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This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
Entrepreneur Tools Episode 2
This is a new series, within Startuprad.io’s YouTube Blog. We meet a lot of people and of course, we talk with some of them about the typical entrepreneur problems. Sometimes an entrepreneur solves known problems in a very systematic way, which we find great, or has great insights. In both cases, we will talk to him or her and bring you these recordings as entrepreneur tools. We are looking forward to your feedback.
Think in principles, it helps you with a lot of decisions.Peter Hart, Serial Entrepreneur
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The Entrepreneur
You may remember Peter (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-hart-94373435) from our interview about his latest startup call Pythia https://www.startuprad.io/blog/pythia-forecasts-the-next-trend-in-consumer-products/ (yes, his video interview drops a few links as well 😊). He is a successful serial entrepreneur for more than 8 years now having to build retail brands like Dr. Severin and now an AI startup called Pythia.
He likes to think structured and shares some of the essentials from his journey to running several successful ventures.
If you ever want to do something, you can go through your CRM and look through your contacts … if you wrote down what you talked about last time the outreach will not really be a cold call.Peter Hart, Serial Entrepreneur
Basic infrastructure tools (1 & 2)
Get a Drive (Dropbox, Google Drive). Joe recommends you encrypt it with a tool like Boxcryptor
CRM Tool to manage your contacts
Everyone should build up their own principles that fit the company you want to build or the job you want to doPeter Hart, Serial Entrepreneur
3. Evolving: Building up Principles
The idea is based on Ray Dalio’s book (AL) https://amzn.to/36XZ5td
Develop your own principles, write them down and let them evolve. It also helps to explain the principles to other people. It is a learning process to shape your decision making
Hiring
Risk
Strategy
Work/Live Balance
Thinking in principles helps you make decisions.
I highly recommend thinking about … what kind of a founder am I … and thus and what do I need to think about when I hire people. Not everyone can lead every person.Peter Hart, Serial Entrepreneur
4. Building up a company culture
What you do is who you are Benz Horrowitz (AL) https://amzn.to/3tznJtQ
The idea is the whole company is following one broader path e.g., Facebook “move fast and break things”, which was later revised. Culture includes traditions e.g., coaching morning at Peters companie(s). It is a day they invest in their people.
Here is an example of an interview with the founders of Airbnb, when they talk about culture.
Further Reading (AL)
The airbnb story (AL) https://amzn.to/3rBGI5a
Blitzscaling (AL) https://amzn.to/36UdJSe
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The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Transcript
Intro
[0:00] Music.
[0:08] That I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startups.With News interviews and Live Events hello and welcome.
[0:23] Startup right that I owe you.Podcast and YouTube blog from Germany today I’m bringing you the second episode of our entrepreneur tools as you requested,today and right now I’m in my cramped study but I do have here Peter Hart who you may remember from his pythia,interview of course remotely cuticle Rona but we’ll be talking about his journey of Entrepreneurship and the tools he used to get started during his heartburn ership journey in the,eight years hey Peter how are you doing how how are you hi earn I said nice to hear you again and see you.
[1:08] Totally my pleasure when we’ve been talking about entrepreneur tools basically you were the one who got me started on this idea and.So we thought okay we do more than one episode when not yet sure how many it will be and due to our schedule that brought you this idea.Yes we talked about it,before and then somebody else showed up earlier and since we’re both busy the next one with us may take some time but nonetheless there will be at least anotherone so let’s get started and hit the road.
Basic Tools — File Management For Important Documents
[1:49] Let’s hit the road all right all right so the first tool I want to recommend is having a file management system specially for documents.And my big recommendation is making use of it by scanning all of your letters that you get from any from any.
[2:12] From any state stated institutions from any business partners and anything similar scan them upload them and have them ready whenever you need them even if it’s five years later,it saves a lot of time in searching and especially a lot of there’s a lot of.You might you might have a lot of trouble when you don’t have your documents Whenever there is a,and I will tax authorities come to check on you whenever your business partners don’t remember which contract has been signed in the end so it’s can upload,name it so that you can find it again and this saves a lot of trouble,we use Google Drive I’ve been using Google drive from the beginning and we still do but there’s enough similar Services where you can store your documents safely,and I recommend not to certain store them on your own server because if you get hacked all of your company documents are gone and that’s the store them somewhere,where you have a very high security level which these big companies provide.
[3:32] I would personally add because everybody is getting curious hairwhat type of what version of the contract you sign because contract negotiations can be very long and very intense if it’s about enough money and so you will have like.
[3:49] 10 sometimes 50 versions of a very long text document and maybe you were not diligent enough during the negotiations and assigned to themall the proper versioning and stuff like that and so you end up not really knowing which version was the signed one and that could be very embarrassing but it happens more often than you wouldthink.Especially if you suddenly need to go to court with the case and well you can’t find the signed document that’s that’s unlucky.
