The document provides guidance on surviving difficult economic conditions for entrepreneurs and CEOs. It recommends thoroughly understanding the new economic environment, adapting strategies accordingly, and focusing on avoiding running out of money by extending the company's runway through cost cutting, revenue increases, and potentially raising additional capital. Key steps include conducting honest self-assessments of the business, making difficult decisions like layoffs carefully, maintaining morale, and communicating transparently with stakeholders. The overall goal is to make it to profitability and self-sufficiency.
Pessimists: So you don’t believe things will turn around, then exit this presentation NOW.
Optimists: don’t forget that things will turn around. If you don’t remember this, you will end up in a worse position when it does come.
Pessimists: So you don’t believe things will turn around, then exit this presentation NOW.
Optimists: don’t forget that things will turn around. If you don’t remember this, you will end up in a worse position when it does come.
A executive sales training presentation designed exclusively for the members of the Hampton Roads Convention & Visitors Bureau by Bill Todd, www.BTodd.com
If your company’s revenues have been flat to declining over the past eight quarters you are probably ‘Stuck in Neutral.’ There are no magic bullets when it comes to reversing long term flat to declining revenue trends for tech companies. Companies get ‘stuck in neutral’ for a reason. Most of the time it is a market problem versus a ‘people’ problem. Breaking out of the rut, however, takes courage and decisive action. This presentation is an overview of three part strategy for getting your revenue growth back in gear. In the coming weeks we will explore each of the three strategies in depth.
To help you to change the world, we need a systematic approach on the way we see things.
We need to become perspective specialists, because perspective changes everything.
Finance for non financial personnel - part 8Quek Joo Chay
Many non-financial personnel find finance is mystical and somehow cannot comprehend financial information.
The 8 parts of the presentation are designed to help the non-financial personnel to look at finance from their own view point. Instead of learn finance from finance perspective, we learn our own perspective.
This is because your goal is to improve your current work not to become a qualified accountant. Crash courses usually can’t provide sufficient knowledge for you to understand finance.
Designed from business’s viewpoint, different from other approaches found in the market. Hopefully, we can equip non-financial personnel with business driven financial knowledge.
By end of the 8 presentation:
1. You can create your value to increase financial value
2. You can interpret financial reports to make decisions
3. You know how to work on budget
4.You can propose your ideas in terms of dollars & cents
5. You produce the financial numbers that your boss likes
6. You can communicate well with finance department
7. You make collaboration with accountant possible instead of just for the sake of formality
How to Lock in Profits on Every Trade - Presented by Dr. Richard M. Smith TradeStops
www.tradestops.com
How to Lock in Profits on Every Trade - Presented by Dr. Richard M. Smith
Learn the single most important reason that individual investors lose money.
Learn the proven mathematical formula to make bigger and faster gains on every trade you make.
Learn what trailing stops are and how they work.
Learn how to make a plan for tracking your stocks to sell at just the right time.
View case studies of this process in action and the amazing results.
Effective Business Practices 101 (7/8): Market and Environmental Health Consi...Dmitri Tcherbadji
This deck is a part of an eight-day introductory course that I originally designed for the residents of Inle Lake (Nyang Shwe), Myanmar during my volunteer work with Partnership for Change org. This is a basic introductory course for those who wish to start a businesses but aren't sure where to begin or what would be an effective way to run and operate a company geared for Western customers.
This deck is free for anyone to modify and use, but please keep in mind that I do not own copyrights for most of the images on those slides (with some exceptions).
Working Your Nonprofit With A Corporate Brain Power Pointguest7300929
When funding may appear to be more restricted, nonprofits that embrace a corporate mindset become more poised for sustainability. Any nonprofit, of any size, can re-evaluate their strategy to meet the demands of the current economy, while renewing hope and energy toward their mission.
Training centers need to develop a Business plan to succeed. This set of PPTs provides step by step development process for an effective business plan.
