Editor’s note: The following guest post is written by Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin, an online real estate broker. His industry went into recession a year ago, so he’s had a little more time than most startup CEOs to think about how to deal with the current downturn. Below is his advice to his fellow entrepreneurs.
Startups can be the most conservative organizations in the world. We spend so much energy nurturing our delicate egos against naysayers and self-doubt that we can hardly admit mistakes. This is especially true of first-time CEOs. Thousands of new web companies were born in the last few years, and many of us just got the job.
We set off with the same directions: tackle a big problem, listen to customers, work hard, pinch pennies, hire slo
w, fire fast. Still good advice. But I think we’ll have different advice for one another once we’ve come through this downturn, about how we had to change to survive. Since real estate crashed before the overall market, Redfin (my online real estate company) has had a year’s head-start sorting out which changes seem to be working for us.
Not that we don’t still have a long ways to go. We’re still on track for our first profits in 2009, but we’re going to have to fight to make it.
The time we have left to succeed or fail is really just the measure of how long it took to adapt to our downturn. If I had been more experienced, we’d have adapted faster. Here’s the survival guide I’d give my former self, the one just starting to face the storm:
1. Compete With Your Successor
I often think about what my replacement will do after I’m fired. She won’t have emotional commitments to decisions that I already regret. She’ll look at everything as an outsider—as a customer—refusing to tolerate problems that have lasted so long I’ve forgotten they’re there, re-considering initiatives we already passed over for want of imagination or energy. And she’ll have nine or even twelve months of leeway to build the business, so she can think long-term. Worst of all, she’ll get credit for turning Redfin into a successful, thriving business. I think, “I hate her! I hate her!” And then I try to be her.
2. Act Like an Owner
You’ve probably spent most of your life hating your boss, pleasing others (so you can blame them later) and spending other people’s money. These are hard habits to break. When I was still settling into being a CEO, I wasted a lot of time driving initiatives designed to please others, acting as if someone wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to do with Redfin. My moment of clarity came when a board member said, “as far as I’m concerned, you’re the owner of this business.” And he was right: you won’t own all the proceeds if the company succeeds, but you’ll certainly own a failure in its entirety. This sparked several reptilian impulses:
- “I can’t blame anyone else if this sucker goes down.” This made me feel powerful and savage, like Arnold at the end of “Predator.”
- “If it were all my money, I’d invest it in Redfin today — but there’d be some big changes around here.” We’re making those changes now. (This is about focusing on the part of the business that you really believe in.)
- “If we had to get our wallet out every week for that expense, would we?” (This is about focusing on the part of the business you don’t believe in.)
3. Get a Board You Connect With (Not Just One With Connections)
Startups have so much size anxiety that nothing can stop us from recruiting big shots onto our boards. But first-time CEOs need someone we can talk to about practical details, too. So in our case, Redfin chairman Paul Goodrich recruited Marc Singer for his experience with businesses run out of the cash register: restaurant chains, bean-bag manufacturers, installers of electronic animal fences. I used to be dubious that we had anything to learn from these companies. Not anymore.
Now I catch myself gazing at a parking-lot coffee cart and thinking, “what a great business” (it’s more profitable than most venture-funded startups). Marc has cultivated a nuts-and-bolts, make-money-now execution focus at our company. 
But there’s another benefit to working with him: it was easier from day one to think out loud with someone I wasn’t so anxious to impress.
Where I’d always imagined my board conversations would be like Richard Gere’s in “Pretty Woman” or even Willem Dafoe’s in “Spiderman” — conversations with Marc were more like telling a guy on a Greyhound bus about a bad breakup, where it all just came pouring out. In tough times, you need a board you connect with more than a board with connections.
4. Run Weekly Revenue Meetings
A job applicant from Amazon suggested holding a weekly revenue meeting, which has been an immediate hit. We focus on what we can do to drive revenue from week to week—tactical stuff, like hiring another field agent or changing a call to action on our site. We catch glitches that could otherwise last all month.
5. Automate Bad News
Bad news travels slowly—or sometimes just sits in your stomach—unless you pump reports straight out to the board, on revenues, traffic, customer service. Add spin if you like, but in a separate note so you don’t hold things up. This helps you avoid the-dog-ate-it board meetings.
