The "How Many More Days to the Weekend" Employee

In his Mixergy interview, Andy Wilkerson founder of Parallelus, describes why he quit his last job:

I loved work. I didn’t know what having a job was, because I was just doing the things that used to be my hobby and getting paid for them. And as things changed, I started to dread going to work. I was… you know, (getting) stomach pains on Sunday nights, thinking about Monday. I looked forward to Fridays. That had never happened to me before. And it just wasn’t for me anymore.

And so, this is what he has decided for his co-workers at Parallelus:

I used to tell people when I interviewed them that we’re not just looking for the right employee to come work for us, but we want our company to be the right place for them. And if that relationship doesn’t exist, then one of us is in the wrong place, and we need to find the right one.

"Scalability is easy"

Andrew Frame, CEO, Ooma (Bio)

Source: Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner

The Podcast (mp3) - 56 Minutes, 25 MB
(Use Right Click > Save As to download to your desktop)

Highlights of the talk (links point to corresponding video snippets):

* "Scalability is Easy - If you have a leadership team that can scale, the company can scale"

A team member with both startup experience and big company experience is the ideal, since he/she can bridge between the two.

* "It's hard to start any kind of company. So, why go after a small market?"

* As the company scales, it's important to have a shared vision to ensure alignment among employees.

* Fire (wrong hires) faster at the executive level

"Go with your gut; don't rationalize""Praise (employees) publicly; criticize
privately"

* Create a board with "CEOs who've been there before" and build personal relationships
with each of them.