Awesome tool! This assumes a somewhat constant expense so it doesn't apply as much to SaaS companies with inside sales model etc.
Hope someone makes a version that applies to SaaS companies where expenses usually increase almost linearly with growth at least initially(until the recurring revenue begins to come in).
At my start-up, a typical new sales rep makes back his monthly salary from month two on-wards costing us marginal amount initially. In year two is when we make the real money(off renewals; with no commission to pay). If you are wondering why we can't scale infinitely, scaling ad reps is a different beast the adwords - though at time, it certainly feels like a machine similar to adwords :)
You rarely hear the raw stories of startups that persevered but ultimately failed — the emotional roller coaster of the founders, and why their startups didn’t work out.
Great post. However, when guys paint the other gender with a similar broad stroke as here, we go after them. I hope posts like this make it okay to state our general observations about the other gender.
That's because our culture is sick. Generalizations about gender has been the main stuff of art, literature, and personal correspondence for 500 years - only now are they offensive.
I just want you to know I teared up reading your post. I dont know the OP but I have gone through similar situation with my own father and am so grateful there are people like you trying to help total strangers.
I'm sorry, but that attitude is gross and only serves to worsen the problem.
You might be able to argue that "professional" behavior is not the standard in SV, I'll give you that.
But making disgusting comments like he did on Rap Genius, twitter, and his blog is not "normal" nor acceptable in any industry. We should all expect and demand better behavior than this from all business leaders- no matter what.
I can forgive someone for making a mistake. 1, maybe even 2 times- make a slip like this, realize you fucked up, apologize, get on with it. But he has a history of comments like this, and that's what has to stop.
With that said, I'm not sure I can get on board with firing someone just for making comments, as terrible as they might be. Is Rap Genius really going to be worse off by keeping him around than by firing him?
I feel like I can't come up with a strong enough argument to fire him, so why do it? The burden of proof is on the other side.
I think you're underestimating the usefulness of simply showing this document in a clean UI. I could care less about the annotation of this but found myself captivated by the contents of the diary on rapgenius, the same way as we get captivated by television footage of surreal events.
I also want to mention our equity is split three ways evenly with no vesting.
Woah. Never ever do that again. You've given away the one tool that is used to deal with the issues you list.
Not to mention no VC will touch you until you include vesting. But may be you've no plans to raise funding.
Now on to your question, I would begin by making sure that they are assigned goals that are as challenging as yours. If you feel they can help with growth, make that an official part of their day to day job. They will either succeed or fa at it. They will either work hard to achieve it or not make an attempt. Either case, when you make it "official", its good for everyone and gives everyone clarity.
A friend of mine was approached by a similar operation to help them acquire a merchant account. As part of due delegince he went to their office and did cursory research.
He got them the merchant account. And then he started seeing the money roll in. Within 24 hours he heard from his merchant company whom he had a relationship with. They alerted him to the scam. He immediately refunded everyone charged despite his "friend" begging him to release the funds.
They give India a bad name and will ensure no call center business remains.
It just tells you that we all have serious blindspots. These super smart people, if they took a step back one day to review their logic, they would probably be very embarrassed.
Hope someone makes a version that applies to SaaS companies where expenses usually increase almost linearly with growth at least initially(until the recurring revenue begins to come in).
At my start-up, a typical new sales rep makes back his monthly salary from month two on-wards costing us marginal amount initially. In year two is when we make the real money(off renewals; with no commission to pay). If you are wondering why we can't scale infinitely, scaling ad reps is a different beast the adwords - though at time, it certainly feels like a machine similar to adwords :)