Ellie's Blog

Transparency as Professional Development

While reading a recent article by our CEO Brian Halligan on HubSpot's startup culture, it struck me how important transparency is to the success of an organization. Frequently transparency is touted as a key component to a great company culture. But perhaps just as importantly, transparency is a great means of professional development.

HubSpot has not been particularly formal when it comes to professional development. Not because we don't value professional development, but because we have some pretty big fish to fry and other - less formal - means of frying them (or learning better frying methods?). When I started, I spent the first half of my first day reading The New Rules of Marketing & PR while I waited for my computer. There was no formal training, just throwing me into the ring. These days we've got the HubSpot Fellows program which is a great professional development initiative, albeit sadly short and not as in depth as I'm sure us crazy-type-A-hungry-learners would like.

The greatest professional development we've had is our transparency.

Before HubSpot, I definitely underrated transparency. It's certainly cool to know what the CEO is thinking about or what the engineering team is working on. But it's even more valuable to have the kind of understanding about the problems the CEO is trying to solve or how the engineering team develops a product. (A subtle but important difference.)

At a typical job, you might have a particular project or two that you work on. You are focused on your one project and don't have much exposure to what others are working on or thinking about. At HubSpot we have more than enough work on each of our plates, but that doesn't stop us from commenting on what Brian is writing on the wiki or going to an engineering team sprint planning meeting and asking questions about the development of an application. Transparency allows employees to participate in many more projects and learn about much more of the business. It's the best professional development program there is - and a much more practical approach to learning new business skills.

Good Business - Lessons from Startup Founders, Coaches, and Pimps

In the Boardroom

I've been reading Founders at Work, which is a collection of interviews with startup founders about their early days. So far it's been an interesting read, and there's something particularly unexpected about the interview with Lotus founder, Mitch Kapor.

Mitch was very inexperienced in business when he got started at Personal Software (his first company) and Lotus. Not only that, be he was risk-averse and avoided conflict - two things I don't typically associate with an entrepreneur. He made a lot of mistakes as a result of his inexperience and lack of mentors. But he also just stuck to his values regardless of "the way the world works" and how dirty business can be. He tells the story of Lotus's second round of VC funding when the investors tried to take advantage of them because of their inexperience:

The investor didn't want to take any risk. It was absurd. They only do this because they can get away with it, because they have the money and you need it and "fuck you." ... I was just pissed off about this for a long time. They were supposed to be our investors, they were supposed to be on the same side, but they were highly adversarial and totally willing to take advantage of us.

Mitch almost walked out of that closing meeting but the investors backed down. He stuck to his values no matter the consequences it would have on the business, but it did work out for him and the company.

On the Court

Again and again, in the interviews with these successful startup founders (particularly the engineers among them), they were adamantly committed to sticking to their values. In My Personal Best by John Wooden, which I also just started as part of my HubSpot Fellows "Learning Leadership from the Legends" class, John Wooden also talks about sticking to your values of being the best you can be and doing right by others. He tells a story of being benched for an entire basketball game that his team was losing and the coach refusing to put him, one of the best players, into the game. There were greater team lessons to be learned and it wasn't all about winning the game.

On the Streets

As a funny coincidence, this same advice of doing good business also came up on the HBO show Hung in the season 2 premier when Ray's neurotic first-time pimp, Tanya, gets advice from a fellow pimp on how to make Ray loyal to her. What's the advice she gets? Take care of Ray when he needs it the most. Do right by Ray no matter what. And then he will be loyal, always coming to her for all his... pimping needs.

There are, of course, successful people who do not stick to altruistic values in business. But, as Mitch puts it,

The most important thing for me is, I don't want to work with someone who says, "Just help me make the business more successful." I want to work with entrepreneurs who are personally passionate, committed, and believe in what they're doing. Not all entrepreneurs are like that.

And it's the passion to make something great, not just make money, that gives entrepreneurs the drive to succeed. Succeed at making something great.

From the McGill Bubble to Work Bubble, but not Web 2.0 Bubble

This post is sure to be packed with hilarious video AND some self-reflection and perspective-taking... Are you ready for it?

 

The most recent video to craze my office is this video on the Web 2.0 bubble. (What is Web 2.0?)