[4:28] At least right not that it ever happened to you right now or never.I’ll
definitely a similar things have happened to me over this time yes it iseven the with all this precaution but if I can just would just imaginethat all of our paperwork would we would have to find and some archive and hope that we put it in the right folder then I will spend a lot of my time searching instead of building,companies right so this is two number one to number two.
Crm For Your Contacts — All Your Contacts
[5:07] Starting very early with a CRM system CRM stands for,customer relationship management think thank you so much Joe customer relationship management is also an organizing thing sounds boring but is.
[5:29] Essential you,you even start no matter what you do you will start Gathering Gathering contacts and you want to have your contacts sorted,and so that whenever you have a problem or want to start something up or start a partnership or whatever you want to do you can look through your contract a contacts andyou find all the contacts that you have made in that specific field and.
[6:05] The same the same rules apply as for storing your document properly is.Remember to do it and tag tag properly so that you you also that you find the the person you need and,and keep using it usage.
[6:27] Yes so that’s that’s number two obviously if you start building up sales in your company you need a CRM system anyway but even before sales even do something that’s,that’s not even close to sales stage I recommend sorting your contacts because you forget that.
[6:48] Most people forget a lot and plus I would strongly recommend to add nodeswhen and what you talked with this person it’s invaluable if you talk to a lot of people to have the right contact especially if you can also search those notes right,yesmake notes to your contact so that when you want to get back in touch even if it’s after years you can say how you met and what you’ve been talking about people,are very glad if you remember them and it’s much more of a warm.Call then if you just contact someone out of the blue and then just tell him hey I have your card but I don’t remember anything about what,what would talked about but I know you’re the right guy that’s a totally different approach and if you,then if you know what what was the last thing you talked about together right so that’s number two,
Evolve As A Person And Entrepreneur — Building Up Principles
[7:57] number three is not so much of a tool in a classical sense but it is.
[8:06] These I would call these two I would call infrastructure basic infrastructure tools and now that you have these two basic infrastructure things,I which transition to a tool that I called principles and,there’s also a book called principles written by Ray dalio which I highly recommend where he describes his principles but I think everyone should,build up his own principles that fits to your.To your company that you want to build or the job you want to do or whatever it is you do and who you are you can get inspired of course.Buy principles of other people,but in the end you need to adapt them to you and to be able to live with them.
[9:05] Building up principles is is a big topic and is a incredibly.Powerful tool because principles allow you to make decisions based on.Decisions that you’ve made before already so you’ve decided on a principle for example let’s say.That you only hire people who can work.By themselves who can work independently because.
[9:46] Your principles that you don’t want to build too many management layers so you want people who are independent workers and independent thinkers maybe even and that that could be a principal for your company.I highly recommend thinking about the these things thing about what kind of.Founder am I what kind of a business leader am I so and thus what do.I need to think about when I hire people because obviously not everyone can lead.Everyone so the people you need need to fit to your style of leading,and need to need to fit to the your style of managing the company and this is just an example for a principal category right but I want to go with this because it’s this is,does the thump something that you encounter from the from the first day when you think about.How do you want to expand and how do you want to hire who do you want to hire to the very very very very late stage of your company hiring a something,that is always essential.
[11:12] So think about your hiring principles think about your your risk principles think about your strategy principles and think about the principles by example.How do you want want to balance your own life against against your company life.Think about these things it’s very good to write them down and revise them constantly they obviously they always evolve and change some.Some get dismissed after time after a while some get replaced and some get evolved,but think of think and principles because if you think and principles it helps you with a lot of decisions because you have a decision and then you you can split it you can grind it and split it in two,a few basic principles that you’ve established for yourself and they can help you take your decision.
[12:17] Quicker and number two if you have written your principles down you can explain them to the people you want to work with.And this makes it a lot easier for you and them to understand each other and to see whether you agree.
[12:39] Whether you can agree on some principles or your may be thinking very differently about basic principles and this might give you a hint whether this could be.An employee or a partner or not.
[12:59] Right so that’s that’s number three start building early start building your principles,it also is important because building principles is also a learning process and it might seem quite trivial at first,for example if you write down I don’t want to lie to business partners that seems kind of trivial but it starts.You started practicing bowling up principles and at some point if you read Ray dalio this book He’s presenting his principles and it’s it consists of I think.Over 200 principles or or even more.I was wondering how many principles do you have yourself how much have you written down about that.I I think I am at a hundred and.
[13:57] A TI-83 or something hundred eighty-three.Um and they keep changing obviously you you develop yourself your your view on the world and on the on the company and everything they develop and.I think I’m revising them.Every three to six month I’m and I’m reading through them and I see many times I see somewhere I wear see that I have.I’ve evolved evolve them and and maybe some are too stiff or maybe some are too broad and and it’s very nice because you have some time for yourself where you can really,decide who you want to be as a as a company leader.
