A couple of my rules for startups

My buddy Jason had a GREAT post about rules for startups. Read it, love it learn it.

Of course, anyone who has started a company has their own rules and guidelines, so I thought i would add to the meme with my own. My "rules" below aren't just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them as well.

1. Don't start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cures All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but are cheap

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keeps everyone in tune with what is going on and keeps the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show them how to use the lock on the john. There is nothing private in a start up. This is also a good way to keep from hiring execs who can not operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over their secretary, run away. If an exec wont go on salescalls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista... ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. NEVER EVER EVER buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, its ok to buy for your own folks, but if you really think someone is going to wear your Yobaby.com polo you sent them in public, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money

11. NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm. A PR firm will call or email people in the publications, shows and websites you already watch, listen to and read. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them an email introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communications with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out 100 dollar bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or 10 for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party :0

These are all off the top of my head. But they have worked for me so far.

[markburson]

Mr. Cuban -- I recently just read you had hip replacement surgery. I too am coming up on my year anniversary of my surgery and I have made a complete recovery. I am looking to field a team of seven other endurance cyclists all with hip implants to compete in the 2009 Race Across America. This is the bike race that starts in Oceanside, CA and finishes in Annapolis, MD. I know you are great sports fan -- is there any posibility you would be interested in joining my team or becoming involved in the efforrt. I am doing this to let people know that hip surgery doesn't signal the end of your life, but can actually herald a new beginning. If you are ineterested here is my contact information. [e-mail] -- 310/309-6625. Thanks for listening and continued good luck with your rehab. Mark Burson

[branov]

Superb piece of recommendation. Every rule is worth following it.

Thank you very much! :)

[tammylc]

Words to live by. We own a small family run general store. Sounds like small potatoes, but when all of our competitors are closing around us and we are still standing strong. You are correct in every aspect.

[Magiquesystem]

Hey :) very nice blog and very cool advices !!!!

Hi mr cuban i have loads of contacts in china so i was just asking myself, as a businessman what would you do if u had the oppotunity to do some business in china ?

i mean in wich sector you ll try some invest ???

Let me know !!!!!

Keep up the good workkkkkk and go Mavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvs !!!!!!!!!!

Peace

Sam

[madflacker]

Excellent tips to live by, and much appreciated as the founder of a start-up. I think your point about not using a PR firm is a bit off the mark, however, because it doesn't take into consideration the running start that hiring a PR firm can induce. In other words, leveraging other folks' connections and taking advantage of the network affect of people who know a lot of journalists in a specific knowledge domain. Plus - you always have to weigh your in-house resources and do the cost analysis on whether it makes sense for your company to be chewing up internal time to do media outreach. Also not to mention the fact that many otherwise great business people are lousy writers / communicators (i.e., the common contraction "it's" that you butchered 4-5 times in the posting, which you probably paid someone to ghost-write ... contrary to your own point about paying outside PR firms). There is no one size fits all answer to whether / not to hire a PR firm ... it's a combination factors. Agreed, however, that power of email from a founder is exponentially more powerful than note from flack.

As a Warriors / 49ers fan, I must take the opportunity to say how annoying it is how Dallas pro sports teams find ways to inject their personality into their teams' events. I'm so tired of watching your contrived theatrics as you disagree with a foul in the playoffs (just like I'm sick of seeing Jones storming up and down the sidelines). Isn't it enough that you OWN a pro sports team? With full appreciation for the fact that you earned your own money and have considerable business achievements, isn't there something to be said for the days when the public could watch sporting events without watching owners build pomp up their celebriye on the sidelines?

Rules of owning a professional franchise:

1- Sit in the owner's box and don't go out of your way to become a footnote / spectacle in playoff games.
2- Don't own a team in Dallas unless you like good regular season win percentages, followed by severe emotional letdowns in the first or second round of the playoffs.
3- Don't trade for formerly great players that severely convolute the chemistry of your team 3/4 of the way through the season.
4- Don't be the guy to go on record about how awful the officiating was (that's the coach's job)

[colsgrumps]

Mr C-

Many thanks, start-up dude myself.

help:
pls ad an HD tv station (lovin it) that is meditative in nature. ie waves rolling in, birds chirping, fireplace lit.

would help those of us sleep, impress a certain lady, or make great room or office "art"-something other than CNN in the background.

just a thought, love the blog!

[kirkmenne]

Question #1 - Is Lamar Hunt Jr. smarter than Mark Cuban, or just struck by lightning lucky he was born into the Hunt family. Lets examine the obvious, Lamar JR's father , original founder of todays NFL, crazy rich, tried in living memory to corner the world's silver market, great business mind, forward thinker, owners of the Kansas City Chiefs, prized NFL franchise, worth billions, sperm donor to the birth of Junior. Mark Cuban, self made ,creator of emense wealth, tech savy beyond words, entrepenur to be reckoned with, market force, besides owning the NBAs Dallas Mavericks, we must recognize his involvment with Microsolutions,Audionet, Landmark Theaters, Star Search, The Benifactor, HDNet, HDTV, Icerocket, Sirius Satellite Radio, among many other ventures, impressive to say the least, considering Mark was not born in to this, but did it himself. But, the scales dip slightly to Junior Hunt favor, go to www.chiefstravel.com, he has siezed the moment and is now trying grab a huge market share of what will be the largest travel provider in the world, will soon be the largest e-commerce site on the web and the company that in the very near future will be the largest franchise company on planet Earth. Incidently, Junior got in after me, go to www.slamdunktravel.com my site, except for the Chief's NFL logo, our sites are the same, I own a search engine more powerful than Expedia, that Barry Dillard paid 5.1 billion for ( Ipaid $449.00 for mine). I think in order to sway the jury and stay convinced that you, Mark Cuban are indeed smarter than Junior, email me immediately, you need to allow me to help the Dallas Mavericks, help you get richerand take this thing over, take it worldwide, get www.DallasMaverickstravel.com up and give a regular guy a chance to breathe the rarified air that you enjoy. Once we are on the same page, the question of who is smarter, you or another lucky trust fund child will be answered. I have three business idols, the afore mentioned Barry Dillard, Napoleon Hill and the owner of the Mavericks. Thanks for reading, lets go into business Mark, I am ready to go, I hope you are.Regards, your most avid fan, KM

