Pioneering state: How to survive the start-up period

Wen/Fu Shing

Wayne McVicker, the student Wehn Maikwick, wanted to be an architect and spent his spare time working in the architectural studio, but at the time he had revealed the "maverick" temperament of the entrepreneur. When the computer was just beginning to enter the office, he tried to integrate the new technology into his daily work and became the first person in the company to design with a computer. Only one months after getting his degree, Maikwick simply dropped out and threw himself into the architectural industry.

But then two things changed Maikwick's life: Building architecture for a hospital, meeting colleague Jeff Creck (Jeff kleck). The first incident gave him the first exposure to health care, and the latter became his important partner.

In 1996, Maikwick and like-minded Klencke resigned together to create neoforma.com, the first business-to-business company in the world's health-care industry. In just 4 years, the company was successfully listed, with a market capitalisation of $3 billion trillion. But the market and investors too much influence Neoforma after the expansion completely deviated from the two founders expected road, encountered some obstacles, Maikwick finally chose to leave, founded the attania.com. Looking back, Maikwick that the ups and downs of the Neoforma development are due to the anxious, failed to adhere to their own corporate culture.

Corporate culture determines success or failure

"Entrepreneurial State": For a start-up entrepreneur, how do you think you should choose a business partner?

Maikwick: My first venture partner was Klencke, when we were in different parts of the company but often worked in a project team. We have a lot in common and have a good time. More importantly, the Division of labor is crucial for any newly created company. I and Klencke Division of labor is very clear, but also a classic combination: a person responsible for internal, including technology, operations and other matters, the other is responsible for external, including customers, investors and so on.

I think that in the choice of entrepreneurial partners, the other party's ability is not the only condition, the courage to take risks is equally important. Ideally, it would be best to work with a partner before confirming that he has the necessary qualities for these entrepreneurs. If you have not cooperated before, both sides must carefully examine each other's background, the previous colleagues to his evaluation, in short, after in-depth understanding before deciding.

"Entrepreneurial State": What should startups do when they hire employees?

Maikwick: We've made some mistakes in this area, but soon we found out what kind of employee we should be looking for. For startups, recruiting for the first batch of employees is important, and these people will affect the corporate culture of startups for a long time. So the key is to find people who match the corporate culture you want to build, because once the culture is formed, it's hard to change, and the top 50 employees are best recruited by the founders themselves. As for the search process, more by feeling, a lot of people have a good resume and meter talk, but if you feel that they do not match the corporate culture, this situation to have a choice.

"Entrepreneurial State": What would you do if you recruited an unsuitable person?

Maikwick: Once you accidentally hire the wrong person, you should be able to feel it quickly. My suggestion is that we should not procrastinate so as not to waste time on both sides. Start-ups have limited money and should not spend money on unsuitable employees, and procrastination is equally bad for employees. Two years ago I recruited a man who felt good when I first started work in Monday, but I found out in the week that he didn't fit in with our corporate culture, so he agreed to leave the company on the weekends. Each company has its own unique corporate culture, according to its own culture to carry out relevant decision-making.

"Entrepreneurial State": corporate culture said many people feel very "virtual", how should the concrete embodiment of it?

Maikwick: Corporate culture is a very complicated problem. In general, it is mainly reflected in employee behavior. Some companies will set up some slogan "mission statement", but I don't think it's much help to understand corporate culture, so I don't do these things, mostly by action. With the technological change, the surrounding environment, financial situation, a company's products, services in 5 years will certainly change, but corporate culture will not. Corporate culture is not accompanied by a person, a product changes, even if the development of decades of the company, the same.

"Entrepreneurial State": you created the first enterprise Neoforma, in the process of high growth also encountered some problems, you now look back, what reflection?

Maikwick: Neoforma grew fast and we made a lot of mistakes. The first is to let employees take responsibility for the important things prematurely, and at the same time lack of communication and training with middle managers, the results are different, resulting in inconsistent results with our expectations. At this stage, we do not do enough in corporate culture, we must let everyone in the company understand the core values. When the company has developed to more than 40 members, the company's vision depends more on the middle managers to pass to employees. This is a very dangerous time, communication and a clear corporate culture is very important, once done badly, it will affect the company's performance.

Second, we listen too much to the investors, to make more money to inflate quickly, to go public as soon as possible, the companies involved in the business and products too much, looks very big, fast, but actually more focus on business development rather than products. It's a mistake that we don't have the energy to focus on our customers. You know, we end up getting revenue from users, but investors are more focused on the market, forcing us to put new products and hire people without being prepared. The new hires do not have a good understanding of our products and ideas and culture, which leads to problems with user experience and feedback. Although the reaction process is slow, it is gradual and more obvious.

Avoid the rush of haste

"Entrepreneurial state": After you left Neoforma and created Attania, how did you think about it?

Maikwick: First of all I want to say, although there are some problems, but Newforma still very successful. And I was very excited to start a second company, starting my own business again. In general, the second company created by a serial entrepreneur will not do what is associated with the first company, but I am different, Attania is also a health company, in fact I bought a part of the business from Newforma. The business didn't show the value it deserved, but I realized its value. For some time our business development situation is not good, but I insist that the direction is not wrong, to 2005 years or so, the business has been developed, we finally wait for the opportunity.

