For those who’d rather read a post – find the original When Should I Start Raising Money here.
Month: March 2015
One of the joys of being around entrepreneurs and academicians is that you get pulled in to interview folks – in person, on the phone or Skype, and sometimes as part of a panel. This last weekend, I was part of one such interview panel – where nearly six senior candidates who’d been shortlisted were interviewed. Three things struck me about the experience
- How vastly different approaches the various candidates brought to the interview process
- Even the senior candidates made some of the same rookie mistakes that you expect only younger ones to make
- How we, as the interview panel, could have done things better (that’s a whole another post)
Ask questions – In this particular panel, the thing that stood out the most for me, was how few questions the interviewees had for us as a panel. Sure they’d spoken to the hiring manager over the phone prior to the interview, but given the panel had veto power (did they know that?) it would have been better for them to ask more questions. While this is true even for 1:1 interviews, with a panel it’s important to understand what different people in the panel expect both of the role that you’re interviewing for and of the interview process itself. This will make sure you are neither blind-sided nor leave something unaddressed. Even more importantly your questions often will say a lot more about your than your answers.
Be specific A panel, with the very fact there are more than three people (ours had five), can easily get bogged down when it comes to decision-making. So it’s very important for you to be very specific with both your answers to their questions and even with your own questions. This allows you to stand out as a candidate. This requires you to avoid generalities – such as “I have strong networks in the community” and you’d be better of with specifics such as “I was able to recruit six mentors from the community in my first three months on the job. And these folks served with us on average for two years.” Balance the desire to be specific with the need to be concise – not always easy, but with practice can be done.
Be concise If you are like me (poor you!) the temptation is great to jump right in, when a question is posed. All too often, I get excited about the topic – which is usually why I’m there – and begin talking or responding. Two tips to being concise – clarify what is being sought and validate whether you’ve answered their question. We make assumptions that may just not be correct – it is better to clarify before attempting to answer. In our specific job search, we wanted the candidate to make his organization, financially independent at some point. One candidate anxious that this was important to us focused on becoming self-sufficient within two years – which meant she recommended doing a lot of things, not central to the business, just to generate revenues. Clarifying the timeline over which the panel expected the organization to be self-sufficient could have easily avoided this.
Demonstrate Interest Many interview candidates assume that they are demonstrating interest by showing up. Why else would they be there? However, while showing up is necessary it is definitely not enough to show your interest in the job. The most attractive candidate – going by their resume and phone screen – turned out to be lowest ranked in our panel, due to the utter lack of energy and interest demonstrated by his body language and cadence during the panel interview. Most organizations are looking to hire people with energy and a good deal of motivation to make things happen. Sure they want to know and prefer you’ve done it before but are you willing and ready to do it and more, again? So it’s important to demonstrate interest – which of course asking questions, clarifying and engaging will all help you.
Not surprisingly most of these tips are useful for 1:1 interviews. However, it’s both easier to develop rapport in 1:1 interviews as well as recover from mistakes, with a little honesty and self-deprecation. Even the best of candidates can be undone with a panel, if there’s either non-alignment on the other side of the table or you don’t address the primary careabouts for the key decision makers on a panel. Share your own experiences interviewing with panels and what’s worked for you. Good luck!
Since 1988, when I began working, I’ve been part of three multinational firms (National Semi 1988-96, Synopsys ’99-2000, SiRF 2006-08), two startups (Microcon 96-97, Sasken 97-99), started two companies (Impulsesoft ’99-2006, Zebu – 2009-’11) and one non-profit (NEN, 2011-14). Between 2006-2011 I also invested or advised a variety of startups, a few of whom have thrived and a few died. Most of course are hanging in there. You’d have thought I’d have learned a few things over these 26 years and I have. Yet, doing a gaming startup has brought home loud and clear how much more there is to learn.
In mid November, my partners and I began working with a young man, for now code-named Don Knuth to pivot Zebu Communications – our originally marketing automation, then marketing consulting startup – to be a gaming studio. Since then we’ve launched two games on Android HomeBound and Follow the Dots and one on iOS. This post is a quick summary of 4 Lessons that I’ve learned (some granted needed reminding). Some of these are true for all startups but particularly relevant when embarking on a startup outside your own area of domain expertise.
Act fast and often I’ve never stop to be amazed to discover how much I STILL don’t know – not just about game mechanics, App Store Optimization or customer acquisition, monetization or mobile eco-system and even doing press releases. I’m sure there’s more stuff that I don’t even know that I know nothing about. Yet whatever I know, that I need to know, came from doing things. We got our first Android game out the door in 3 weeks – sure it didn’t set the world on fire (yet) – but I’ve learned more in this time, that’ll keep us rolling for the next one year. Reading is good (and I’m a big proponent of it) but acting fast and often, especially when it’s a new domain is very important.
Business first Doing a startup, particularly a gaming one, is loads of fun – there’s ton’s to do – games to play, code to write, logos to design – it’s very easy to keep busy. And as you learn stuff (see above) there’s even more stuff to do. Of course all the things that involve product development (concept, design, coding, testing, competitive analysis) are all in your “control” and feels like “real” work. So there’s a real risk that you’ll spend all your time doing these “fun” things and its easy to lose sight of the fact that you are a business – in other words you need customers – who’ll generate revenue for you – whether by paying you, through ads or other purchases. So spend as much time thinking about how you will make money and validating that – fast and often. We are yet to figure this out, but think about it and try things every day.
Consult others Luckily both the entrepreneurial community and gaming in particular is quite giving and willing to share. There are so many unknowns in building a gaming business that it is both an opportunity and a risk. So talk to people who are in the business. For instance a friend introduced me to Rajesh Rao, founder of Dhruv Interactive – India’s oldest game development company. They’ve been through the whole cycle – game development as a service, product development, to game incubator and Rajesh was sweet enough to take the time to give us an unvarnished view of the pluses and minuses. Others whether Vishal Gondal or Alok Kejriwal have been active speakers, writers and supporters of the gaming scene in India. Numerous indies have been forthcoming in sharing their time and insights locally and globally. It would be a huge mistake to try to do this – for any startup – on your own without consulting others and seeking their counsel.
Do your own thing Of course having sought others counsel, you still need to do your own thing – at least you’ll be well-informed. The challenge when you consult others is that you will get a lot of seemingly contradictory advice – do this, don’t do this. If we went completely by what others said – and I’ve done that more than once – we’ll come to rue it. What they said was most likely true – for them and at that time – the very opposite may be true now or for you. So getting to know what you need to know and what others have tried or not – regardless of whether it worked or not for them – is important but beyond that you gotta do your own thing. We were told that interstitial ads work better, but we found text ads worked better for us. Of course we may find video ads work even better or not. So do your own thing to verify.
Once a quarter, I will share our learnings as we embark on yet another startup journey. Meanwhile – support us by downloading our games, reviewing them and spreading the word. Thanks.
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