Question For Those With Experience Building Teams

[UncleJimmy]

A few questions for people that have had experience in building teams/partnerships.



1) What were your biggest successes in building it?
2) What were your biggest pitfalls?
3) Would you do it again?


Thanks for the info in advance, writing a lil article up for someone & thought some of you might have some interesting insight into this.


- UNC J

[Winetalk.com]

3) Would you do it again?
******************************

not likely....
it's HARD to find a decent partner....

GOOD people do not grow on trees...

[sharky]

1) What were your biggest successes in building it?
REAL Partnerships in this industry are not a good idea!

2) What were your biggest pitfalls?
Never trust someone too much. Always watch your back and keep an eye on what you "partner" is doing.

3) Would you do it again?

HELL NO!

As Serge said.. Good Partners are hard to find.

[UncleJimmy]

Seems to be my exact same experience Serge!

Been through a lot of flakes and shady's, can only count the number of 'solid' people I've worked with on 1 hand after about 4-5 years playin in this biz.

sadly enough I don't think it's endemic to this industry alone though but rather a blanket truism about biz in general

[UncleJimmy]

Thanks Serge & Sharky,

but then how really do large companies get ahead?

at some level there must be collaboration, teamwork etc

are you telling me that ARS, Maxcash, CE, CEN, Topbucks, Flashcash, etc etc etc all were run/done etc via a single person with bankroll for days just to purely 'hire' everyone and crack the whip?

There's gotta be some success stories on partnerships/teams somewhere I'd imagine

[Nickatilynx]

We are currently building new teams.My thoughts are the same as the others here..

1.)Do not have partners or pick them carefully
2.)Employ people
3.)Offer GREAT performance related bonuses to your emplyees
4.)Always have 51%....partners?...what partners?
5.)Be a control freak.Know everything thats happening.




Last edited by Nickatilynx at Jan 15 2003, 04:31 PM

[Mike AI]

Partnerships are tough, especially when all want to be active. Someone has the be the chief, and the rest indians. Cannot run a tribe with 2-3-5 chiefs.

As far a building a team, you need a good point guard, and dominate center.... :D

Actually you can build a good team from scratch overtime without partnerships. InterCosmos is a great example. While 5 partners own business, only 1 runs day to day operations. Yet we have 63 employees who make one hell of a team.

[sharky]

Most of the companies you mention were in business together FIRST outside of the adult internet.

:-)

Some are family partnerships
Some have broken parterships

[Winetalk.com]

UJ,
here are few enteties which can replace partners and cost MUCH less:
banks for financing
silent partners for the same
consultunts (fixed expence)

in today environment,
unless partner can bring REAL and IRREPLACABLE assets to the deal,
honest to the fault and won't screw you silly,
I'd say THINK out of the box and do your dandiest to avoid them.

Good partnership is like a good marriage, and you know the divorce stats in this country.

one word of advice, though.
If you are from the West Coast -
look for partners there,
same if you are from the East Coast.
I find that people from different coasts have different mentalities, and not very much compatible when it comes to partnerships and the way they think.

I am glad my partner is from mid south,
he is flexable and THAT is a very valuable trait in partnership
;-))

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Jan 15 2003, 04:32 PM





Partnerships are tough, especially when all want to be active. Someone has the be the chief, and the rest indians. Cannot run a tribe with 2-3-5 chiefs.
*********************************************

well,
there is a solution for that,
"war time consiglieri, peace time consiglieri"
Sonny was great at war and lousy at making deals
;-)
there is enough room in partnerships to be FULLY in charge of...
your particular department/project.

the problems arise when partners forget that and start puting their noses in the wrong pots
;-)))


As far a building a team, you need a good point guard, and dominate center.... :D
***********************************

very true

[UncleJimmy]

"I am glad my partner is from mid south,
he is flexable and THAT is a very valuable trait in partnership"



Flexibility rocks for sure and also one of Neuro-Linguistic Programming's presupositions if I recall correctly...

"The one with the most flexibility has the most power."




So, so far I'm gathering this as a consensus:

1) "Just say NO" to partners, or select only 1 at most that you trust like a wife
2) For additional resource requirements, seek that from banks, employees, etc
3) Always watch your back





Great responses so far guys, keep em coming! ;)

and thanks for all of them so far, you guys rock, I"m getting dick for responses elsewhere

[Winetalk.com]

3) Always watch your back
******************************

I am not sure about this one...
do you watch your wife's back?

if you partnered with a "whore",
nothing will help you,
one needs partner who is NOT required "the back watching"

[Nickatilynx]

1) "Just say NO" to partners, or select only 1 at most that you trust like a wife


Trust your partner more :)

After all wives are meant to fuck you.It says so in the contract :)

[Dravyk]

After all wives are meant to fuck you.It says so in the contrac

Heard Mel Gibson say this last night in that movie "What Women Want" --

"What's the difference between marriage and a job? 10 years later and I'm still screwed every single day at the job."