[14:49] And where do you want what are your principles where and where you want.Your company to go and does it reflect and does the current state of decisions that you make still reflect.What actually wants to be,would you say people need to read Ray dalio this book first or be totally detached from them think about important areas and develop the principles by themselves or does it give you a kick start,when you are when you already have a frame of reference and you think that is good that is bad.
[15:28] I think both both ways are possible I think if you read the book you get a very deep understanding much more than I tell you right now and within 5 minutes about what.What the prince what principles are and and what the use of principles is I highly recommend the book so you,I think you should read some no matter whether you want to write it down or not,but I think in any way as possible the both ways you mentioned I think I viable I see so none is better than the other.Anything else important.
[16:13] Right okay so coming to number 4 number 4 is.
[16:21] This is also more of a.Not another Bible tool it is making building up apni culture.So now you’ve you’ve I’ve mentioned to two very basic tools and order to get started and have your things together and and one in order to shape,your decision making.Damn now number four is establishing company culture book recommendation for this topic is what you do is who you are by Ben Horowitz.
[17:04] And the company culture means that everybody in the company is
following one.Grounds.Ground path 111 broader path and and that’s things in your company are done.With respect to your company culture so,here you can have very different approaches to name a few for example Facebook’s approach very long for a very long time was,move fast and break things,so the company culture was we’re otter trying things and maybe our products from time to time gets gets broken here and there but but we move very quickly,and obviously they have revised that that.
[18:03] That cultural tagline over time now that they have become big and level of responsibility.Obviously a bank wouldn’t go with with this kind of culture we can,I love this so Define a company culture and things that make make a company culture also Traditions within the company,and things that patterns and things that keep happening for example in our company.Across all of our divisions every three weeks there is a there is a morning where.We call it Port coaching morning it’s there for bringing knowledge,into the into into the company and it’s basically a day we invest into our people so.Every every three weeks on that Wednesday morning everybody gathers and.Someone is presenting a topic that the others might not be as deeply.
[19:29] Might not know as much as that person so for example.Usually when I make my presentations I talk about leadership I am,chain or I try to bring mine what I know about leadership and how to build up teams and how to incentivize people and how to,to manage management that’s usually the topics I talked about when it’s my time it’s my turn.And so I give my knowledge about these things to our teams because.
[20:12] You know that’s the thing that that I have most experience in our company that I do mostly.And of course I want to bring this knowledge to to our people in order to create more,leaders and for them to build up their teams and this how the company is supposed to grow so we have we have this because our our culture says,that we are our biggest acid assets are our our employees.
[20:50] And we do for example this we have any any course,our employees want to make is being covered by the company even if it’s very far away from there.Current current job description any Fair they want to go and explore you.New fields of business it’s covered by the company so we have a very high priority on.I’m getting new knowledge into the company training our people.Developing our people because we think this is this is the the biggest,um value that we can provide,for our people and for the company right so this is a reflection of the company culture if you start with a company culture that says employees first people first,and then these are the implications that are the Traditions every two weeks these are the.The offers that you give your employees.And this is an example for one trait of your tradition so start of your culture so start thinking about what kind of company Do you want to build very early.
[22:14] Because this is something that unites.Um everybody who starts working with you and you really want people to understand.
[22:27] What the culture is and where they working at,what will be a point I would like to emphasize here reallyreally specifically is a lot of big companies do have something like.People first in their company culture in the written rules but basically they will cut the parking slots for half of the people so they need to come in early and search somewhere for just a parking slot,so people all the people are already annoyed when they come in and nobody will then believe people first so basically it’s somethingif you write something in a company culture in your statement you have to follow through and there’s no way rounded otherwise people won’t believe it won’t live it.
[23:15] Of course yet it’s not enough to make a fancy tag line that says where the greatest company in the world that doesn’t make it a greatest company in the world.You have to live it and this is where it gets interesting and this is where it gets real.Another recommendation is for this topic I think someone who does this amazingly is the air B&B Founders they have a lot of interviews.That they given and they talk a lot about their company culture a great example for a great culture and fitting to their business model that’s also something that.The company culture should reflect fitting to you entering to your business.
[24:08] Like I said you don’t want to you don’t want to build a hospital and have your.Culture be move fast and break things that’s that’s nice.That’s not good so it has to fit and so you have to think about it it’s not trivial that’s it out for two early stage one,look throw the after early stage and and one mid stage.
[24:37] And but all of these are for irrelevant from from start to finish.
[24:45] Yes I would totally agree you can find down here in the shoulders of courseall the links and that is of course not the lastpoint where Peter will be back according to our schedule we’ll have another entrepreneur tools togetherand I’m really really looking forward to it as well as we are looking what pithy are really can do in terms of forecasting Peter,it was such a pleasure having you here really looking forward to our next recording.
[25:18] Thank you Joe and the pleasure was all mine thank you.And thank you to everybody.
[25:28] Music.
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