Your Strengths

Tawfiq Arafat is probably one of the most important people in my business life. Taf, as we lovingly call em, is a world class monster brain when it comes to facts, figures, and math.  A genius to be sure.  Without him, my mistake count would be off the charts.  Nobody crunches numbers, remembers numbers, and makes magic out of numbers like Dr. Math.

Kevin Patterson is VC Taser when it comes to details. He doesn't miss anything and will stop, shock, -n- stun anything that isn't done correctly. No document, no agreement, no amendment, etc, leaves my hands without Kevin's review and approval.

These guys are the reason I have a prayer at being successful as a VC. And the jury is still out, to be sure.

I bring this up because the topic of teams consistently came up in the VC roundtables. I have one single and simple message that will improve your odds of success.

Surround yourself with people smarter than you, get out of the way, and focus on your strengths

• Jeremy Wright at B5 is building a world class team so he can focus on his strengths, bloggers and blogging.
• Marc Gingras at Tungle is doing the same so he can focus on his strengths, solving people's collaboration and meeting issues.

Both of these CEOs will proudly tell you what they suck at.  Ask them. They case studies in hiring smart people so they can do what they do best.

I can point you to many ex-VCs (speaking from the world I live in today) who were successful at some big software company but ended up flaming out in VC land because they weren't surrounded with smart people and they didn't check the ego at the door before writing checks.

What do you suck at and who's handling it?

Comments

[David Stone]

Great timing (for me at least). Just needed a kick to get me going again :)

BTW next time you're anywhere near Brighton, UK again, let me know. Was good meeting, if brief last time you stopped in.

[pat phelan]

Excellent post Rick
Surround yourself with geniuses, I live by it everyday.
A genius CEO in Sean O Mahony
The most amazing platform manager in Chris Kennedy
Without these guys I would be cooking you Pad Thai in Taste Of Thailand, Cork.

[Jeremy Wright]

Yeah, per our conversation yesterday, to me it's a 2-step thing. First, you find your weaknesses (and I have many) and hire people who are way better and way smarter than you at those things. Then, the second step, you figure out your strengths and try and hire to create lots of "mini-me's" with those in the company.

To me, and to you (if I remember our conversation correctly), you need both to rock the world.

One (weaknesses solved without strengths replicated) is good, but means that all decisions and strategy and such need to come from the top and that the company can't grow as well when the CEO is travelling/sick/vacationing.

[mark]

I completely agree with your post. No startup leader can do it all. Not if you're going to grow at the pace required to deliver good multiples.

I've known Marc(tungle)for a while. Now that I'm working with him, I'm still searching hard to find his weaknesses though. Still looking.... :)

[Farhan Lalji]

But is there things that a CEO/VC absolutely can't suck at? I agree with surrounding yourself with people smarter then you, but is there things you can source in others that you absolutely shouldn't?

[Ryan Brooks]

Great post. I think this is something that young entrepreneurs should ask themselves (including myself).

Personally, I think my focus should be on technology and innovation... Learning (very quickly I might add) that while business is something I can learn, I'm not as naturally adept at it or apt to succeed in some aspects as say, a CEO.

[Braydon]

Love this post Rick –

I think there are things you're bad at and there are things that you're good at, but you just can't sustain. For instance, I can read a contract and get it and find the issues and hit the details (unless it references external legal sources), but if I do that more than once a week, forget it. And if I have to do that over and over - I'm cooked.

And that actually represents the thing I am worst at: repetitive, detail oriented (and in my view, tedious) tasks. I could never do QA, I could never be a contract lawyer, or an accountant.

Some more of my failings:
1. I am a terrible graphic artist, don’t ask me to design or eval a graphic design (handling: our designer and me)
2. Following up on administrative minutia, I can do it, but I am not consistent (me, our bookkeeper, development staff)
4. I am lousy at politics, although I am good with people (me, our marketing director)
5. I am good at evangelizing, but rotten at selling (me, our marketing director)
6. Prolonged networking at social events knocks me out (me - ugh)

Now, I am 100% sure there are a ton of other failings and if I spent 5 more minutes, or asked my wife, kids or friends, I would get a much longer list, that would promptly send me to the psychiatrist. ;)

So I try to find detail oriented people who can handle the day to day minutia – and can capture a ton of it as it flows by. But that is not enough, I also try to find people who “seek”. They seek new opportunities, the look creatively at the world around them and ask tons of why questions – then they answer themselves. And when they answer them – they execute on what they find.

But the thing I look for most in the people around me is intellectual curiosity. In my view, that skill/talent is simply critical to anything you do.