Scale-up seems easier than start-up in many ways. You've established product-market fit. You've sold $5 or $10M in ARR. You've found a buyer persona to sell and problem (aka, use-case) to solve. You've answered all the hard questions. Now, all you have to do is scale it up. Easy-peasy, right? Not so fast. In this presentation, I'll cover what I see as the top 5 mistakes made during the scale-up phase based on my experience as a CEO of two startups in the $0 to $100M range, CMO of two in the $50M to $1B range, advisor to dozens of startups, and EIR at Balderton capital where we work with scores of startups at both the early and growth stages. We'll discuss: premature scaling, US expansion, insufficient enablement and support, inexperienced management, and the delicate topic of reacceleration after a stall. As a bonus, we'll talk about when your "second album" (i.e., product) should come out and how to maintain focus in a world of market- and sometimes board-driven distractions. See you there!
22 immutable laws of marketing by Suhag MistrySuhag Mistry
100% working Marketing techniques for businesses. Use mentioned rules and develop great marketing plan. And YES it still works. I use it for developing Marketing plan for my consultant as a Business consultant.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
A executive sales training presentation designed exclusively for the members of the Hampton Roads Convention & Visitors Bureau by Bill Todd, www.BTodd.com
If your company’s revenues have been flat to declining over the past eight quarters you are probably ‘Stuck in Neutral.’ There are no magic bullets when it comes to reversing long term flat to declining revenue trends for tech companies. Companies get ‘stuck in neutral’ for a reason. Most of the time it is a market problem versus a ‘people’ problem. Breaking out of the rut, however, takes courage and decisive action. This presentation is an overview of three part strategy for getting your revenue growth back in gear. In the coming weeks we will explore each of the three strategies in depth.
To help you to change the world, we need a systematic approach on the way we see things.
We need to become perspective specialists, because perspective changes everything.
Finance for non financial personnel - part 8Quek Joo Chay
Many non-financial personnel find finance is mystical and somehow cannot comprehend financial information.
The 8 parts of the presentation are designed to help the non-financial personnel to look at finance from their own view point. Instead of learn finance from finance perspective, we learn our own perspective.
This is because your goal is to improve your current work not to become a qualified accountant. Crash courses usually can’t provide sufficient knowledge for you to understand finance.
Designed from business’s viewpoint, different from other approaches found in the market. Hopefully, we can equip non-financial personnel with business driven financial knowledge.
By end of the 8 presentation:
1. You can create your value to increase financial value
2. You can interpret financial reports to make decisions
3. You know how to work on budget
4.You can propose your ideas in terms of dollars & cents
5. You produce the financial numbers that your boss likes
6. You can communicate well with finance department
7. You make collaboration with accountant possible instead of just for the sake of formality
How to Lock in Profits on Every Trade - Presented by Dr. Richard M. Smith TradeStops
www.tradestops.com
How to Lock in Profits on Every Trade - Presented by Dr. Richard M. Smith
Learn the single most important reason that individual investors lose money.
Learn the proven mathematical formula to make bigger and faster gains on every trade you make.
Learn what trailing stops are and how they work.
Learn how to make a plan for tracking your stocks to sell at just the right time.
View case studies of this process in action and the amazing results.
Effective Business Practices 101 (7/8): Market and Environmental Health Consi...Dmitri Tcherbadji
This deck is a part of an eight-day introductory course that I originally designed for the residents of Inle Lake (Nyang Shwe), Myanmar during my volunteer work with Partnership for Change org. This is a basic introductory course for those who wish to start a businesses but aren't sure where to begin or what would be an effective way to run and operate a company geared for Western customers.
This deck is free for anyone to modify and use, but please keep in mind that I do not own copyrights for most of the images on those slides (with some exceptions).
Working Your Nonprofit With A Corporate Brain Power Pointguest7300929
When funding may appear to be more restricted, nonprofits that embrace a corporate mindset become more poised for sustainability. Any nonprofit, of any size, can re-evaluate their strategy to meet the demands of the current economy, while renewing hope and energy toward their mission.
