Could this be our first advice column?

By Tom Foremski

The headline in this entry is a fantasy title for a column that I think Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies, could do very well. That’s because he loves to give advice on how to build startups. His book on how to bootstrap startups is coming out soon, and he’s been a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School.

I recently spoke with Greg at the SD Forum conference on Software as a Service (SaaS). As we talked outside the conference room about bootstrapping and how startups change in different phases of their growth, he soon attracted attention from several local entrepreneurs who heard him speaking on these topics and were eager to have his answer on a range of issues they were facing.

Greg was there to promote his enterprise SaaS company, RightNow, but he spent at least an hour chatting with entrepreneurs about his management methods and approach. So, instead of standard report on “my chat with Greg,” we'll let Greg dole out his advice for startups in a Dear Abby format. The questions were asked by people at the SD Forum conference running small startups.

The RightNow Way: Serial advice from a serial entrepeneur

by Greg Gianforte

Dear Greg: My head of sales isn’t performing so I’d like to move him into business development. How would I best do that?

Greg: You might not want to do that in the first place. It is hard to do but you have to change your teams for different stages of growth. The people you started with will not have the same skills you need two years later.

As a startup moves into a second phase of growth, you will find that you almost need an entirely new team. That’s what I did at one of my earlier ventures. I couldn’t figure out why we had plateaued and we couldn’t get going again, until I realized my team didn’t have the skill set for the next stage. It was hard because you have a connection to people, but it does not serve them to ask them to do a job they are not able to do, and it doesn’t help the business. So, over a two-year period I replaced almost every member of a 40-member team.

Look for more of these “serial advice from a serial entrepreneur” segments. If you like them, I can go get more! In fact, send me some questions, I’ve no idea if Greg would answer them but he might. He has a book to promote after all, so that might tempt him, not that he needs an excuse. He loves to dole out advice on startups and it’s been working for him very well.

Coming up next on Serial Advice: Greg says selling is one of the most noble professions in the world - “Delegating the head sales position should be one of the last things you do, you have to spend time at the coalface, you have to get to know the coalface.”