Curt Doolittle

Category: Business, Organization, and Management

  • Can Scrum/agile Project Management Be Used Effectively In A Digital Agency?

    I agree with Dave, despite being an advocate of Scrum in most circumstances.

    A controversial argument:

    Scrum was developed for:
    1) Small teams of  talented people.
    2) Strong buy in from the client(s) who are effectively members of the team.
    3) To compensate for the evolutionary accumulation of knowledge as development progresses.

    HOWEVER
    1) It is less contractually defensible without extraordinary change control – the causal relationship between goal, budget and what is accomplished is often open to greater risk of litigation or loss.
    2) Clients are often comprised of different factions attempting to undermine each other, and conflicts not resolved in contracts are often impossible to avoid, leaving the agency exposed to failure, caused by the client discord.
    3) There are a lot of people in the industry who lack the discipline to work in this manner, and the addition of contractors often exacerbates the problem.
    4) It used to be more difficult for agencies to attract top technical talent.  This is declining but is still, to some degree, true.

    INFORMED OPINION
    Is that it is better suited to teams who work together all the time, and in particular for product development, and less comforting to use in high risk environments with a significant amount of customer management.

    Given the tendency of the major agencies to have less trusting delivery relationships with their clients I would have to approach any question extremely cautiously less one or two major failures a year remove all perceived benefit from the broader financial and relationship questions.

    https://www.quora.com/Can-scrum-agile-project-management-be-used-effectively-in-a-digital-agency

  • Have Any Corporations Embraced Equitable Or Just Compensation Models?

    Um.. This is one of those problems that’s really nonsense. 

    All employees should be compensated at market rates. Otherwise if you are lower, they won’t stay, if they are over, your competition will eat you.

    Compensation is not equitable WITHIN A COMPANY. It is equitable across ALL COMPANIES.

    Do not fall into the trap of confusing the ‘fiarness’ of a family, with the alliance of people that work together in a company.

    https://www.quora.com/Have-any-corporations-embraced-equitable-or-just-compensation-models

  • THE BEST PLACE YOU EVER WORKED? I was reminded buy someone today that some peopl

    THE BEST PLACE YOU EVER WORKED?

    I was reminded buy someone today that some people remember the best place they ever worked. And I made one of those places. It was an experiment. An attempt to create something very special. I did it carefully and artfully. Inclusively. And I could do it again, with ease. Even in this economy. It’s a craft and a skill. Sure. It’s psychological but it’s not mechanical, it’s spiritual.

    If my health keeps up, I might do it again, just to show that I can draw the perfect circle.

    But I also learned something else: a) if you’re being undermined from the inside kill it quickly. b) heroism is overrated. Heroes die.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-11 17:48:00 UTC

  • ONLY GOOD ARTICLE ON PITCHING VC’S I’VE EVER READ (I would add, that your team s

    http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22271192791/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-8-notes-essayTHE ONLY GOOD ARTICLE ON PITCHING VC’S I’VE EVER READ

    (I would add, that your team should to be tight, and have clear roles.)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-07 10:22:00 UTC

  • Is Facebook Making A Strategic Error, Or Is Their Current Problem Just A Matter

    Is Facebook Making A Strategic Error, Or Is Their Current Problem Just A Matter Of Timing? http://www.capitalismv3.com/2012/04/26/is-facebook-making-a-strategic-error-or-is-their-current-problem-just-a-matter-of-timing/

    Source date (UTC): 2012-04-26 21:53:45 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/195631777837101057

  • Executive Compensation: How Much Should A Founder Receive As Salary During An Earn-out Period?

    His market salary is a fair salary. There is no other concept of ‘fair’. If he does not get a market salary, then the cash value of his earnout is decreased by the difference between his current salary and his market salary. 

    If this was not covered in the agreement whatsoever, then there might be an argument to be made that he is due market compensation or they are artificially reducing his earnout by depriving him of income he could make elsewhere. If it was covered and he agreed to it then that’s likely to be a problem.

    However, these things are very difficult to negotiate unless you have some sort of leverage. If he can lose the earnout by not performing, or the business will not perform well enough to capture the earnout without him there, then he may have a very difficult time with it.

    As an acquirer I have generally benefited from underperformance of retained executives. There are a lot of people like me out there.  For that reason it’s best to have someone with investment banking experience work on M&A deals and not business lawyers.

    https://www.quora.com/Executive-Compensation-How-much-should-a-founder-receive-as-salary-during-an-earn-out-period

  • What Are The Best Pieces Of Advice For Founders Wanting To Start Companies That Build Physical Products, Given The Current Funding Climate Where Incubators And Accelerators Seem To Focus On Web, Mobile, And Social Companies?

    The question is really too broad as stated. 

    We’d need this information:

    1) Do you have a market and can you prove it? Meaning can you list specific customers or specific distribution channels to reach customers with? Or are you hoping to build a product that will sell itself?  Because that doesn’t happen unless it’s either sex or money.

    2) What is your plan to produce this product in volume? And do you have production estimates from reliable firms?

    3) Do you have a prototype that works already? 

    4) If you produce this product and get any traction at all, who would be interested in buying your company, and who do you know at those organizations?

    5) Can you explain how this product is valuable to someone in 30 seconds or less? or does it require specific domain knowledge?

    6) Does your product require external infrastructure or investment by others in order to sell and distribute or can you sell it over the web, or directly without externalizing any costs?

