Slides that accompanied Justin Kan's lesson on Startup Management Basics given at General Assembly December 5th, 2011.

1. Startup
Management Basics
Justin Kan
December 5, 2011 @ General Assembly

2. Qualifications?
• Founded Justin.tv: $7.9m funding, 45
employees
• Y Combinator Part-time Partner: seen a
few companies grow to 25-50 people

3. Typical YC Founder
• Young, passionate, domain expert /
technically strong
• Little management experience of individuals
or teams

4. Why this class?
• After Product Market Fit, recruiting,
managing and retaining talent is the #1
barrier to scale
• Will discuss the earliest stages of growth,
from founders to 20-30
• This is what I wish someone had told me
when I started

5. Part 1: Stages of an
early startup

6. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

7. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

8. Stage: Founders
• There is no formal process
• For the love of God: Choose a CEO now!

9. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

10. Stage: First Hires
• These hires are complementary skill sets
• Company is still very egalitarian, people
generally work as equals
• Individuals still contribute to many different
areas

11. Stage: First Hires
• Avoid the tyranny of the majority. Not
everyone can have input on everything.
• Often no clear direction is given. Usually
vision is non-existent.

12. Stage: First Hires
• Examples:
• Design

13. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

14. Stage: First Expansion
• Work load is taking off.
• Founders are pulled into new areas (eg,
sales and marketing)
• You start hiring people to fill in the old jobs
the founders were doing

15. Stage: First Expansion
• These employees are the most likely to get
screwed
• When in doubt, over-communicate
expectations

16. Stage: First Expansion
• Examples:
• First engineering hires on video

17. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

18. Stage: Specialists
• Now you start hiring people who have
specific skill that the founder don’t
• Need to worry about recruiting the best.
Congrats, now your job is to be a recruiter.

19. Stage: Specialists
• Examples: network engineers,
infrastructure, sales, ad ops, community
• Set goals in these areas.

20. Stage: Specialists
• Examples:
• Ad sales (bad)
• Community (bad)
• Biz Dev (bad)
• Ad ops (great)
• Network Eng (great)

21. Stages of a startup
Founders 2-3 founders sitting around hacking
Raise seed, hire a couple with complementary
First hires skills. Headcount: 5.
Series A. Hire people under founders. Product
First Expansion Market Fit. Headcount: 10.
Specialists Begin hiring domain experts. Headcount: 15-20.
Individual job functions begin to require >1
Teams people. Headcount: 20-30.

22. Stage: Teams
• Must start adding structure / hierarchy.
• Don’t make people who don’t want to
manage people manage people.

23. Stage: Teams
• Build teams around the best people.
• Make sure those people come from the
internal structure.

24. Stage: Teams
• Examples:
• Product Manager

25. Part 2: Common mistakes
by new founders

26. Fear of “Managing”
• Don’t create a secret cabal
• Be transparent when possible. It is ok if
certain people have authority.

27. Confusing lack of direction
with empowerment
• You are probably experts in your area
• People want direction
• People want to know how they will be
evaluated

28. Confusing taking input with
having to follow all of it
• Brainstorming sessions
• Don’t be afraid to say no.. or better yet, let
the person in charge say no

29. Not creating an explicit
hierarchy soon enough
• People want to know who to go for for X
• “Founder” is not a job
• Who is in charge of what?

30. Not setting clear
expectations
• Be explicit about success conditions
• Success conditions don’t have to be
complicated
• This will help reduce micromanaging

31. Not setting clear
expectations
• Be explicit about success conditions
• Success conditions don’t have to be
complicated
• This will help reduce micromanaging

32. Not having regular 1:1
meetings
• Set 30 minutes aside every 2 weeks for
each person you’re directly managing
• Don’t discuss the state of projects
• Do discuss productivity, blockers, your
expectations, what their goals are, how
your company can help them achieve their
goals

33. Not providing outlets
for feedback
• Create regular times when people get
feedback
• Examples: after spec, after mockups, before
release, post release

34. Not communicating
motivations
• No one is telepathic
• Don’t expect your employees to guess
your motivations
• Understanding motivations helps smart
people accomplish those goals

35. Not communicating
assertively
• 4 kinds of communication: passive,
aggressive, passive aggressive, assertive
• When someone does something wrong:
• Passive: I don’t say anything
• Aggressive: I get angry
• Passive aggressive: I pretend things are ok

36. Not communicating
assertively
• Assertive: I address the issue without
attacking the person, explaining how I feel

37. Doing things yourself
• It is tempting to jump in and do things
yourself when things break down
• If you are the manager this is not your job:
you are the leverage

38. Questions?