Lessons Learned From Startup CEOs: Ben Smith

Ben T. Smith, IV is an American entrepreneur who has held key roles in several large companies and start-ups. He was founding CEO of CodeGear (an established software company that spun off from Borland), was the founding CEO of Spoke Software, and is Chairman and Co-founder of MerchantCircle (a startup which provides an internet directory service for other companies).  [Source:  Wikipedia]

I asked Ben to share some of his key learnings as a startup CEO.

In Ben's own words:

1. Both is Bad, Both is always Bad, No Strategy should ever pursue both of anything.
   
   
2. Sales Guys Suck, An enterprise sales force will cost you $10M net to put in place, no matter what anyone says and will spend all its time telling you how to run everything else.
   
   
3. Revenue can hurt, Revenue always sounds good in early board meetings, but in some companies is bad.
   
   
4. Don't mix DNA, "Netscape" DNA and "Oracle" DNA don't mix well, they both think the other guys are stupid.
   
   
5. Consensus looses, No great experimentation and game changing risk is done by teams bigger than 10.  More than 10 people have to achieve consensus.
   
   
6. Risk is free,The crazier the idea the better,  The one advantage you have versus a big company where cash is free, is taking massive risk that is cheap and that the big guys can't really take.  The right decision for Yahoo or Oracle is never the right decision for a startup

• Don't Run out of Money.  Never Run out of Money.