In 1999 alone, Larcen consulted with over 28 startups and venture capital firms. So when a client recently asked us for a few critical tips for his startup, we developed an impressive list. Below you will find part one of our "Lessons from the Trenches."

PULL TOGETHER A NIMBLE, DECISIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Time is the biggest threat to the success of the startup. Often a "hub and spoke" leadership style emerges which bogs down the cross-functional communication and decision processes. The CEO must empower his team within the constraints of the strategy to make decisions independently while keeping all functions in the communication loop.

UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO "OVER-HIRE"
Startups cycle through various stages of organization development rapidly. The team who works well in the small and unstructured environment may not be the team with mature management skills for the larger, more complex organization. Thus, the CEO should anticipate the growth cycle and hire for a "scalable" organization rather than subjecting the organization to successive leadership transitions.

REALIZE THE ENEMY IS OUTSIDE, NOT INSIDE
Often startups find themselves embroiled in high stakes conflict with win/lose battles, which may result in a final draw. These battles distract the team from focusing on the real enemies - time and competition. The CEO must become very adept at building teams with highly diverse points of view and yet have respect for one another and are able to overcome conflict.

GRAB THE CULTURE AND MAKE IT YOUR FRIEND
Whether intentional or not, a culture will evolve in your company. You can either ignore this phenomenon or use it as a tool. Knowing the desired culture and then recruiting, rewarding and measuring people against the desired behaviors helps to create the performance-driven culture essential to success.

DEVELOP MID-LEVEL STRATEGY
Without fail, when Larcen is engaged to assist a startup, we find that the strategy is not understood and, worse yet, is not driving effective and efficient cross-functional behavior in the organization. Too often, strategy is intuitively understood by the senior executives but not communicated and cascaded down to the various functions.