Let’s face it, when our companies are searching for the perfect product/market fit or working to scale a repeatable business model, we have plenty of fires to extinguish and opportunities to chase. Closing that next deal, managing another huge money-making project, and releasing the features our customers have been knocking on our doors about can easily overshadow one crucial leadership duty we have - communication. You can overdo many things, but you can't overdo communication. Progress is the fuel that powers employee morale, and morale is like the air your team breathes. If you don't replenish it, things … [more]

One of my favorite books is Sun Tzu's Art of War. I have read it several times and is one of my top 5 favorite books. Although the teachings are very old (6th century BC), there is much that can be applied to the modern day hyper-competitive business environment. Here are some of the lessons I have learned: An individual contribution (or lack of it) can make the difference between a startup growing or becoming another fire sale. Everyone must be on deck and stand in the heat of the kitchen; if they can't - show them the door. Even startups … [more]

If you are one of my regular readers, you may have seen my other recruiting articles: "How To Hire Top Talent Without Paying Recruiters", "Stars vs. Constellations – 3 Steps to Building Solid High-performing Teams", and lastly, "Beware of “Normal” People in Startups and High-growth Companies". Today I’d like to share what I’ve learned while recently recruiting another "iteration" of our sales team. Very few people can claim to be a sales hiring superstar, myself included, but I've brought in quite a few "rainmakers" and have some very pleasant and painful lessons I learned that I'd love to share. I … [more]

As a Chief Business Hacker, one of the top things I love to do is recruit talent. The exhilaration I get from finding a team member who is going to help elevate everyone is like winning a race. Recruiting is hard; it is very hard. In my experience, recruiting the right team with culture and longevity in mind is even harder than finding a product-market fit. But I do have a confession. I used to HATE recruiting. I thought it was a massively mind numbing process more fit for paper-pushers. I used to dread sifting through piles of resumes filled … [more]

I love these hot and tumultuous times for emerging companies. Contrary to what some politicians and the media would love to have you believe, with every iteration the whole ecosystem is getting stronger, better, and more agile. But as more companies start up (or expand), there is a desperate rush to snap up the talented individuals needed to grow these businesses. This haste often leads to poor decisions and/or shortcut-taking, which results in compensation packages/offers that are one-sided, unfair, and detrimental to both sides. In this article I want to take care of my readers who are looking … [more]

If you have been loyal reader of my blog, you know who I give credit to for my iron business ethics standards and love for growing businesses - my father, Apolinaras Sinkevicius II - diplomat, journalist, TV executive, and entrepreneur (yes, I am honored to be the 3rd). For those of you who may have missed it, here are the top two posts I would love you to read: 12 Rules of Business I Learned From My Father Leadership Lessons I Learned at My Father’s Funeral However in this article, I would like to finally give credit to the person … [more]

Last week, I had dinner with my friend who has a talent for branding and summarizing complex ideas into very simple terms. I was talking with him about my ongoing problem having difficulty explaining my multifaceted experience and work I do in terms people not familiar with my craft can understand. People who know me call me "the operations guy", but this term does not mean much to the general public. This is a marketing problem so I turned to my friend to help me solve it. In a stroke of his usual genius he exclaimed: "Apollo, you are a … [more]

Talk to me about building companies and you might as well block out half of the day! How about building teams that are like constellations of stars? Move over - I will show you! It is a subject I spend a lot of time on, since my own personal experience and countless research has shown that diverse teams deliver better product and increased efficiency. In recent weeks I had several of these great conversations. But during one of them I heard again reaction that is not that unusual – “are you saying you should engage in discrimination against the majority?” My … [more]

I originally wrote this post in October of 2008 after spending bit of time in probably most costly entrepreneurial ventures I have invested in. Even after 3 years this post still rings true to me, so I am updating it a bit and re-posting it. I was reading "Failure as an event" post on Seth Godin's blog. After self-deprecating himself talking about 20+ large entrepreneurial failures he was part of, Seth shared some of the lessons he has learned. The biggest one that caught my eye was: "Being the dumbest partner in a room of smart people is exactly where you want to … [more]

Let me start by saying that building a total compensation package is HARD! This is an extremely important component of business planning, but many executives end up “winging” it. Instead of taking time to do the math and some modeling, we just slap something together and pray our compensation structure won’t crumble. For me personally, building an appropriate compensation package is a very hot subject, because I believe operations executives have tremendous impact potential by harnessing the power of well motivated and managed teams. Companies that take care of their employees rarely have challenges finding talent for their “constellations … [more]

Anyone who has spent considerable time in early stage startups and fast growing scalable businesses will tell you that sustainable growth companies are built by teams of shining constellations rather than just several bright stars. A team of people that is able to feed off each other and grow together will beat any company comprised of individual stars (otherwise known as A players, rockstars, ninjas, etc). All the stars in your constellation should have an unquestionable drive to serve their team first and have the confidence that others are doing the same for them. It all starts with recruiting. Many … [more]

I needed a little hiatus from my blog, but lately too many people have been asking when the heck I am going to get back to it. Point taken – time to reorganize my priority list. Since I usually recruit talent for my teams, I often hear from acquaintances how they know someone “just so perfect, so well-rounded, so capable, so lacking of faults” that would be perfect for our startup world. These fantasy referrals often come from 1.) those who either worked for many big companies and are now “expats” from that world or 2.) from startuper/SMBers in denial about what … [more]

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist from Wall Street Journal. We had a great conversation about the current labor market, hiring challenges, and how to build the right company culture. He ended up taking the article in another direction, but now I’m happy to be able to finally share what I discussed with him here. As some of you may recall, I am Director of Operations at a company in Cambridge, MA called Pixability. There are nine of us now and we are planning to hire three more before the year ends. We are … [more]

I’ve been working in startups and very rapidly growing companies my entire career and the most successful companies I’ve seen were the ones that were always recruiting. Here are several ways to spread the word about your company and help candidates get a taste of what your team is all about: If you open GlassDoor.com or any other employer review site, you will notice a common theme in the positive reviews – people like to have fun with their co-workers outside of the office. What would I suggest? If your budget is tight, get a Flip cam (the … [more]

I am sure you folks have realized that I’ve been “off air” for awhile. The combination of helping out Daily Grommet and joining Pixability has shriveled my capacity for writing to zero. But, I am getting back on the horse and definitely have a lot of material from the “startup trenches” to share. So that all said, today I want to focus on some of the missteps many of us take in managing our most precious resource - people. I want to point out three major ones I have seen lately in the entrepreneurial community: Fishing problem. Almost daily … [more]

Introduction by Apolinaras "Apollo" Sinkevicius: this guest post by Paul Morgan might have the language directed at mid to larger size companies, but the vast majority of principles mentioned are highly applicable to the world of technology startups. Yes, according to my personal experience and widely available statistics, most of you will not make it past the team of 10 and this may not help you. But a good number will and strong technical teams will become a huge issue. Having had a chance to grow companies past the 100-employee mark, I know growing pains show up much earlier than expected. … [more]