Training centers need to develop a Business plan to succeed. This set of PPTs provides step by step development process for an effective business plan.
Scale-up seems easier than start-up in many ways. You've established product-market fit. You've sold $5 or $10M in ARR. You've found a buyer persona to sell and problem (aka, use-case) to solve. You've answered all the hard questions. Now, all you have to do is scale it up. Easy-peasy, right? Not so fast. In this presentation, I'll cover what I see as the top 5 mistakes made during the scale-up phase based on my experience as a CEO of two startups in the $0 to $100M range, CMO of two in the $50M to $1B range, advisor to dozens of startups, and EIR at Balderton capital where we work with scores of startups at both the early and growth stages. We'll discuss: premature scaling, US expansion, insufficient enablement and support, inexperienced management, and the delicate topic of reacceleration after a stall. As a bonus, we'll talk about when your "second album" (i.e., product) should come out and how to maintain focus in a world of market- and sometimes board-driven distractions. See you there!
22 immutable laws of marketing by Suhag MistrySuhag Mistry
100% working Marketing techniques for businesses. Use mentioned rules and develop great marketing plan. And YES it still works. I use it for developing Marketing plan for my consultant as a Business consultant.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
AI for Every Business: Unlocking Your Product's Universal Potential by VP of ...
Startup Survival Guide
1. Survival Guide
Surviving a rip tide, or
practical tips for executing in a
tough environment
2. How to survive a rip tide
• Rip tides are long, narrow bands of water that quickly pull any objects in
them away from shore and out to sea.
• They are dangerous, but are relatively easy to escape if you stay calm.
• Do not struggle against the current. Most riptide deaths are not
caused by the tides themselves. People often become exhausted
struggling against the current, and cannot make it back to shore.
• Do not swim toward shore. You will be fighting the current, and you will lose.
• Swim parallel to shore, across the current. Generally speaking, a riptide is
less than 100 ft. wide, so swimming beyond it should not be too difficult.
• If you cannot swim out of the riptide, float on your back and allow the riptide
to take you away from shore until you are beyond the pull of the current. Rip
tides generally subside 50 to 100 yards from shore. Once the riptide
subsides, swim parallel to shore and then back to shore.
Source: Popular Mechanics, December 2003, “Worse-case scenarios: How to Survive a Riptide”
3. Foreword
• Many of the suggestions contained in this
presentation were made in previous works
• Unfortunately, however, some of the concepts are
hard to grasp and, as a result, have yet to sink in
• The purpose of this guide is to elaborate on certain
key points and reiterate their importance
• Hopefully, this will help entrepreneurs and CEOs
absorb the suggestions and be in a better position
to execute upon them
4. You are facing a new opponent
• In boxing, you change your strategy according to the characteristics of your opponent.
• When you are fighting an opponent who has a longer reach than you, the secret is to get inside because it
removes his or her reach advantage.
• Conversely, when you are fighting an opponent who has a shorter reach, the secret is to leverage your reach
advantage by picking him or her apart from the outside.
• What has happened in recent months is that your opponent has changed.
• Whereas nine months ago, your opponent was a rival venture-backed company, your new rival is the
economy.
• Since you are facing a new opponent, you need to change your strategy.
• Nine months ago, the way you defeated your opponent was by being first to market and acquiring a critical
mass of users, but the characteristics of your new opponent are different, requiring a new approach.
• The secret to defeating this opponent, is to win by attrition.
• Don’t slug it out toe-to-toe, conserve your energy and defeat your opponent by outlasting him.
5. In case it wasn’t clear…
• We are in a new environment
• The new environment necessitates a
change in strategy
• Rather than being first to market or
amassing users, your new goal should
be to avoid running out of money
6. Goals
Yesterday Today
(1) Avoid running out of $
(1) Be first to market (2) Avoid running out of $
(2) Gain critical mass (3) Avoid running out of $
(4) Avoid running out of $
(5) Avoid running out of $
(6) Avoid running out of $
(7) Avoid running out of $
(8) Avoid running out of $
(9) Be first to market
(10) Gain critical mass
7. Guiding principle
• As CEO, you and your team need to
pursue this goal with the same zeal,
creativity, and enthusiasm that you
once directed toward being first to
market and gaining users.