HubSpot's co-founder and Chief Software Architect, Dharmesh Shah, wrote a great post on this video and why HubSpot isn't part of the Web 2.0 bubble. He offers 10 reasons to support his claim, which I find not only validating of his claim, but also hilarious and true. I particular enjoyed the following:

5. For us, "exit strategy" means figuring out how to leave work at 9:00 p.m. (and go home to work some more) and not look like a slacker to the other members of the team.

9. Nobody creates the illusion that they're working -- but instead try to create the illusion that they have a life. Some succeed at this illusion better than others.

Sadly, hilariously, true.

I find the timing of this video/article quite fitting because today I realized that I do live in a bit of a bubble. Not the Web 2.0 bubble, but a work bubble, oftentimes completely consumed by my job. Then some days - like today - I am able to get some persepctive and realize that the rest of the world doesn't think about marketing, or particularly internet marketing, all day every day.

I also realized that I am probably somewhat prone to this bubble-like living. I truly love having a lot of and challenging work and even when I was in university - where my workload was not nearly as heavy as it is now - I became completely consumed by what I was doing (mostly extracurriculars rather than schoolwork actually). Luckily quite a few of my friends were right in that bubble with me and we still managed to have a pretty good time. I find my work satisfying, I just need to step back and get some perspective from time to time.

Are You Destined to Live in a Dilbert Comic Strip?

Think you're living in a Dilbert comic strip? Think the whole business world is a Dilbert comic strip? It's not true!

I love this article recently written by HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah: Why Startups Have Fewer Dilbertian, Pointy-Haired Bosses. While the article focuses on the management teams in startups vs. big, established companies, I think it definitely speaks to the great atmosphere (in general) of a (good) startup. Much less Dilbertian, you might say.

A few of the comments suggested that we (Dharmesh and some of the other startup-loving readers of his blog - I include myself in this bunch) are romanticizing startups somewhat (I think this is hard not to do when you work at a great startup...). And in reality there are awesome big companies and there are sucky startups - they're all out there (I still think there is a higher proportion of great people in startups vs. big companies because they are a more entrepreneurial and more committed group).

What I think it comes down to is the right fit of the person to the company. A comment posted by Brian (who also works with us) also speaks to this. He suggests that big company culture is very different from startup culture and people usually fit well into one or the other, but not both. So which one do you fit into?

Taking into account some of the things mentioned in the article and comments, and upon looking back at my own work history (though limited it is), here's what I think makes people fit better in a big company or a startup:

• Internally-Motivated Overachievers (+ Startup) - Startups are great for overachievers, especially those who get satisfaction out of doing work for the sake of the experience and problem-solving fun. There isn't a lot of room to move up the corporate ladder in a startup, when the only person between you and the CEO is a VP, your boss. But there are still a lot of amazing, satisfying things for you to do.

• ADD individuals (+ Startup) - Have trouble concentrating on one thing? In other words, want to do a lot and have access to lots of different aspects of the company? No matter what job you take at a startup, you'll likely get to see every aspect of the company, from development to marketing & sales to customer support. And even though you may take a job in marketing, you just might end up doing some customer support.
  

• Benefit of resources (- Startup) - I myself am used to little or no resources, as is the typical situation for most college groups (and non-profit organizations) , but what's great about a big company is that there IS money and there ARE tons of resources built up. Resources include anything from training classes all the way down to tons of pens and notebooks in the supply closet (*ahem* our supply closet consists of a box and filing cabinet with some office supplies).

• Act > Strategize (+ Startup) - In a startup, the focus is definitely on getting things done. Not that this is not important in a big company. But in a big company you spend more time strategizing, there is more coordinating of larger budgets and resources, while in a startup you want to get out there and try things - it's ok if it doesn't work out (you're not actually spending big bucks for the most part at the beginning) because you're learning. The valuable resource you're trying not to waste I think is your time and employee power, so you try to get things done as efficiently as possible and see how it turns out (I guess so later you can strategize...). A related point is that in a startup there is less bureaucracy (a huge point that affects my personal preference) and so it's a lot easier to get things done because you don't need to go through 10 people for approval. And because of this you can do real work (not wasting time with administrative tasks and waiting around on people) and see results from your work.
  

• Employee Visibility (+/- Startup) - This is a tough one. Employees are definitely more visible in a startup, no question. But sometimes, some people, just want to be less visible. I actually feel like that sometimes. Failures are definitely less visible in a big company (maybe also because responsibilities are more diffused and so mistakes are smaller in the grand scheme of things). But when I screw up, half the company, including the CEO, can hear and see it happening because we're all sitting in the same room all day. Great. But the flip side is that your successes are equally visible and can therefore carry you further in a small company. And in general, in a small company, you get more attention because there are fewer people altogether. You have direct access to executives because they sit at the desk next to yours and you have small weekly meetings with them.
  