6. (Just Ask to) Meet Your Peers
My natural tendency is to avoid meeting people outside of Redfin. I tend to measure my own work in keystrokes, and I begin to miss my computer after I’m away for 30 minutes. In hard times especially, it’s easy for a startup to become like a teenager’s basement bedroom: insular, stale, reeking of dude. Yet there are very few hours that have raised Redfin’s value as much as meetings with other entrepreneurs. A year before our cash-evaporation date, one CEO told me to start raising money. Another told us to get on the stick about our Google search rank. For someone wary of most consultants and experts, these meetings are one of my only sources of new information. And it’s important to gather new information: line managers have to focus on the jobs in front of them, but executives should be awake to what’s happening in the larger world. Anyone will meet you if you just ask for her help.
7. Create Simplicity
When Obama first heard the proposed slogan “yes we can,” his reaction was: “too simple.” But a leader’s job is to create simplicity. Over the past year, our real-estate executives slogged through ambiguous data on conversion rates, close rates, tour fulfillment. Decisive meetings felt like a math test where we ran out of time. Yet it never occurred to me to stop, step back and be precise and insistent about what we needed to know to make a decision. When something is hard to explain, you don’t understand it and you make mistakes. It’s a cliché to “keep it simple, stupid,” but the real challenge is to make it simple, mastering complexity instead of ignoring it. Entrepreneurs instinctively want to speed things up. What’s really hard is knowing when you have to slow them down.
8. Go on the Attack
Your competitors are hurting too. Be the aggressor, not the victim.
9. Be a Roman
What disgusted the ancient Romans about barbarians was their lack of discipline. Oxford Professor Peter Heather writes, “As far as a Roman was concerned, you could easily tell a barbarian by how he reacted to fortune. Give him one little stroke of luck, and he would think he had conquered the world. But, equally, the slightest setback would find him in deepest despair…” This is why, 2,000 miles from home, several hundred Romans could slaughter several thousand barbarians.
Startups are founded by barbarians. But to survive the ups and downs, you have to make yourself into a Roman. The most talented entrepreneur I know nearly self-destructs on the 18-month birthday of each of his ventures. By that point a startup isn’t brand-new anymore, and it isn’t Google either. The closer you get to becoming a real company, the less glamorous reality seems: you’re grimy from clawing for money and breathing hard now from exertion, which would be fine if you could convince yourself you’re not the only one struggling. Everyone struggles. Keep fighting.
10. The Journey is the Destination
Startups alternate between nostalgia for the garage and millennial longing for a lucrative exit. But what I always keep in mind is how disconnected and purposeless I felt before Redfin or my earlier startup, Plumtree. All I ever wanted was to get into a situation where I could win. Everybody has that dream. Even though you’re a second-string Little Leaguer, you dream that you’ll find a way into the World Series, that, with the game on the line, you’ll manage to hit just one major-league pitch. And if you do hit it, I promise you won’t be as happy as you were the moment before you swung. If you’re still playing, you can still win. And playing’s the thing. Enjoy it.
See all
Post
I particularly loved the portion about the Barbarians becoming Romans.
That’s a good point. 
Idiot West Coast Teenage Blogger:
Regular people are losing jobs by the thousands. Let me speak on behalf of real America when I tell you that no one–and by that I mean no one of any moral character–gives a flying F about the future of Technology CEOs funded by trustfund VC step children.
Tell your nitwit boss to consider this the next time he assigns you such an superficial story.
If you lost your job at the Ford factory why are you wasting your time reading TechCrunch? I hear Toyota is hiring… I know you can’t stand the thought of working for an “unamerican” company, but on the other hand they probably won’t lay you off in order to precipitate a government bailout.
Yeah, nobody cares, except for the people whose jobs depend on that CEO making the correct decisions and making sure that they still have jobs through the recession.
Agreed me too, but I call the “Roman” mindset and way of doing business, being Scottish, because they are equally as noble and powerful.
Go on the Attack? interesting.
CEO’s who earn 5x the salary of the guys they are firing should also figure out something about loyalty — the CEO should be the FIRST ONE to step up to the plate to take a cut in pay.
If you earn $250K annual and you’re going to show your board how macho you are by firing 5 people who earn $50K and not taking a pay cut yourself, you’re a jerk, and so are the people on your board — why not rethink it — save at least four of the best people by cutting your own salary to $50K and retaining your staff. The ROI in tough times by staff loyalty and your increased “good guy” reputation will be impressive. Be a mensch.
