If the Shoe Fits: To Be or Not Be King
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
Last year I reminded entrepreneurs that, like Roman generals, they weren’t gods.
But what about kings?
In an excellent article in U~T San Diego, Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry, serial entrepreneurs who invest in early-stage technology companies, explain why they ask anyone presenting to them whether they want to be rich or be king—those who want to be king are politely shown the door.
The concern is valid, since few founders are capable of scaling their company and that desire to control has a bad impact on the bottom line.
“Founders who kept control of both the CEO position and the board of directors held equity stakes that were only 52 percent as valuable as those held by founders who had given up both the CEO position and control of the board.” —The Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman, HBS
Not to mention its effect on talent.
Being king undercuts the ability to recruit and keep good people making it impossible to build a world-class team.
People don’t believe authoritarian visions are trustworthy.
People whose voices aren’t heard have little reason to be care.
Kings like to believe that they can buy stars and then own the team.
There are two reasons that doesn’t hold true in the real world.
First, people who join for money will always leave for more money.
Second, the only stars worth having are the ones who join the team.
Would you work for a king?
Or be one?
Option Sanity™ is not fit for a king.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system. It’s so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
Flickr image credit: HikingArtist