    These questions determine what kind of funding sources you’ll have to pursue.

    As someone else said, if you have an interesting idea, Kickstarter works wonders. If it doesn’t fit the Kickstarter profile, then there are always people with money willing to invest in product companies if you have a market, an exit they can understand, a production plan they can understand and a product they can understand.  Right now, multiples for social companies are speculatively high. So they attract the easy money.  But if you want to raise money for something that isn’t ‘hot’ you need to find people who have experience in the same industry you’re in, so that they can at least understand your idea.

    Generally it’s better to work nights and weekends to get your first customer(s) and then go to investors when you have a production or distribution problem.  “Early Stage” investments are a random number generator: they are unpredictable and effectively a matter of luck — and you simply have to knock on a lot of doors to find that luck.  Time is better spent on the product or on a customer.  The low capital requirements of social media are attractive despite the fact that it’s proven hard to make money in the space. The high capital requirements for products are not attractive. A patent on a product that can be sold to a large company is a net positive. All things being equal,  a consumer product is not — the point is that it’s a pretty complex question.

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-pieces-of-advice-for-founders-wanting-to-start-companies-that-build-physical-products-given-the-current-funding-climate-where-incubators-and-accelerators-seem-to-focus-on-web-mobile-and-social-companies

  • Do People With Mba’s Run More Successful Businesses? Why?

    It appears from the data that floats around the internet, that an MBA will help your career in a large company. It does not appear that an MBA (or any education for that matter) will help you as an entrepreneur.  Hard work, likability, the ability to sell ideas and persuade, and a little bit of money seem to matter the most.   I do believe that the books used in an MBA program will help a young CEO who already has a startup and who better wants to understand what capital will do for him.

    Most of the education any entrepreneur needs comes from mastery of the strengths and weaknesses of his industry, and deep knowledge of his customers, and the ability to accumulate customers by working harder for them than his competitors.  The most common problem I have found with new entrepreneurs is that they have very little competitive advantage, and are little more than also-rans. It’s very hard to sell something that’s ‘just as good as everything else’.

    https://www.quora.com/Do-people-with-MBAs-run-more-successful-businesses-Why

  • Executive Compensation: How Much Should A Founder Receive As Salary During An Earn-out Period?

    His market salary is a fair salary. There is no other concept of ‘fair’. If he does not get a market salary, then the cash value of his earnout is decreased by the difference between his current salary and his market salary. 

    If this was not covered in the agreement whatsoever, then there might be an argument to be made that he is due market compensation or they are artificially reducing his earnout by depriving him of income he could make elsewhere. If it was covered and he agreed to it then that’s likely to be a problem.

    However, these things are very difficult to negotiate unless you have some sort of leverage. If he can lose the earnout by not performing, or the business will not perform well enough to capture the earnout without him there, then he may have a very difficult time with it.

    As an acquirer I have generally benefited from underperformance of retained executives. There are a lot of people like me out there.  For that reason it’s best to have someone with investment banking experience work on M&A deals and not business lawyers.

    https://www.quora.com/Executive-Compensation-How-much-should-a-founder-receive-as-salary-during-an-earn-out-period

  • What Are The Best Pieces Of Advice For Founders Wanting To Start Companies That Build Physical Products, Given The Current Funding Climate Where Incubators And Accelerators Seem To Focus On Web, Mobile, And Social Companies?

    The question is really too broad as stated. 

    We’d need this information:

    1) Do you have a market and can you prove it? Meaning can you list specific customers or specific distribution channels to reach customers with? Or are you hoping to build a product that will sell itself?  Because that doesn’t happen unless it’s either sex or money.

    2) What is your plan to produce this product in volume? And do you have production estimates from reliable firms?

    3) Do you have a prototype that works already? 

    4) If you produce this product and get any traction at all, who would be interested in buying your company, and who do you know at those organizations?

    5) Can you explain how this product is valuable to someone in 30 seconds or less? or does it require specific domain knowledge?

    6) Does your product require external infrastructure or investment by others in order to sell and distribute or can you sell it over the web, or directly without externalizing any costs?

    These questions determine what kind of funding sources you’ll have to pursue.

    As someone else said, if you have an interesting idea, Kickstarter works wonders. If it doesn’t fit the Kickstarter profile, then there are always people with money willing to invest in product companies if you have a market, an exit they can understand, a production plan they can understand and a product they can understand.  Right now, multiples for social companies are speculatively high. So they attract the easy money.  But if you want to raise money for something that isn’t ‘hot’ you need to find people who have experience in the same industry you’re in, so that they can at least understand your idea.

    Generally it’s better to work nights and weekends to get your first customer(s) and then go to investors when you have a production or distribution problem.  “Early Stage” investments are a random number generator: they are unpredictable and effectively a matter of luck — and you simply have to knock on a lot of doors to find that luck.  Time is better spent on the product or on a customer.  The low capital requirements of social media are attractive despite the fact that it’s proven hard to make money in the space. The high capital requirements for products are not attractive. A patent on a product that can be sold to a large company is a net positive. All things being equal,  a consumer product is not — the point is that it’s a pretty complex question.

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-pieces-of-advice-for-founders-wanting-to-start-companies-that-build-physical-products-given-the-current-funding-climate-where-incubators-and-accelerators-seem-to-focus-on-web-mobile-and-social-companies