I don’t see much of THAT type of courage in Silicon Valley lately. All this bravado about cutting back and getting ready for hard times rarely includes the leader taking a hit … prove me wrong if this is not the case.
Great point - totally agree. Check this out: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ocmqe — It’s a video interview on CNN of Japan Airlines’ CEO. He pays himself less than his pilots.
@Halley: couldn’t agree more about the need for CEOs to reduce their pay before laying anyone off. And Aniq, thanks for the Japan Airlines interview, which I added to my del.icio.us feed. Mr. Nishimatsu had dignity.
I avoid being the highest paid person at the startups I run. Give or take a percent, I’m in a two-way tie for third place at Lookery. That’s one reason we’ve had arguably no layoffs. We separated from one great employee (leaving 9 of us) when we sold the ad network portion of our business to AdKnowledge, but that’s it.
Correct! CEO’s should think of themselves as EMPLOYEES of the firms they run!
Great post to remind us the basic mindset of entrepreneurial survival. This is definitely advice any entrepreneur should follow whether they are in a recessionary climate or not. Think ahead. View things from the outside. Get active investors that you can ask for help. Watch your money. Don’t drink the kool-aid. Seek outside help. Make things simpler. Be on the offensive. Don’t give up. Take it all in as a learning experience - the intangible value that you can create in times like this is what leads to big things in the future.
@Aniq Could not agree more that the advice given would serve well in or out of recession! Also loved the JAL story. Capitalism with honor…what a concept.
After you are a first time CEO (you can only be that once) you never look at employees the same way again. You may have had employees report to you before, but you weren’t in charge of all aspects of the company before the CEO position, as well as their livelyhoods.
People are relying on you to pay the bills, and make things stable enough that they can focus on their jobs.
I agree with Halley about CEOs having the courage to take a pay cut to retain people. When CEOs gloat publicly about laying people off as though they are doing something great for the company, I have the same reaction: did you take a pay cut, to help the company, the economy and your people along by being able to retain one or two of the staff you were going to lay off?
I find those announcements about layoffs by startups appalling because they don’t come with the CEO announcing his or her own paycut and explanation that they managed to keep one more person employed in a tough economy. There is balance and morality, where we need to staff as leanly as possible, but also think about how the economy grinds to a halt with high unemployment? For many of the startups that Techcrunch covers, who rely to some degree on ads/pageviews and consumer revenues to create their businesses, they are actually contributing to the economic problem when they lay people off.
Laying people off is not something to gloat about. It’s something to take seriously and show balance. morality and thoughtfulness for the company, the employees, and the economy going forward, as well as your own sacrifice.
People in the Valley forget that the talent they send out the door takes their knowledge with them. Even in a downturn, keeping and motivating a loyal, talented workforce is crucial.
Read the sometime VC, Guy Kawasaki’s latest list, “The Art of the Layoff”. He says to cut early, cut hard and deep and give as little severance as possible. I am appalled with this mentality.
Professor Peter Cappelli, director of the Wharton Center for Human Resources, offers alternatives.
He suggests, yes, cut poor performers, but you should be doing that all along and that shouldn’t be 10-15% of your workforce.
Then he recommends a collaborative, shared approach to cost cutting with everyone agreeing to cut hours, or cut pay, etc, etc, to keep the talent base intact. He reasoned that the cost of layoff in low moral and overwork, and pay-offs to people pushed out the door, is a poor choice compared to more enlightened solutions.
Who ultimately won? I don’t recall it being the Romans.
Read the sometime VC, Guy Kawasaki’s latest list, “The Art of the Layoff”. He says to cut early, cut hard and deep and give as little severance as possible. I am appalled with this mentality.
Why should anyone listen to Guy for any sort of advice, let alone when to fire people?
“Read the sometime VC, Guy Kawasaki’s latest list, “The Art of the Layoff”. He says to cut early, cut hard and deep and give as little severance as possible. I am appalled with this mentality.”
Why? If you have an uncertain financial future, how do you make the right severance decisions? Be generous, and you might trim the cash you need to get the company to profitability… You also might be trimming the cash you need to avoid ANOTHER layoff. Your first responsibility is for the 60-80% of the company that you DON’T lay off, to your customers/users, and to your investors.
