Startup Tips Day 13: Craig Walker from GrandCentral

Day #13 in the CenterNetworks Startup Tips Month come from Craig Walker from GrandCentral.

Craig's Tips

Tip 1 - Hire Good People.

Don't just hire people who are good on paper or who have "done it" before. Hire people who are willing to work hard and have a ton of common sense. You'll need them to do much more than any single job description can tell so find ones who share that start-up mentality of doing anything necessary to get the job done. And who can figure things out!

Tip 2 - Fix Hiring Mistakes Immediately.

In a start-up, you'll quickly know if you made the right hiring decision or not. It's too small of a team with too much to do. If somebody isn't carrying their weight, it will be obvious...to everybody! Keeping a poor performer on board can serve to de-motivate the others, and you'll have to redo their work later. Fix problems immediately.

Tip 3 - Don't worry if you don't have all the answers.

People will try to poke holes in your ideas from every angle. Regardless of your answers, you can't convince everybody it's the greatest idea in the world. Just keep working and executing. The answers will come or you'll learn to make adjustments on the fly.

Tip 4 - Hire "hungry" people.

There's a temptation to hire the rock star employees who have been with other startups that have become huge successes. These might be great hires, but they might also be difficult to get cranking as they might already be loaded and not willing to put in the effort needed to get your startup cranking.

Tip 5- Find good investors.

No matter how great your idea is or how smoothly things are going, there will come a time when your investors want to see results. Or want more of one thing and not another. Having investors who understand the startup process (the best ones usually have been in your shoes before so they know what you are going through) and who can really be helpful in challenging times are priceless.

Tip 6 - Don't kill yourself trying to find the perfect partner.

Getting a deal with a marquee name is great, but large corporations move at a pace that is much slower than a start-up and can drain tons of resources from your small team and rarely pan out. Often when they do it becomes a great press release for you and may help with fundraising, but rarely turn into great business opportunities.

Tip 7 - Did I mention hiring?

It's the first and most important thing you can do. Do it well and fix it if it's not working. I can't say that enough.

Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of GrandCentral. In 2001, Craig became the CEO of Dialpad Communications, where he led the company out of bankruptcy and transformed it into the most profitable VoIP company in the industry. When Dialpad was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, Craig became Senior Director of VoIP and successfully merged the Dialpad team with the Yahoo! Messenger group.

Prior to Dialpad, Craig was a technology venture investor at Sterling Payot Capital and a corporate attorney at top tier law firms in Silicon Valley, where he represented companies ranging from early stage start-ups to Cisco Systems. Outside of work, Craig spends his free time with his wife and three kids and is a board member of the Ascent Russian Orphan Aid Foundation.