• Be Smart and Thrifty, But Don’t Panic. This, Too, Shall Pass
• Marketing is Muscle, Not Fat. Be Careful About Cutting It.
• Don’t Lose Focus By Chasing Business You Wouldn’t Normally Want
• Don’t Discount
• Don’t Neglect the Elephant in the Room

In his last point, McKee drives home the point that as the leader of your company, you have to let your employees know that you’re on top of things and that you have a plan for guiding the company through tough times.

When John Crowley spoke about his days founding and running Novazyme at the TCN Year-End Gala Event, he recounted days when things looked bleak at Novazyme — they were running out of cash, or drug development wasn’t going as well as they hoped, etc. — and that he had to make sure he went out of his way to talk to his employees to tell them what was going on and project continued optimism. That was one of his “lessons learned” from starting and running a company: You have to remember that you are a leader and that everyone is taking cues from you on how to handle challenges.

Its a good lesson to remember: Being a leader not only means being the big boss giving orders — it also means being the lead cheerleader whether things are looking great or otherwise.

© Eye on Startups & The Startup Guidebook

While I was impressed with the company’s progress, I didn’t say anything, but I guess my face gave it away. He grinned and pointed to a cartoon graphic he had created — a picture of the purple dinosaur Barney with a red circle-slash on top of it.

“No Barney Deals,” he said.

That is, he didn’t sign any partner deals where all it did was generate “I love you, you love me” press releases, with no financial or otherwise strategic gains for either party.

He is so right. I have seen so many startups fall into the trap of chasing after a “deal” with an industry giant, with nothing coming out of it except a press release and press coverage by industry rags. The VP of Marketing looks good because he’s got a stack of positive press coverage he can show off, the company looks good because it looks like it is gaining traction, and the industry giant looks good because it looks like it has partnered with a nimble startup for innovation. But in the end, nothing of any real substance comes out of it.

The reason this happens is that these “deals” aren’t business deals at all, but are just publicity opportunities for everyone. For business agreements to succeed, the terms of the deal need to be clearly specified — whether sales leads, actual sales, or a warm introduction to target customer(s).

No Barney Deals!

© Eye on Startups & The Startup Guidebook