Lessons Learned From Startup CEOs: Alex Blum

By Jason Goldberg on January 22, 2008 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (1)

As the CEO of KickApps (www.kickapps.com), Alex Blum is responsible for building a world class technology, marketing, business development, finance and operations team with the goal of providing web publishers the tools to easily enable their sites with user-generated content, social networking, premium video and content syndication capabilities.

Before joining KickApps, Blum was president and COO of JumpTV, a leading multi-cultural internet protocol television network. Prior to JumpTV, Blum spent eight years at AOL most recently as the vice president of product marketing for AOL's audience business where he and his team were responsible for re-launching the AOL portal and delivering an entire suite of web-based applications including: AOL's Video Player, Video Portal, Streaming Video advertising platform, AIM and AIMpages social networking service. Prior to that, Blum was general manager of AOLTV, where he established strategic relationships with DirecTV, TiVo, OpenTV and Philips Electronics. Prior to joining AOL, he spent 10 years in the software industry participating in three successful startup opportunities.

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

In Alex's own words:

I believe the most important lesson is that the people who join you in the early stages of a start up are more important than anything- including the concept for the business. Markets are more dynamic than ever so your great idea of today is likely to be tweaked or even radically changed over time so you need to have great people who can help you work through those issues and be prepared to adjust without losing the passion.
CEO's of start ups need to wear many hats but the most important one is that of a cheerleader. Nothing varies more than the emotional cycles of the employees of a start up. One day you are on top of the world convinced that you are sitting on a rocket ship more powerful than Google and the next day you read a blog post or learn of some new company or innovation that completely renders your idea useless. A CEO has to maintain the steady hand even while your gut is churning so that the troops will always feel the confidence and comfort that they are safe and sound.
The CEO needs to be more careful about choosing investors than mates. If you think the most important decision you make in life is who you will spend the rest of your life with your wrong. Take the time necessary to really make sure you like, respect, and can count on those who invest in your baby. Fair-weather investors and board members are a dime a dozen but those who can buckle up and be helpful when things get rough can be more comforting and helpful than any words of support from your spouse.
If your start up is in the business of creating software open things up as early as possible. It's critical in the early stages to have other technologists outside of your company love and respect what you've created and there is no better way to obtain this support than by having them participate in the process. Of course the other benefit is you'll have accelerated product extension and enhancements and you may even be pleasantly surprised by what the outside developer community comes up with. It could be a build on an idea or a new direction that you and the team hadn't even contemplated.
You can kiss the wife, kids, or girlfriend/boyfriend good bye unless of course they are your partners in the business which I don't recommend....