Some great points in there! "Communication" should be right up the top in bold. Bad communication has ties to many disasters like founder breakups, team disconnect, ownership & performance issues, company direction et al.
However one that stands out as unnecessary: "Senior People: In the early days, hiring senior people is usually a mistake."
The best people I hired in the past were senior. Ton more experienced and older than I. Of course they didn't come from corporate backgrounds but from fast paced tech cultures/environments. With all the equality talk in the valley around gender and ethnicity I'm surprised age discrimination is still so loosely thrown around. The key here should be "hire experienced people fit for the stage of growth". Burning time teaching / hand holding inexperienced people is a drag on the company's speed to execute and culture.
The traditional argument against hiring senior people in a young company is usually a mistake because cash is precious and senior people are usually too expensive to fully utilize since at a startup everyone ends up having to do bitch work anyways, so it might as well be cheaper hands doing it.
Senior people aren't always old.. this has nothing to do with age discrimination
"Senior people" is an age reference. "Senior role" is a reference to the actual position. Maybe semantics.
If I have to pay say 2x junior rate for 1 senior role that can move/execute faster than 2+ juniors, then I will. Apart from having someone that hits the ground running I'm also sending a strong business message to the market and investors that I can bring in top hires to execute faster than the shop down the road that's still learning business fundamentals.
However one that stands out as unnecessary: "Senior People: In the early days, hiring senior people is usually a mistake."
The best people I hired in the past were senior. Ton more experienced and older than I. Of course they didn't come from corporate backgrounds but from fast paced tech cultures/environments. With all the equality talk in the valley around gender and ethnicity I'm surprised age discrimination is still so loosely thrown around. The key here should be "hire experienced people fit for the stage of growth". Burning time teaching / hand holding inexperienced people is a drag on the company's speed to execute and culture.
Any views on holacracy?