8. What to do:
• Understand what is happening
• Figure out how it will impact your company
• Adapt to the new environment
• Execute
9. What NOT to do:
• freeze
• get depressed
• panic
• act rashly
• lose your moral compass
• give up
10. Giving up
• In his book, “A Life Decoded”, Synthetic Genomics founder, J.
Craig Venter, tells a story about how, when he was working as a
medic in Vietnam, patients who were gravely wounded would
sometimes live beyond anyone's expectations, while patients
who should have recovered, would sometimes give up and die.
• Venter uses the example to illustrate his belief in the strength of
willpower and the human spirit, but this is also an apt metaphor
for entrepreneurs.
• Specifically, those who fight, can beat the odds and survive,
while those who give up, perish.
• So, don’t give up, keep fighting!
11. Understand what is going on:
• For an excellent explanation of what is
going on and how it happened, read the
Sequoia and Mary Meeker
presentations, or the Bill Gurley memo,
links to which are appended hereto.
12. Likely effects of the crisis
• Radically lower consumer spending
• Dramatically lower corporate spending
• Less access to capital
• Lower valuations
• Longer time to liquidity
13. How will the crisis effect you?
• How will the economy effect your
customers?
• How will changes in your customers’
spending effect your company?
14. What works in this environment?
• Target products or services which:
– Reduce expenses
– Increase revenues
– Allow customers to do more with their
existing infrastructure
– Do not require your customers to make a
large upfront investment
15. Example: EnerNOC
• Utility infrastructure in the US dates from the 1950’s
• EnerNOC uses cognitive computing to, among
other things, optimize the flow of electricity over the
grid
• This allows utilities to offer new services and get
more out of their existing physical infrastructure
without having to invest in costly new capital
expenditures
• Saves customers money in concrete ways and
generates additional revenue opportunities without
requiring radical upfront investment
16. Renew focus on demand
• Focus on customer demand: what can
your customers absolutely not live
without (as opposed to something that
would merely add some marginal value)
17. Important questions to ask
• Does my customer need my product or service?
• Do they have the money to pay for it?
• Is there a customer who will purchase my product
or service independent of what is happening in the
economy?
• Focus on clients that will spend money no matter
what, ex. During the last downturn, IDEO shifted
from providing services to Fortune 500 companies,
to NASA.
18. Assess current financial position*
• How much cash do you have in the bank?
• What is the burn rate?
• How long is the runway (months of cash)?
• How many months until break-even?
* Please note that these are facts, not variables.
19. A note regarding self diagnosis
• Be realistic and brutally honest
• Environment has changed dramatically,
assumptions must also change
• Don’t hold onto old assumptions, throw them out and
start again from scratch
• Revisit all assumptions and submit them to a stress
test (challenge your assumptions)
• Beware self-deception and rationalization
20. Self diagnosis
• Does the company’s business proposition still
make sense given the new environment?
• If not, what can you do to change it?
• Are you doing everything that you can to focus?
• Are there initiatives that no longer make sense?
• Are you a platform or a feature? (Be honest!)
• Should you merge with another company?
• Should you shut the company down?
21. Execution
• Once you have finished the diagnosis, time to
execute
• Act decisively, but use considered action
• Avoid knee-jerk reactions
• Make cuts all at once, don’t stagger them
(seriatum cuts kill morale and destroy momentum)
• Recognize your limitations, are you capable of
doing what is required? If not, find someone who is.
22. Be a leader
• Your employees, customers, and
investors are counting on you
• Now is the time to lead
• Be flexible and adapt
• Exercise discipline
• Make the hard decisions
• Take charge of the situation, don’t let
the situation take charge of you!