If you take a job with a startup (heck, with ANY company), there’s a bit of risk. You aren’t entitled to severance if things go bad
All that being said, CEOs have to strike a balance. A pink slip with no severance might make your remaining team antsy, make it hard to hire when you need to, etc.
Severance packages can range from a great investment to a waste of money depending on the bank balance, size of the layoff, and the degree of generosity.
Roman empire lasted a long time: 27 BC – AD 476 / 1453
I wouldn’t say they won or lost, but I would say that it was a heck of a performance to last for so long.
On the car maker CEO tip…i respect that they are all willing to work for $1 per year. However, in a market economy, you get what you pay for … and, i bet they can still run up $1mil in travel expenses….which is the fat that needs to be cut
Very nice to have survival kit on business. When the economy is down. Need some advice to survive move forward.
Thanks Glenn
lets clear couple of things here :
big ceo (s) are like third world countries leaders…freakin rich ..with poor country budget and of course poorest people !
another thing
am sorry what’s new in that list ?
tell us what you have been done ..from personal experience so we can all agree you are awesome or you are ..something else..
don’t give me print to go article!
its sunday some people really looking for something outside the box now before christmas who they don’t have to fire a friend not an employee
Wonderful inspiring post… Really captures the spirit of entrepreneurship
Wow, im so gonna use that stuff right there
It always made me a little worried to hear my first time CEO friends talk about how they were going to spend VC money. It was as if they thought that when they had VC they were done - they had made it. So terribly wrong!
That’s why I really liked your point about being a Roman. A startup feels like a never-ending series of battles - battles that wouldn’t be so bad at a larger company, but can destroy a startup. It’s nice to know it happens to everyone.
I’m not sure why this post is “a recession survival guide” other than relating to the business you’re in. It seems more like plain good advice.
I would love to have heard more about how to lay off, because that’s one thing I’ve seen a raft of startups do lately. How do you decide who needs to go? At PodTech I often wished our management HAD fired people (even if it were me) because it would have added a lot of focus. I also really got tired of seeing dead weight being allowed to stick around, even as times got tougher.
I love your ideas, though. I’m working on a few of these at FastCompanyTV right now.
My 2cents :
Option1:
1. prefer reduce staff salaries then layoff
2. minimize office related expenses
3. move your office to cheaper office location
4. minimize outside contracts (where you pay more than your employees)
5. Invite your customers to office to reduce restuarant bills :).
Option2:
If i have only layoff option in my hand then i will list out my major client projects and compare how layoffs going to effect my regular customers. I will try to layoff temperory projects stuff and support staff.
Anyways we need to make sure our regular paid customers dont get effected with layoffs!
Chandra
http://www.myjil.com
RE: layoffs in startups
I’m always amazed at how little people know about doing this. There are two reasons to layoff - one is to cut fat because you haven’t properly been showing people the door, the second (relevant to this thread) is cash conservation in a startup.
1. Make sure your “c-level” employees take their cuts. In reality, they make out well on an exit, and will probably trade stock for salary anyway. Most non-C level can’t afford this luxury, but successful C-levels probably can. This is a very easy way to ‘conserve cash”.
2. Make a “reverse hire” list - stack rank all your employees. Force yourself to do this - no “ties” - everyone is stack ranked, top to bottom. (You are the CEO - pick your criteria - just STACK RANK.)
3. Look at your budget, and let the “right” number of people go. You owe it to yourself and those you want to keep to do this swiftly and decisively. It will suck. You’ll not sleep for days. But it must be done
to keep the company running.
Even a 10-person startup has a few people that you could do without. Don’t kid yourself. You want to be surrounded by a few rockstars, not a lot of mediocre friends, if you really want to succeed.
Ironically, after the layoffs (if you do them fairly), you’ll see a morale BOOST, not drop. Everyone knows you should be cutting (if you haven’t already), so they’ll all be relieved when you finally make the hard decision - everyone will know where they stand.
Good luck out there…
It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that business owners and CEOs will go to rationalize their decisions. Since when has it made sense to try and solve a problem from inside the problem?
The how and why of layoffs is very rarely the real issue, it’s usually a symptom of an underlying cause, namely an inability to project the right risk in projects and growth in the first place. Here’s a good rule of thumb - never project more than a 15% outcome for success in new projects.