• Risk (+/- Startup) - Of course with a startup there are risks. You risk job security and hope that you will benefit from a big payoff in the future, say if the company succeeds, gets bought or goes public. You need to figure out if you're willing to take the risk. What's funny is I don't really consider myself a big risk taker, and yet I still jumped right into my current job, my first real job out of college, at a startup.

• Shaping the company (+ Startup) - If you want to have a real effect on how your company grows and changes, then a startup is definitely for you. It's been amazing to see, in just the couple of months at my job, how much has changed and evolved and it's exciting to see it happening and to be a part of it. Each voice is much more powerful and since the company is still early on in its development, there are a lot of places it could go and you have a part in affecting that.

After all this is said and done, it really comes down to finding the company environment that you feel you fit in well. This means feeling comfortable in your skin, feeling appreciated, and being challenged. Because all these things make for a happier person and help foster career growth. My two cents.

 

Resetting my watch to SST: Standard Startup Time

I was telling my friend earlier today that I am no longer on a student schedule (waking up late, staying up late) but rather on a regular work schedule (waking up early, going to bed early).

And here I am, almost 1:30am on a Thursday night, still awake - but swearing to go to bed soon!

What I realize is that I'm not on a regular work schedule, I'm on a startup schedule. That means getting up early... but also staying up late. I don't consider myself a workaholic, but I'm probably in denial. After all, I was working until about 1am.

Yes, that's a ridiculous number of work hours, and no, I'm not getting paid overtime (I wish). It's just that there's a lot of work for me to do, and, well, I pretty much love my job.

Around the time when I first started my job (about a month ago), I wrote a blog article on "Why I Love Working for a Startup - and Why You Might Too." It was at a time when I was incredibly in love with my job and feeling oh-so-mushy. I never actually posted the article, and I'm somewhat glad because it was BEYOND mushy. But, one month into my job, I stand by the five points I outlined and I thought I would finally share them with the world.

So here is why I love working for a startup, and why you might too:

1. A startup can be a huge investment of time and effort because of the lack of resources. But the positive side of this is the depth and range of experiences that comes with that. There are only two people in this marketing "department" - me and my boss. That translates into getting much greater responsibility. I get to work on tons of projects, and exciting projects at that. I could never get to do this in any other entry level marketing position and the level of knowledge I have gained in this time could not have been met in any other job.

2. One thing I didn't actually expect is that I would get to see how a company works. When the group is small, you end up sitting amongst sales people, product developers, and even the CEO and co-founders. And you hear their conversations and you engage them in conversations and you see how people interact to bring together one functioning whole. For someone like me, with little business experience, this is incredibly valuable.

3. And that leads me to my next point - you are surrounded by smart, accomplished people. At least at this company, there are numerous people who have started a number of businesses and have extensive entrepreneurial experience and frankly are just really, really smart about what they do. They know a lot and, because there isn't really anyone between you and them, you get direct access to some incredible resources.

4. As a slight bonus, especially for people who aren't really into the cookie-cutter office lifestyle, a startup offers a fun, relaxed atmosphere with great interactions. Yes, I work hard, but I can show up at noon if I feel like it (of course, tomorrow I have a meeting at 10am, so I need to be in to the office in about 8 hours). And - eliminating one of my pet peeves - there isn't huge bureaucracy slowing you down. You get incredibly efficient processes. For example, we run a marketing campaign and generate a bunch of leads. We pass them on to the sales people right next to us, and hear how the sales call goes. We can get immediate feedback on the quality of those leads to understand the effectiveness of our marketing programs. Pretty cool.

5. My last point: my mom says I have potential, and I believe it. The greatest advice I got when making my job decision was to always surround myself with smart people. There are definitely plenty of those around my office, and they, plus the high level of work I get to do, truly challenge me. And challenges are the key, in my opinion, to really succeeding. You can't get very far if you're always playing it safe. You need to take some risks, take a leap, work your ass off, and then you can really start experiencing success.

So there's my little shpiel about how great it is to work at a startup. At first I was definitely very hesitant about taking this job. But I can't even imagine what my life would be like if I had done anything different. OK, I can imagine it, but it's not nearly as awesome.