How is it February already?! Lots happened:
As I continue down the journey of building Otis, one of our investors asked me what I learned from Skillshare that I’ll apply to Otis. Here’s what I wrote him:
- Build an experienced team as early as possible
- Get feedback on big strategic decisions early
- Play to my strengths and hire around my weaknesses (back to #1)
What stuck out to me was how important it is to build a world-class team from day 1. Now I’m learning that it’s much better to hire great people and get out of their way, whether that’s operations, product, marketing, etc.
Tied to this is a great interview with
Vinod Khosla. Once a company grows to 50 people,
“the founders should have 1/3 of the common, their 5 or 6 direct reports should have 1/3 of the common stock, and everyone else should have the remaining 1/3 of the common. If you do that, people don’t leave.
What’s Khosla’s recommended recipe?
- 15% equity for each of 3 founders = 45%
- 5% equity for each of 3 “junior-founders” = 15%
- 20% option pool
While many people won’t agree exactly with the actual %, I think the idea that founders should use equity to attract the best team is the right one.
This changed my POV and I updated our equity grants to land somewhere close to what he recommends. It prompted me to send out this
tweet about looking for 9 co-founders as we want to work with people who want to start companies.
Maybe we’ll create the next PayPal Mafia?
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