[kingtoby]

Mr. Cuban,

Do you do any speaking engagements? I would love for you to be a featured speaker. Let me know. Thanks bud.

[jazzillykyla]

Mr. Cuban,
Warm Greetings to You. My Name is Bless Simmons Owner of Baskets and Quilts By Bless. My Store is Located at 2218 A South Bowen Rd. Arlington, TX 76013. This is My Second Year in this Location. When I Heard about your Stimulus Plan I got So Excited, Hopefully My Business will be one of those Business that You will Help.
We Hand Quilt Everything. We have Baby Quilts with Different Designs and Something that You don't See in the Store. We also Make Custom Orders. Our Most Popular Product so far is our T-SHIRT QUILT We make them with your own T-SHIRTS. We have made the Irving Fire Department a Twin Bed Cover with their Logo all of them was Impress on the Quality and the work that We put in their Quilt. We have Made the Logo for the State Fair of Texas and Fun Central in Arlington as Well.
Mr. Cuban I have a lot more Ideas for My Store the Only Thing that Stopping it is My lack of Capital and The Inventory that the Store Needs. Thank You for Your Time and I'm Praying that My Business will Benefit with Your Stimulus Plan.

Sincerely,
Bless Simmons

[tiasbakery]

Dear Mr. Cuban,

This is the second time I've posted in regards to your stimulus plan in hopes that I can catch your eye. Below is our business. Please take a look at it and let me know if you have any thoughts on it. You can email me at [e-mail]. I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Marilyn King

Tia?s Bakery
Scrumptious & Totally Healthy
1. Vision ? Tia?s is envisioned to supply all major specialty retail food markets on the West Coast within the next 3-years.

3. Mission statement ? Tia?s Bakery is dedicated to creating healthy, delicious desserts and pastries free of processed sugar and gluten to help improve the health of Americans, specifically those suffering from diabetes and food allergies, by bringing awareness to the benefits of a sugar free, gluten free diet.

4. Goals and objectives ? Tia?s goal is to establish a profitable bakery that will ensure a financially secure company by supplying a great tasting dessert alternative to those seeking a healthier choice.

5. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities -
Strengths: The owner is a former baker who specialized in creating wedding and other custom cakes. She has created all of the brand?s recipes. All of our desserts taste great, hence our tag line: ?Scrumptious and totally healthy?. Our products have been well received and are currently stocked in three specialty markets in the Los Angeles area. Tia?s is scheduled to begin selling in the Redondo Beach Whole Foods Market in early April. Our products generate a minimum of 66% gross profit per item sale.
Weakness: Our pressing challenge is lack of capital. Currently we rent space in a commercial kitchen to produce products. Although the kitchen contains quality commercial equipment, it was not designed to maximize processes unique to our particular needs. We lack adequate storage space for raw ingredients and finished products. We need to hire staff for production and distribution as well as purchase of vehicles and cooking/baking equipment. We desperately need funding in order to sustain growth and be able to supply this increasing demand.
Opportunities: We will begin selling at the Whole Foods Redondo Beach, CA. within the month and have received invitations from the bakery managers of the other 18 local Whole Foods stores.
Hotels, hospitals and restaurants could all benefit form the ability to offer great tasting diabetic friendly, gluten free dessert alternatives to their clients.

6. Strategic action plan ? Four family members are working full time. Our total investment to-date is $ 15,000.00. We perform free taste sampling twice weekly at the three markets where we sell: Erewhon Natural Food Market ? Los Angeles CA, PC Greens Gourmet Market ? Malibu, CA and Santa Monica Co-Operative market ? Santa Monica, CA. Our action plan entails hiring cooking staff, delivery staff and securing a larger commercial facility, where shifts can be run. After capturing the Southern California market, we would like to expand to the Northern California area, and then national. We are also interested in expanding out line to include frozen sugar free, gluten free desserts.

[txfb-charity]

Mr Cuban...My name is Amanda and I am an agent for Texas Farm Bureau Insurance in Kaufman, Texas and we are the title sponsors for a charity golf tournament to be held this spring to sponsor the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. The tournament is named in memory of a little boy named Tre' Vinson who passed away 3 years ago. The tournament is hosted by 11 year old Cody Struck, who was Tre's best friend. We would like to request your support. During the tournament and dinner to follow, we will be having a silent auction. We have already received some items to raffle autographed by Stars and Rangers players. Please consider this request. My office phone number is 972-962-2116.

[Z1S]

Hello Mr. Cuban
Are you interested in investing in a startup like this?
http://www.sachaworld.com

[Z1S]

In case it fits your criteria I can provide you with the business plan.