23. Goal is to become self-sufficient
• Do everything that you can to extend
your runway
• Get to break-even
• Become cash-flow positive
24. Three ways of extending runway
• Cut costs
• Increase revenue
• Raise additional capital
25. Cost containment*
• Go through your budget line by line
• Where possible, shift from fixed to variable costs
• Try to reduce recurring costs like rent, salaries,
utilities, phone, G&A expenses, etc.
• Negotiate reductions with your vendors and
service providers, barter
• Avoid entering into long term contracts, where
possible, as prices will likely fall
• Share facilities and other resources
• Don’t spend money until you absolutely must
* Some people are great at this, if you aren’t, find someone who is
26. Labor
• Get creative with compensation strategies (shift
salaries from fixed to variable, cut base and
increase performance-based component)
• Tie hiring to milestones on the sales side
• Don’t hire in anticipation of growth, grow, then hire
• Ask employees to voluntarily take reductions
• Review whether positions are part-time or full-time
• Explore alternatives like outsourcing
27. A painful challenge
• Entrepreneurs are in the business to
build companies, not reduce them.
• Reducing a company--whether
headcount or product lines--is one of
the most painful challenges an
entrepreneur ever has to face
• Unfortunately, in down cycles, it is often
a necessary evil
28. Reducing headcount
• How do you figure out who to layoff?
• How do you figure out how deep to cut?
• How do you conduct the process?
29. Choosing who to lay off
• Drop the least productive
• Let go of people who are in areas or
functions that are no longer essential
30. Determining essential areas
• Start with the company’s core product or
service and work your way backwards
(remember, the product or service may have
changed in light of economic conditions)
• What products/services are essential?
• Is this position no longer necessary?
• Is this mission-critical or can it be
outsourced?
• Is this task better performed by a consultant?
31. Conducting the process
• The day before, announce that there will be
an all hands meeting
• Get everyone together in the morning
• Explain that you are proud of everyone’s
work, that the company is going to survive,
but that, due to the downturn, the company
needs to reduce its headcount
• Tell them that you will be eliminating, ex. 15
positions
32. Conducting the process
• Treat employees as well as possible
• Logistics of how it is done make all the
difference, ex. have boxes for people to use
• Figure out the migration of email, return of
computers and cell phones, etc. beforehand
• Make it as humane as possible
• Do everything that you can to preserve
dignity
33. Conducting the process
• Inform staff that you will be holding meetings beginning at 11 am
• Ask them to please stay by their desks
• Goal is to avoid people feeling angry or humiliated
• Meetings should be short, 10-15 minutes max.
• Don’t get into specifics
• If people want to talk in detail, schedule a meeting or a call for
another time
• Your duty at this point is to inform those affected quickly and get it
over with
• Meeting participants should be the person being let go, plus three
or four people
• Hold the meetings quickly
• Give them time to say goodbye to co-workers, pack up, and leave
• Do this before lunch so you get everything done with
34. Conducting the process
• After lunch, once the affected employees are
gone, gather everyone together again
• This will not be a happy event
• Be professional
• Explain to everyone what happened and why
• The goal is to reassure employees who
remain and to restore confidence
• A few days later have pizza at the office
(make sure that it is not expensive, otherwise
you are sending mixed messages about
cutting costs), and begin to restore morale
35. Increasing revenues
• Extremely difficult since everyone is cutting costs
• Revisit your core product or service to see if there
are any ways of extracting additional revenue
• Acquire customers from weaker competitors
• Get creative
• Partner, acquire, or merge with a company offering
complementary products or services or with a
complementary sales channel
• In rare circumstances, consolidate and extend
market share
36. Raising additional capital
• Don’t count on getting bailed out by future
rounds of funding
• Money, if it can be raised at all, will be
difficult to obtain
• It will take longer to raise
• It will be at a lower valuation
• Cost of capital has increased dramatically
37. Assuming that you can raise
additional capital
• Raise enough to get to profitability, and
perhaps more
• Be prepared to demonstrate:
– A track record of meeting milestones
– A working, non-advertising monetization model
• Show investors:
– That you understand the new economic reality
– That you have a clear plan to profit from it
38. Exits
• Initial public offering window is closed
• Mergers and acquisitions extremely difficult
39. Mergers and acquisitions
• Normal acquirers, large corporations,
have their own problems
• Very little credit available to finance
acquisitions
• Debt markets are prohibitively expensive
• Public market valuations have collapsed,
reducing private company valuations
40. What are they looking for?
• Proven sales/monetization models
• Track record of hitting milestones
• Crucial market share or technology
• Public companies will only acquire
companies that are profitable or at
break-even, since they don’t want to
dilute their earnings
41. Company image
• Be proactive in managing the company’s
image, particularly if you are conducting lay-
offs
• Keep customers, investors, suppliers, and
partners informed and address their concerns
• Be careful not to send mixed signals, ex. lay
people off, then Twitter or post photos on
Facebook inconsistent with the gravity of the
situation
42. Morale and motivation
• Be proactive in managing employee morale,
especially in the aftermath of cuts
• Share information (do not hoard it or keep
employees in the dark)
• Manage employees’ expectations
• Redouble your efforts to cultivate a sense of
camaraderie
• Come up with creative (non-monetary) ways
of rewarding employees
43. Communicate
• Don’t hide problems, delay delivering bad news,
or put everything on yourself
• Talk with members of your executive team, the
CEOs of other start-ups, investors, and friends
• There is no shame in experiencing difficulties or
having questions, everyone is in the same boat
• Chances are, someone has faced the problem
before and knows how to help!
44. Moral compass
• Difficult circumstances can sometimes cause
people to panic and behave in ways that they
normally would not
• Be careful not to lose your moral compass
• If you are unsure of the morality of an act, use
the New York Times test, i.e.
Don’t do anything that you would not be
proud to have your family, friends, and
colleagues read about on the front page of
the New York Times
45. Opportunities created by the
downturn
• Increased ability to cherry-pick (recruit) the best
employees, since there will be fewer companies
• Chance to consolidate and extend market share
by identifying competitors weakened by the
crisis and acquiring their customers
• Competition should revert to “normal” levels,
since there will be fewer well-funded, duplicative
companies
46. Conclusions
• Entrepreneurs and CEOs face the worst
economic conditions since the Great
Depression.
• Those that can harness their drive and
creativity to adapt and execute in this
tough environment, however, will have
a strong chance of not only surviving,
but flourishing, once the economy turns
around.
• So, save your energy and swim parallel
to shore!
47. Additional resources
• Sequoia presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/eldon/sequoia-capital-on-startups-and-the-economic-downturn-presentation?type=powerpoint
• Bill Gurley memo: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/09/benchmark-capital-advises-startups-to-conserve-capital/
• Ron Conway email: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/08/angel-investor-ron-conway-adresses-his-portfolio-companies-over-financial-meltdown/
• PE Hub Interview, A Q&A With Silicon Valley's quot;Undertakerquot;: http://www.pehub.com/21573/a-qa-with-silicon-valleys-undertaker/
• Mary Meeker, Web 2.0 Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/hblodget/mary-meeker-web-20-presentation-presentation?type=powerpoint
• John Doerr, VentureBeat Roundtable: http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/29/john-doerr-10-ways-for-companies-to-stay-afloat-in-rough-times/
• John Borthwick memo: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/startup-advice-how-to-make-the-collapse-work-for-you
• Jason Calacanis blog post: http://calacanis.com/2008/09/29/the-startup-depression/
48. Disclaimer
• This presentation was compiled by Simon Olson, a partner at DFJ FIR
Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s Global Network partner in Brazil. All
thoughts and opinions expressed herein are his own and do not reflect
the thoughts or opinions of Draper Fisher Jurvetson or any of the
Network Funds. Responsibility for any intelligent ideas contained
herein lies with Simon’s colleagues from the DFJ Global Network who
graciously contributed ideas for this presentation. Responsibility for
any errors lies with Simon alone. Special thanks to Dan Miller for his
insightful comments on how to conduct the layoff process.