent job as head of state.(Her first prime minister was born in 1874 (Winston Churchill) and her latest was born in 1964). So this is not an anti-queen diatribe but it really is about the principle behind it all.

So do celebrate the wedding, but please do bear in mind you are celebrating birth right over merit.

Via: Business Angel Blog

1. Leaders vs Developers – “… being a great leader is not always the same skillset as being a great developer. And neither is necessarily the same as being a great businessperson … The details-orientated, engineering mindset that development demands is also well suited to building a company, as long as this is accompanied by those empathic people skills and a willingness to learn. And in fact, the best developers areinformed, decisive, empathic, persuasive, selfless and great communicators.”

2. Be careful out there – “Even with a solid business model, the risks are large, and software entrepreneurs are disproportionately from wealthy, upper-middle-class backgrounds. (The first round of funding for new companies is often expected to be from friends and family. Could you ask yours for money to start a new venture? I wouldn’t want to.) It’s tough out there, and you’re unlikely to make money in the first few months.”

3. Know the risks and do it anyway – “I speak to a lot of developers who want financial independence from a day-to-day job, or worse, want to get rich quick, without any realistic ideas about what’s involved or the kinds of things they’ll have to do. The rewards – both emotional and monetary – are potentially great … Nonetheless, it’s not a decision to take lightly, and that’s something that I’m not sure the current set of angel incubators emphasize enough. Do it, but do it with your eyes and ears open.”

If you’re interested, you should definitely read the full article over at Ben’s blog. In addition, he’s currently busily sorting out the APIs for the first ever Scottish Culture Hackday.

Incidentally, you might want to also read the recent article by Tony Stubblebine on advice for a young entrepreneur.

Lesson 3: It’s all about the people

If after a while you find that someone is just not pulling their weight after you’ve given them opportunity after opportunity to shape up – then you’ve got to let them go.  What if you can’t find someone to replace them?  “I’d rather have a hole than an assh*le” is the quote that Reed shared to illustrate his point.

Lesson 4:  Focus on the small details

Details can make a huge difference.  Give people a reason to buy from you rather than the next guy.  Doing a thousand little things means it’s harder for competitors to figure out what exactly it is that you’re doing right and harder for them to copy you, than it would be if you worked on having one giant unique feature.  For example: rather than labelling their smoothies with a Best Before date, the folk at Innocent chose to use an Enjoy By date.  Sometimes they would throw in some ridiculous items into the list of ingredients on the label.  Food labelling is taken very seriously in the UK and they eventually got a letter from the authorities telling them to either add two plump nuns to their smoothies or remove all mention of plump nuns from the ingredients list.

Personally, I LOVE the fact that their packages contain messages hidden within the nooks and crannies of their bottles or cartons.

Lesson 5: Listening is free, and it creates value

I’m afraid I can’t remember any stories told during this segment of the talk as I was dying for the loo and also distracted by the trolleys of food being wheeled in (I know you feel me).  So I shall end this post by telling you that when I was only a wee girl I used to say “the reason we’ve got 2 ears and one mouth is because we’re supposed to listen twice as much as we talk”.  As a know-it-all adult, I find this easier said than done…