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KRISTEN KOH GOLDSTEIN FOUNDER CEO / SCALUS
KRISTEN KOH GOLDSTEINFOUNDER CEO / SCALUS
BACKGROUND
BEEN A PART OF NUMEROUS SUCCESSFUL START-UPS
Sold to Shopping.com / eBay (1999)
Sold to Tibco (2010)
Bootstrapped to $3M in 18 months
and raise $10M from Tier 1 VCs
Founded Scalus in 2014 as a spinout of BackOps
Complexity explodes exponentially when focus expands from building a product to building a company
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
1
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
1. Product
2. People
3. Process
ALL 3 “P”S NEED TO BE
IN SYNC
BEFORE NOW
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
Mythical man month is real— As you add people, building the company takes longer2
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
FEEL EXTREME PRESSURE TO RECRUIT QUICKLY
MUST RESIST
As CEO, your second (or third) full-time job as Recruiter starts immediately and lasts forever
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
31. People
2. Product
3. Process
HIRE SLOW,FIRE FAST
HIRING OUTSIDE VS. INSIDE CIRCLE
As hard as you try to prevent it, culture will change as you grow and battle rhythm becomes harder to maintain
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
41. People
2. Product
3. Process
COMPANY CULTURE
FAMILY VS. VILLAGE
Ability to discern bus drivers disguised as bus builders will make or break your company
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
51. People
2. Product
3. Process
SLOW CREEP
INVISIBLE TIPPING POINT
Builders Playing Offense
Output Focused (Results)
Drivers Playing Defense
Input Focused (Politics)
Without conscious deliberate change, the founding team risks becoming micro managers that destroys the company from within
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
61. People
2. Product
3. Process
FULL STACK AGILITY VS. REPEATABILITY
You may be tempted to invite more hierarchy than necessary
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
71. People
2. Product
3. Process
Tracking bottlenecks and issues becomes
a larger pain
Helping your people see the big picture must transition from a 1:1 experience to one of systematic scale and consistency
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
81. People
2. Product
3. Process
If your team can’t see the big picture, they will not execute well against it
The tension between empowering the team against the chaos of everyone determining ‘the how’ will consume you
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
91. People
2. Product
3. Process
The people doing the work have the best idea of how it should be done
RIGID ORDER FLEXIBLE EMPOWERMENT
Scale is actually more about consistent product or service delivery rather than quality of product or service delivery.
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
101. People
2. Product
3. Process
Rinse
Repeat
Rinse
Repeat
Consistency = Repeatability = Success
THANK YOU AND Q&A
KRISTEN KOH GOLDSTEINFOUNDER CEO / SCALUS
@kristenkoh
The 10 Things That Change When You Stop Bootstrapping (and Raise 10M)