"Entrepreneurial state": What kind of countermeasures did you take when the company was in a relatively difficult period?

Maikwick: It usually takes a long time to build a brand. When the company was founded, even if users can search for your products on Google, it is also very accidental. Don't worry too much about market opportunities, let alone quick success. Microsoft produced Win2000 many years ago, and the product is still there, though someone has imitated it, but as long as Microsoft does it better. So entrepreneurs do not rush, first of all to ensure the quality of products and services, I believe that as long as things are good, there will always be returns.

However, when the company is in need of money, can not hire a lot of people, to control progress, limit investment, leaders to make timely decisions, to stop for a long time no output of the project. Enterprises should live within their means, promote cost savings, try to use low-cost publicity, as long as you can let others know what you are doing on it. It turns out that things that do not often invest much can produce the most effect.

Moreover, in the midst of the financial crisis, not only are companies facing difficulties, but many customers are also trying to save money. If your company can help customers save money, there will be a good opportunity, which is worth the attention of many entrepreneurs.

"Entrepreneurial State": How do you feel when you first started a second company?

Maikwick: When the first company's investors asked us to go public, we weren't quite ready. For the company now, I would like to lay the foundation, reduce costs, impact on the industry, pay attention to long-term return on profits. Listing is really a good opportunity, but I have no such consideration at present. Depending on the market situation and opportunities, sometimes the listing will have a good effect, but sometimes the opposite.

As for myself, because of family factors, I am not as energetic as I used to be, but I am more experienced, efficient and productive, and actually less stressful. For entrepreneurs, it's good to have a lot of energy, but it's not necessary. According to my observation, more than 30-year-old entrepreneurs tend to work in a long time, familiar areas of independent entrepreneurship, most of these people have families, not the urgent pursuit of entrepreneurial success, but can make better decisions.

"Entrepreneurial State": as a continuous entrepreneur with more than 10 years of experience, can you give some advice to a start-up entrepreneur?

Maikwick: The road to entrepreneurship varies from person to person. Some people are born to be good engineers, and there are always great ideas in their heads, some of whom will find partners and turn ideas into business. Another way to start a business is to see if there are any improvements in your daily work and life to look for entrepreneurial opportunities. This is the case with Klencke and I found that there are still deficiencies in the health sector and that it can be developed into a business. So entrepreneurs are usually skeptical about things around them and want to make them better. Entrepreneurs also have the ability to take risks because the vast majority of businesses fail and there are many competitors, which can be stressful.

When you choose to start a business, you may face a fluctuating life, but you may be comfortable if you don't start a business. So, my suggestion is that if you decide to start a business, you must be patient.

Entrepreneur 12 Rule

In the early days of the second company's Attania, Maikwick decided to write a book on the story of his first company, Neoforma, which is the "Start something" later. In order to record as much excitement and frustration as he had experienced in Neoforma, he spent two years collecting, collating and studying past data. In the end, this diary book is a complete description of the Neoforma from a few small companies into a market value of 3 billion U.S. dollars of listed companies, and then encountered difficulties, the rapid decline in the stock price process.

Maikwick in the process of the biggest sentiment and product or market independent, he realized, in fact, the enterprise culture in the deeper decision of the company's success or failure. This includes staff and cultural fit, managers how to adhere to the enterprise's own culture and development path, etc., although these usually belong to the category that the entrepreneur ignores. "It's equally important for entrepreneurs to deal with people-related things," he says, "but most people don't notice it." ”

Before and after the Neoforma listing, Maikwick experienced unprecedented pressure, "all kinds of problems are entangled together". He kept telling himself that things were always going well. When reviewing past experiences, Maikwick felt it was a valuable asset. In the book "Start Something", he summed up his personal feelings for the entrepreneur's more than 10 points of attention, Symantec Company co-founder Dennis Coleman (Denis Coleman) After reading, that they "spent many years to finally learn to understand."

The first is how to manage the internal company. To hire employees, you should first consider whether they are consistent with the company culture, followed by experience and ability. Small company employees are very easy to feel isolated and disoriented, when managers should understand the full communication, reasonable authorization, so that employees feel their own value. More importantly, after the authorization, the manager is not completely hands-off. Larry and Emma used to be Neoforma's two department heads, and because of their lack of communication and management, when the founders finally found out, the culture of their department was not in tune with the company's overall culture, Maikwick that it was a major mistake.

In the face of the outside world, the customer is particularly important. Always from the customer's point of view to think about the problem, customer dissatisfaction can often be translated into good things. Neoforma's website had just been built, Maikwick's picky father-in-law was unable to raise objections to a number of unsolicited emails. Neoforma employees work overtime to complete this improvement, only to ensure that the subsequent 20,000 messages per week to send and receive smoothly. But in the face of competitors and investors, the attitude of entrepreneurs should be retained, "Do not be led by the nose."

Finally, the problem with the entrepreneur itself. Maikwick that entrepreneurs should have a clear stance and judgment, the golden mean state usually does not bring balance. In addition to avoid quick success, "one thing to do, and then do the next." There are usually a lot of people in the company who give entrepreneurs lots of advice, but entrepreneurs themselves have to learn to control the pace of the company's development. His other two suggestions are to be honest with yourself and enjoy the process of creating and contributing. If the entrepreneur does not have these two points, it is difficult to imagine that he can build a good corporate culture.

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