The Scoble Start Up Lessons for You

The world already knows that Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft. The number of blog entries with opinions on him, the move, Microsoft, etc are numerous and varied.   Hit technorati, icerocket, or any other gathering of blog data and get your fill.

I’d like to just offer up some observations and things you can get out of this as you start to grow your own company.

As observed by Paul, this really does make a larger point about blogs, the blogosphere, than the individual.  For you, this means a few things.

Anybody can become ‘a Scoble’ (or Amanda, or Tara).

You need to remember this with respect to the people you hire. The ability for anyone to create “Brand Me” requires you to go beyond paying lip service to ‘the team.’  As you build the team for your start up, make it a team, a true team.  Some smart words and a bit of a following opens up opportunities to people that simply didn’t exist as little as 4 years ago.  Your job as a CEO when it comes to nurturing, encouraging, and managing your team is even more critical today than before.

Assume they blog and assume they will leave. 

The days of people working for a single company for life (or 10+ years) are basically gone.  Lay down a common sense blogging policy (to wit: use common sense) and simply stay out of it. Fire somebody for revealing confidential information, being a racist, etc, but beyond the ‘common sense’ part, steer clear.  And when they leave (they will), wish them the best, have them start the company alumni association, and remember popular bloggers who move on, will still do the “When I used to work at/for…” stuff so being nice, respectful, etc, will have an lingering (and hopefully positive) impact on your little corner of the world.

Share with the rest of the class.

If you go back and look carefully at some of the posts Robert did when there was something a bit controversial, Robert seemed to be able to get information, pass it on and encourage others to share.  If you are having a bad quarter, tell your team. If there is a product issue/delay, etc, share with the team. Having your team feel like they know only helps the company.  When you have to announce a delay in shipping a product, a hard drive crash or system outage, tell your team the truth and let them use common sense. Some people will be goofy, others with just get it wrong but that’s okay. It puts the human face on the company and nothing, in my opinion, is more important to a young company’s growth then the human face of the company.  People generally want others to succeed and if they feel like they know you, they will root for you.  It’s probably the single most important lesson you can get out of the Microsoft/Scoble ride; make it personal.

Read what they write and learn something.

This might look like advice to read/watch your team’s blogs with respect to the company. Nope. Read to learn more about the people. Again, if you look at Robert’s postings regarding travel, the equipment he used, bi-weekly schleaps to see his son, etc, you would have a road map inside the man on a lots of hot buttons/issues.  If you pulled the last 12 months worth of blog entries, you’d have a slam dunk on how to ‘keep’ the guy, beyond the obvious (more money). 

As a completely hypothetical example, meaning no disrespect to Microsoft or Scoble’s bosses as well as having zero inside knowledge, here’s a possible plan which might have kept the guy happy while at the same time giving Microsoft additional mileage. Suspend corporate nonsense for a second, assume he is valuable, etc, etc.

First, the bi-weekly trips to California. Lay up. Cover some costs straight up by simply giving him an office in the SV building and suggesting he spend some Channel 9 time doing Video Blogging on cool companies using MSFT technology. (again don’t analyze this, start the paid shill stuff, this is a management thing). Cover his commute costs, rental car and some allowance for a place to stay.  On the passion for technology. Lay up. Simply give the guy 20 grand a year to buy new stuff and blog about it.  On the travel/speaking all over the place. Lay Up. Instead of following corporate ‘policy’ with a corporate American Express card, have the Microsoft machine talk with Amex (of which Microsoft is a major client) and get him either Platinum level perks or get him a platinum card. Why? Two for one business travel, use of lounges, etc, etc.  Put a little arm twisting on Amex to get the guy some extra perks.

Now, again, I made all of this up but they are out of the box suggestions based upon reading Robert’s blog for the personal stuff.  My point here is you can (and should) do the same for your own team.  There are hundreds of clues people put out there and many of the things you can do will be low cost with extremely high impact.

So, the big guy is off to SV. I wish Robert, his lovely wife/partner Maryam, and his pretty/smart kiddo Patrick all the happiness in the world.  Enjoy the ride, Robert, enjoy the ride.

Comments

[Larry Borsato]

Sadly, if Robert wasn't already well known I don't think Microsoft would have tolerated him. As for Tara, it looks like Riya doesn't, and quite likely fired her.

I have never worked for a company that wanted me to do anything other than my job. Perhaps it was just my poor choice of companies, but they certainly wouldn't pay for me to travel around doing what I pleased. They have travel budgets after all. As a VC are you telling me that any of your portfolio companies can be as free as they like with the cash if they are paying a blogger to blog and travel around talking to people?

Did Robert increase sales at Microsoft? I doubt it. "Putting a human face on the company" is nice, but probably doesn't generate a lot of revenue.

These people increased their own brands more than that of the company, especially in Tara Hunt's case. Most of the best known bloggers seem to be consultants on their own dime.

And creating a plan to keep one person happy is probably not going to impress the rest of the company all that much. There are plenty of folks who work hard doing other things but don't get the glory or the perks.

[Varun Mathur]

In my opinion, it is better for startups to have a single company blog, where various team members can post, instead of folks having their own individual blogs. Not like googleblog, which seems like a very stoic press release blog, but more like 37Signals' "SVN". There needs to be some blogging discipline as well:
1) DON'T: Don't blog if it doesn't benefit the startup in some way.
2) TIME: Post occasionally. Time is of essence. Folks in a startup ought to minimize the time spent on blogging.
3) VALUE: Don't post just for the heck of it...deliver and gain value.
4) MERRY-GO-ROUND: Realize that what you say, can come back to haunt in some way, since the blog gets publicly archived.
5) COMPETITORS: Yep, they are the ones reading between the lines. Need to be very careful on what gets posted.

[howard Lindzon]

awesome

[howard Lindzon]

I mean awesome conversation - good post, good comments

[Robert Scoble]

Larry, I think Tara didn't bring enough attention to Riya. I haven't seen a good Riya blog out of her for months.

You can stray from the folks who pay your paycheck a lot, but you still gotta come back home once in a while to pick up a paycheck.

That said, I love Tara's stuff and she'll do just fine, thank you very much.

[Deborah Eastman]

I disagree with the comment above that startups should only have a single corporate blog. Doesn't that defeat much of the purpose of blogging, the "Naked Conversation"? Many people in startups are passionate about what they do, the technology the develop, and the market they serve. Blogging allows them to express those ideas and get feedback from others.

Bloggers should use ethics guidelines for what they share in this public forum, the same way they should not stand up in a group of people and share information that is inappropriate for public consumption.

I learn alot from reading blogs and then have the opportunity to form opinions and collect feedback. This is a great venue for communicating WITH the market!