Here’s my rationale. When starting, running, or growing a business, conventional wisdom says hire in good times and downsize in bad. If your starting point was to never project more than a 15% success rate in each new project, wouldn’t you pay closer attention to your actions and thought process? Think of the risk you’re actually sidestepping by knowing in advance what works and what doesn’t before committing limited resources into bull blown campaigns.
Why CEOs don’t think this way, I’m not sure, but in the current environment do you think they’ll actually have a choice in the future?
Glenn,
Great post. I love that you eat your own dogfood (and take your own advice
).
@Other people asking for more specifics. Jeez, no one can tell you how to run your own business. You’ve got to figure that out. From what I read, Glenn is talking about what principles to bring to the table when thinking about how to make the tough decisions. The biggest fable of large market shifts is “experts” telling entrepreneurs what decisions are right–this advice is deterministically wrong. Every business is different.
Cheers,
Selly
What a BS. CEO’s, people making millions in salary need articles on recession survival than people who are developers or normal workers? Even if it is a joke, it is sleazy.
A lot of insight that people overlook, thank you.
It can be hard being a first time CEO, especially in times such as these. But also in times like these is where people are made. Someone will step up to the plate and take the reigns.
On the topic of CEO paycuts, couldnt agree more that the CEO should be the first to take the hit to set an example for everyone else and save a few jobs. Ethics and morals seem to sometimes just fly out of the window in times of desperation.
Love the advice - As a first-time CEO this is a terrific list and as someone pointed out, timeless advice. I also appreciate the honesty. It’s not easy to admit “I’m not thinking like an owner” or “I have to impress the board so I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
I also especially agree with #6: I also find this highly valuable and recall reading somewhere that “smart people learn from their mistakes, while really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.”
The only thing I’ll add is to regularly meet or speak on the phone with your customers. Just as meeting with fellow CEOs gives you a crucial outside perspective on (usually) administrative aspects of your business, only by visiting with your customers will you get you the independent perspective you need to find new products and services. I’ve even started to “adopt” a couple of customers, rolling up my sleeves to help them in their own business so I can get deeper insights. Plus it’s a hulluva lot more energizing than sitting around in the office.
@AJ: agreed that a post about how a CEO can ensure his own survival isn’t worthwhile; I should have been more clear that the focus is on ensuring the company’s survival and, ultimately, growth.
Here’s where I take issue with the above article:
1) why are you thinking about having a successor? already, you’re admitting your own failure; good for you. I’m sure MZ is thinking about “well what will I do when my successor takes over”; this is not something to take as a reality, this is what you work away from. Your fault for taking crappy venture capital that would ever consider replacing you (or have the balls to
2) What have you been acting like all this time, a fool? This is idiotic; if you haven’t been acting like an owner up until now, what business did you have getting funded in the first place? Again, crappy venture capital that invested in a passion-less CEO (in a sector that is less than optimal to enter as of 2005), so no wonder you’re worried about your successor.
3) If you are in the unfortunate position where you must take venture capital, then yes, this is sound advice.
6) “My natural tendency is to avoid meeting people outside of Redfin.” If you are like this wrt your own company, then you should probably not start one.
7) I know that you are right in saying this, but you should give examples when you say something so vague, otherwise it comes off like every other silicon valley slogan (”iterate quickly!; keep burn rate low!; take smart money!”). This is not your fault though; this is a function of our industry’s love for ambiguity and misdirection.
9) Sure, why not.
10) This I don’t blame you for; I blame all of us for. The venture practices of the past 20 years are completely defunct, and this concept of “if you’re still playing, you have a chance of winning” concept is embarrassingly outdated. The sad fact is that we are all slaves to our VC investors, and this MUST change. I’m writing more about this, and will post my blog details to these comments in the future; wish I could write more right now, but need to go; will follow up with another comment.
Glenn, good article, and probably the only such “startup advice” article in recent memory that I’d recommend people read.
Supurb post - Anyone who disaggress with any of this, as some have, need to think a little.
The best advice on start-ups I have ever read.
PS I’m in real estate to so I now get a lot of time to read this type of stuff!!!
Great article, I was particularly pleased that “Blame someone” was left off the list; That’s usually the first thing out of a new CEO’s mouth when things go south.