Back to serious ... I think among the things stated here so far that yes you need deliniation, be it partners or employees who grow into becoming junior partners. Definiately, as Mike said, one person in charge of operations. One person in charge of finances. Everyone doing their own thing without being micromanaged but still reporting to the CEO. Trust is the key. That's not to say to turn a blind eye to anyone, to always know what everyone else is doing. But still to congeal as a team. And yep, a good partner is a rare find.

[originalheather]

Partners=kidnappers legally holding your business hostage.

Ask a few people that post here sometimes...one comes to mind who couldn't get anything done because his partner would sit on his intercom the whole day talking about nothing and making him insane. He finally had to sell out.

I've known a lot of partnerships that caused the businesses to fail. I almost took on a partner in a brick and mortar business last year. Got to thinking about it and changed my mind.

Serge is right..a partner should be silent, and the contracts should state that or just stick to well-incentived employees.

[*KK*]

Hmmm, a team has:
1. an owner/group of owners
2. general manager/head coach
3. assistant coaches specializing in different parts of the game
4. at least one star player, hopefully more depending on what kind of game you are playing and proportionate to the number of players
5. a well rounded starting lineup
6. as deep a bench as you can afford

How each of these parts works with the others and as part of a whole determines the quality of your team.

How much determination and drive to win your team has must start with #1 and work its' way to the end of the list in order to become championship caliber.

Some teams don't seem to be teams tho -- golf for instance. However, Tiger Woods with a suck ass caddie won't be as effective as Tiger with a great caddy who understands Tiger's style and limitations and helps him reach past to become a longer hitter, better putter, etc.

Of course many bench players, especially good ones, don't stay since they see opportunities to be stars on other teams...

[Almighty Colin]

Hmmm .. while quite new (about 5 months live), my partnership with JR on Pleasure Labs is awesome :-)

We have very strong and clear division of labor and responsibility. I think this is very important. Also trust. You have to trust the decision-making of your partner/partners or else you are in real trouble. If you don't trust that they are making the best decision 95%* of the time for their area of responsibility - you need employees, not partners. In truth, I always work with partners that I
trust will make BETTER decisions than me in their respective areas of responsibility.

* Number may vary.

[Hell Puppy]

You haven't really posted what your "needs" are. What do you need brought to the table? Money? Programming skills? Grunts? Management?

If your first thought in the process of building a business is to go hire a bunch of people to run the business before it even exists, then you are perhaps headed down the same road as many busted dotcoms. Too many of them were more concerned with building the team and organization than they were building business and profits. It doesn't take 600 people to run a website.

[cj]

Originally posted by Colin@Jan 15 2003, 07:51 PM
Hmmm .. while quite new (about 5 months live), my partnership with JR on Pleasure Labs is awesome :-)

We have very strong and clear division of labor and responsibility. I think this is very important. Also trust. You have to trust the decision-making of your partner/partners or else you are in real trouble. If you don't trust that they are making the best decision 95%* of the time for their area of responsibility - you need employees, not partners. In truth, I always work with partners that I
trust will make BETTER decisions than me in their respective areas of responsibility.

* Number may vary.
good points colin


I've had a lot of variations of partnerships in this industry, 2 stand out ... 1 was the worst arrangement imaginable and it taught me what not to do, the other has been the best arrangement possible and taught me that not every partner is out to screw you for every cent ...

1) What were your biggest successes in building it?
finding working partners who compliment your own skill set and whose strengths are your weakness

2) What were your biggest pitfalls?
clearly defining who owns what, who pays what and who is responsible for what. partnerships with changing rules are doomed. KISS theory is necessary ...

3) Would you do it again?
yes, especially in standalone projects ... but as nick said, better than partners is a good team of employees who have incentive to do their job well

[kath]

Originally posted by Serge_Oprano@Jan 15 2003, 01:02 PM
3) Would you do it again?
******************************

not likely....
it's HARD to find a decent partner....

GOOD people do not grow on trees...
Amen Brother Serge....and God help you if you're one of the GOOD people. You'll be the one screwed over in the end.