Editor’s note: Veteran entrepreneur, author and blogger Joe Procopio talks about how one bad early hire can kill a startup in his Teaching Startup series.
DURHAM – Two years ago, an entrepreneur came to me with a dilemma. She had been approached by another entrepreneur who was being forced to wind down his own fledgling startup as his funding dried up. He was a one-person shop, he had made a decent run of it, but time was up.
Now he wanted to go to work for her.
I walked her through the dilemma. The guy had great tech and had been able to do a lot in a short amount of time with limited funds and resources. His was a tragic and all-too-common story. He raised a small seed round, crushed his milestones, a lot of investors were saying “maybe,” and he just ran out of runway.
Happens.
So I asked her: Where’s the dilemma? He didn’t want a lot of money or equity. He wasn’t looking for a specific role, but he came with ideas. He had connections, experience, and he filled a gap in a place she wasn’t super strong. He came with zero baggage. He wasn’t a jerk, no blemishes on his personal record.
She then explained, in a long, roundabout way, that he didn’t fit the plan.
Read the rest at:
http://teachingstartup.com/one-bad-early-hire-can-kill-a-startup.asp
(C) Joe Procopio