*Speaking from experience*
One final reality-bites note:
Know when to give up… Ego is a hard emotion to overcome…
Great article. I actually have a distant friend who works for RedFin.
For everyone screaming about CEO’s salaries, you’re commenting on the wrong article. Startup CEOs are not the ones taking 250K - 1MM salaries. In fact, most of them, like me, are not taking any salary at all. It’s ridiculous to even suggest that a CEO of a start-up company would take a salary that high. The VCs would balk immediately at such an outrageous salary (bear in mind that the board, not the CEO, sets compensation levels). Also, start ups are founded by people motivated to see their company succeed, not suck it dry with an insane salary. Before blasting startup CEOs, check your facts, please.
I love this post. Thanks so much. You capture well the emotions I feel. I too, used to feel, as Leah Culver mentioned, that once I raised money I would have somehow reached the destination. Lately I feel the opposite. I think I’m a barbarian. I’m not sure when I’ll become a Roman. But, I need to strive for this when the time comes. Thanks for making me think.
The 3 most important things are not on the list:
1) Get more leads
2) Get more sales
3) Get customers to pay
@Ed Anuff: howdy stranger! And thank you so much.
@LEADSExplorer: if there were a how-to guide on how different types of startups could increase revenues, everyone would certainly prefer that to this post.
great advice Glen. agree with your colleague that you should seek additional funding while you sitll have money in the bank — irregardless of how often your current investors tell you not to worry about it.
#10 was spot on. too many in the valley only see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and dont realize the blood and sweat that it takes to get there–which is all part of the fun!
Worrying about offending college freshmen and recent grad’s, using masculine gender pronouns “She won’t have emotional…” - you’re a wuss and shouldn’t be running a taco stand. grow up.
Hi Patrick,
I wasn’t worried about offending anyone, including you. I think you are referring to my use of “she” and “her” when imagining my replacement.
It’s sexist to assume that the most likely person to replace me is a male; being sexist isn’t, unfortunately, a disqualification for being a CEO, but it certainly limits the likelihood that you’ll hire the best team.
Hi Patrick,
I love when it you call me a wuss. But no, I wasn’t worried about offending anyone, including you. I think you are referring to my use of “she” and “her” when imagining my replacement.
It’s close-minded at best to assume that my replacement would be a male. Being close-minded isn’t, unfortunately, a disqualification for being a CEO, but it certainly limits the likelihood that you’ll hire the best team.
Regards, Glenn
Give me a break, Glenn… the English major. Using “he” is equivalent to using “man” to refer to some homo sapien of an unknown gender. And though it may not be politically correct and not pass the gender-neutral litmus test, overdoing the “she” it is exactly the type of modern linguistic acrobatics that makes reasonable people vomit.
Come on, we all know your replacement could be a woman. Why cover it with a veneer of correctness that’s about as thin as the intellectual guise college frat boys assume when trying to score at a bar.
Saying “he” does not assume anything. Just like saying “President of the United States” does not assume a white male.
Dutch is correct on this, and so is Patrick. I enjoyed the article but you’ve revealed that you are a pc puss.
You forgot a very important point:
11 - Don’t be a puss.
This is what i am following to run my company without firing anyone :
1. Get more leads, ask your existing customer to recommand your company. Nothing wrong to ask your friends to recommand your company.
2. Get customers to pay you.
3. Be open and fair to your team members. Explain current senario indetails and motivate them to contentrate on work by giving clear picture of company plans.
- Chandra
http://www.myjil.com
Glenn nice write-up.
Just curious, what are all those keystrokes doing? The ones that you measure yourself by.
I know it’s folly to measure myself by keystrokes. I was trying to explain a way of thinking I need to overcome by talking and listening to others.
First time or not, CEOs and company climates either practice what they preach or they don’t. You can judge a company by how the lowest level employees (those who are interacting with their potential buyers!) act.
Are they REALLY empowered to act like owners - or do you tell them they are and then punish them when they do? This one concept will make the difference between thriving - even in a recession - or downsizing into oblivion.
Focus on growing the pie instead of shrinking it - find another way - seek out another niche - encourage your employees to speak their minds freely. Invest in their good ideas and let them run with them.
If you want to know what is REALLY going on in your company, instead of shooting your “Wild Ducks” ask them directly. Don’t make the mistake of listening to your middle managers. Many of them live in the land of the Emperer’s New Clothes.
