When building a startup, advice and feedback from others can be crucial to your success. But how do you determine the good from the bad? These 5 LA tech CEOs and founders shared the worst advice they were ever given:
Erik Huberman, CEO of Hawke Media
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"The worst advice I had with Hawke Media was early on when I started to build my team. Someone, whom at the time seemed to be doing a lot better than myself, explained to me that I shouldn't hire. He had hired a team to support his marketing business and it had completely blown up in his face because his revenues did not grow to support his team. He explained to me that there is great money in being a solo consultant, and the benefits of having a team are outweighed by the risks. One year later I have over 20 employees and am far more profitable, having far more fun, and am very happy I did not take his advice."
Peter Luttrell, Founder of FieldTest
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"Business advice usually sucks and comes in the form of fear and doubt. It takes a lot of guts to start a company and your friends and mentors are right to point out the risk. The most consistent bad advice I get is about competition. 'It’s already been done.' Competition is market validation. Anything worth doing is being done by others (or will be very soon). If we all reacted to fear of competitors there would be no innovation. I try to bake-in a culture of benign neglect for competitors. We know you are there but we have the guts to know we will win."
Brandon Noah Kleinman, Founder of Laurel & Wolf
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"The worst advice I received was to not worry about customers and that, in the beginning, if you build it, and it's good, people will find it...I've always been a big believer in story telling and think that product is a single facet of a multi-faceted story (Messaging, Distribution, Identity). This particular nugget came from an investor who was very product-focused. His passion for great products was right, but it’s critical to think contextually about who is going to use your product, how they are likely to find it, and what it’s going to take to make them confident enough to give it a try. Distribution coupled with product narrative is rarely given enough attention early in a product’s life because it's hard and often hidden, but I've always found it to be make or break."
"Hire cheap" is the worst business advice I ever received as an entrepreneur. While it's important to watch expenses, especially at a start-up, I see people as an investment and not as an expense."
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"It's critical early on for a company to build a strong foundation and that means bringing on people with experience who can develop strategies and execute tactics. Getting the right team together is an investment in the future of the company. Being told to 'hire cheap' is a limited, narrow-minded viewpoint that is solely focused on reducing payroll expenses without taking into account the value creation by those employees.
In the long run, paying employees what they are worth is about focusing on their ability to create value, which, in turn, will create more ROI for the company. Having a strong core team in place means that fewer mistakes and smarter decisions will be made, which is essential for start-ups with new business models looking to become market leaders."
Jonathan Eppers, CEO of RadPad
"The first meeting I ever took when we started RadPad was with a very respected VC in Los Angeles. Like everyone knew him and his fund. This VC had previously invested millions in to a very large, established competitor of RadPad's so he knew the rental market very well. But within five minutes of the meeting it was clear to us that this VC had a very different vision to ours and he made it clear to us he thought we were naive and in way over our heads. In this meeting, he ripped us a new one and in the process, I think, really tried to convince us to get out of the rental market.
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Since day one we've been building RadPad for renters, which wasn't the way everyone else in our industry was doing it, but every single respected person we spoke to in the rental industry, including this VC, laughed us off. Well just two years later, our intense and methodical focus on the renter has helped us quickly climb to the most downloaded rental app in both iOS and Google AppStores and the fastest growing rental payments company in the US. We've turned down several acquisition offers in the last two years and raised $13M in venture capital, though from investors who share our vision and can see outside the box."
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