I'm Arik, I scale startups from 0-exit as a COO, selling the last two businesses I worked at. AMA
Arik Oslerne
22 replies
Hi! I've been scaling startups for quite some time now - taking them from a small room of talented individuals into large exits to Silicon Valley and institutional buyers. I've usually worked as a COO or similar C-suite role.
I've been lucky to work with some awesome and successful founders, and been a bridge between their vision and execution. I've scaled teams globally and created a web of excellence that has translated into high performing teams.
I've fundraised and exited twice (Vauban, Equiti), but also have seen some epic failures (so not blind to the realism of entrepreneurship!).
Happy to help on any topic, and provide some examples of areas I can answers on:
- Top tips for COOs, Head of Ops, Chief of Staffs (or someone looking to move into such roles)
- How to scale like a pro
- How can you rock the move from corporate/professional services to the startup world
- How to supercharge founders you work with
- How to prepare yourself for a sale
I'll be answering questions on the 23rd September!
Replies
Jim Burke@jim_burke
Carta
Arik, excited to hear about best practices you map over to each startup vs. how you adjust your approach to match the different style of different founders.
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@jim_burke Great question - unfortunately there isn't a one fit for every startup - a startup is defined by its founders' culture and vision so you spend a lot of the initial time with founders working out what makes the business tick - what has worked really well and what needs to be improved on. I do believe in some fundamental truths for start-ups for instance - you need laser focus (try using planning tools like OKRs for this), don't try to fix what is not broken (you might be tempted to force something that works well in one business into another, but sometimes the secret sauce of startup is that it does it exactly the way it does it).
Hi Arik, thanks for doing this. Would love to hear your advice on
1. How to scale like a pro?
2. How to approach marketing at the early stage of B2B SAAS startup?
@anil_meena21 On (1) see my comments above to @julia_putzeys. On (2) Super dependent on the buyer persona. Will be either account based marketing v lead generation. But that is probably obvious to you! I would add a third dimension -> community hacking. Find your unicorn clients that shout about you whether through turning them into (paid/incentivised) ambassadors or even investors in you. In fact the more investor-clients you have the stickiness the relationship. And the ripple influencing effect they have can be pretty crazy.
Outdone
What were the early (non-revenue) indicators that a startup you were working on was onto something big?
@jonathan_nass Awesome question! 3 potential indicators: (1) High (organic) referral rates. (2) I ask everyone at the startup what is the vision and everyone is aligned. (3) Brave founders that aren't afraid to question any assumption
Hey Arik, I would like to learn about your tips for scaling a business. Thank you for organizing this AMA.
Hi Arik, thanks for doing this!
Curious what makes a good COO and what your favourite processes are, please
@maria_kono A COO hire should be a fundamental hire for any business. What is interesting sometimes to understand is why you bring one in and is it the right time for one. A great COO should have a clear understanding of what is expected of him/her and WHY. A core part of the role is getting the priorities right and communicating them across the business so there is alignment.
Favourite processes - I love well run finance processes - strong cash flow processes is a must (including managing aged receivables and accounts payable). Bonus point is that Investors love you for it.
How do you get started as a COO? what kind of traits do you need?
@gabriel_shin I told my boss I want to be the COO 😆
On a serious note - I made sure I had all the skills I needed to own the role. I mastered Back Office (legal, finance, people) and Middle Office (customer support, banking) as well as a good grasp of Front Office (sales, marketing).
But you need to have the right environment and skillset for the role (a bit of luck helps a lot!). Having a willingness to learn is critical, being a great listener and understanding stakeholder management is a MUST!
6-Figure Websites
I'd like to hear your thoughts on someone being a solo founder and "wearing all the hats" so to speak. Do you think it's possible to do well like that? Are there any applications/ software that would make it easier?
@gaucherm 🙌 being a solo-founder is not an easy path, so lots of credit to you! The good news is down the road you can pass down the things you dislike doing 😛
All founders have to wear all hats. The deeper you know the various areas you have to oversee, the better you will be in terms of knowing what great looks like. What you need to focus on is knowing your personal limits and focus your time like a ninja so you don't get bogged down with low value-high friction tasks.
Some great tools I love using are Trello, Asana and Monday.com. But really the most important thing is timeboxing your time. Start every week with the 3x things that MUST be done and put time aside for them. Never let those slide.
Hi Arik, I'd love to hear your tips on how to scale like a pro. Thanks for sharing!
@julia_putzeys Scale is a factor of 3 x things for me: Stage, Velocity and Talent. Stage means that you need to identify where your company is in its trajectory so a Seed company shouldn't try to emulate a Series F company's processes, Velocity is how quick you are growing so you have an idea when you need to stop saying "I will solve this later". Talent - do you have the right people and culture to grow effectively through changes. I'm big on frameworks/principles like OKRs, Values-driven hiring, Be overly transparent on performance as examples of how I help scale teams.
@arik_oslerne thanks so much! We're big fans of OKRs here at Trash Panda, and culture of the team is huge as well. Appreciate your insight.
United Market Music
In the early days, what were you main focuses as COO?
@ron_freeman Solving all the unsolvables! There tends to be this mountain of things that no one wants to touch or hasn't touched and it needs to get spring cleaned otherwise it burdens to minds of everyone.
Hi Arik, thanks for doing! I would like to add a few words for you.
When it comes to selling business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. First, make sure you have a comprehensive plan in place that takes into account the buyer's needs and wants. You'll want to look at things through their eyes so you can understand the motivations.
Second, never be afraid to walk away from a deal, even in the late stages. Some corporate buyers have a knack for last-minute adversarial negotiation tactics designed to give them an upper hand. They'll limit things to reasonable requests if they know you're willing to walk. Often the negotiator is an outside attorney looking to justify their $2,000 per hour fee to their clients by playing hardball.
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