Techcrunch -
Feature more guest writers like Glenn. You have built a solid business of reporting tech news. Adding an “op-ed” section to the Techcrunch product would grow your business.
Thanks for the solid article.
Best,
JP
We need a teacher of SEO.
Visit http://www.chilerosas.com
Great post, thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. I would apply the principles of these points to any significant leadership position in a company today. Some of us are as passionate about our departments as we would be with a startup company and these points are spot on.
Cheers!
And now for something completely different…
John Cleese’s First Sure Way to Stamp Out Creativity in an Organization: Always behave as if there’s a war on.
(http://www.allbusiness.com/services/educational-services/4276625-1.html)
I.e., “Compete with your successor”, “Go on the attack”, “Be a Roman”, etc.
Very good point, though I also suggest meeting others and listening to people.
A hilarious (and timely)article I had come across a while back on Risk Management and Monty Python… (13 pages long):
http://www.theirm.org/events/d.....Python.pdf
Great post Glenn,
Although I may miss this time in the progression of my company and long for the “good ‘ole days” I’m ready to experience the $100Million and the competition that comes with it (smile).
Great article Glenn, thank you for sharing your experiences and tips with other fellow first time CEO’s - it is always inspiring to read others storys.
I would add that passion is a key ingredient and to never give up if your intuition remains strong.
Kelly, http://www.sixfigures.com.au, the executive job site for $100K+ jobs
Great article - thanks Glenn
It seems there are some major bugs on redfin.com using Safari on a Mac. I searched for “Traverse City Michigan” in the field. It returned no results. Now every time I type in “www.redfin.com” into Safari, it auto forwards to “www.redfin.com/search” telling me there are no results for “traverse city michigan#search_location”. I can’t go back to the front page, nor can I enter a new city within your “search areas,” basically making me stuck unless I manually choose a search area. Then that gives me access to the search field once again. Removing the cookies in Safari lets me perform a search again, but that’s really annoying.
Anyway, thanks for the article on TC.
Sorry about that Joel, the two big problems with Redfin are:
1. It’s only in the major U.S. cities.
2. It isn’t as easy to use for the first time as it should be.
We return people to the point of their last search so they can pick up where they left off, but this isn’t such a good idea if they left off in an error state.
Filed a bug. My apologies.
Sharing your wisdom with others is not on the list, Glenn, so we thank you very much for taking the time. Very valuable advice to anyone running or leading a business.
Hey, thanks Rich! That means a lot coming from The King…
Hi Glenn,
I think you need to change RedFin’s business model. You essentially have the same model as Zip Realty, which the public market currently values as worthless. (ZIPR’s market cap is less then their cash in their bank.)
You should DROP the brokerage and instead become a supplier of a leads to every agent who wants to buy them.
I recently used Redfin website to help me in the purchase of a 2nd home…it was great. However, I relied upon a successful agent to help me with the transaction. I was able to get someone far more experienced then anyone on your “redfin” list and I just asked for a 20% commission rebate and got that too.
Your software is great and you could continue to build it with a small team. By partnering with ALL existing agents, you could really build an interesting, high margin business and turn your primary competition into partners.
My 2 cents, thanks for sharing your perspective.
-Michael.
Michael, thanks for using our site, and for your excellent advice. We’re looking for ways to expand our technology’s reach without compromising our commitment to making real estate more transparent, efficient and customer-driven. There are some good agents out there we could work with, but we don’t want to treat consumers like a lead, to be sold to the highest bidder.
I also don’t think we’ll ever be much like Zip, which generates business through advertising, a large sales-force and a registration-driven website.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t still sorting out other ways we could try to take our shot at making real estate better.
As for your own experience, I’m glad you found an experienced agent, but it is not easy to find one more experienced than a Redfin agent. A typical Redfin agent has closed more than 100 transactions, and negotiates a larger discount off list price with higher customer satisfaction than his traditional counterpart. Our goal is to be better, not cheaper.
Anyway, I know you didn’t want to hear a marketing spiel. But it’s really true, too. Thanks for taking the time to make a suggestion. We’ll definitely give it some thought.
Barbarians becoming Romans +1
The quality of business advice is exactly proportional to the net worth of the person giving it.
CEO don’t can be qs