Luke Janssen’s Post

It’s my dads 75th. Here he is with my son. He always spent a lot of time with me growing up and I spend a lot with Leo. Don’t underestimate inter-generational wisdom. There are a few trends that are taking us in the wrong direction: People “disowning their toxic parents / grandparents!” [why would you do this? Because they are conservative and you aren’t? Well you will be when you’re older so grow up] Divorce. [this is happening way too quickly, it’s depriving sons of time with their dads. Time with dads correlates massively with many success outcomes] In startup land I’m seeing great momentum from young folks slaying it (Freddie Hedegaard, Keoki Alexander-Chang paired with older wisdom (me!). So listen to older folks one day it will be you! :)

Startup: Gen Z go mad if you don't reward them. If your guys work 10 hours straight with no food, take them to Wingstop Restaurants Inc. Otherwise they will go mad like the worker in this video. The reality in startups is you will be working longer than 10 hour days. If you aren't then you probably won't win the battles you need to win to win the war. There is nothing wrong with expecting people to work really hard (note: you must be working these hours yourself if you want others to, that goes without saying). My approach is to pay 20% to 30% below market rate salaries and to reward performance. That way if you perform you get more than market rate pay and if you don't you leave. This reward is usually profit share and ESOP, but can be other things. One that worked well for us was a night in a local hotel for you and your partner (that makes the partner like the company too which you need because they also suffer when their partner works late) Also workers care more about what they get relative to others. If someone else is paid well for not doing as much that will destroy the morale of everyone. In the video Squid shouldn't have criticised unless he had also worked 10 hours without food. Your workers will talk to make sure you are being fair to them relative to the others. https://lnkd.in/eTHPXhNT

Good talk on product design from Tony. Great advice to talk to your kids or other young folk who haven’t been bashed into shape by that world. That’s why doctors and bankers have a hard time starting companies. They work in heavily regulated environments being told regularly what they can’t do. That builds up over time and it’s difficult to break rules and spot dumb things. Worth a watch.

I have achieved a few things in my life through a combination of work and luck. But it all pales in comparison to the huge achievement of getting 7,000 followers on LinkedIn. Even though I am not a 'top voice' (one can only dream!), I think this represents the zenith of my life thus far. And so I googled it and found out that 7,000 is an 'angel number' and has significance: Ultimately, the 7000 angel number symbolizes abundance, wealth, and success. When this angel number appears in your life, it can indicate that you are about to experience a period of great prosperity and good fortune. The angels are encouraging you to keep taking steps toward your goals and dreams. They are signalling that the universe is ready to open doors of abundance in your life. And before you think you can thwart my massive massive achievement by unfollowing me, the joke will be on you since I will be on 6,999!

Startups: Raising seed money. Ask: "Do you have the money you are talking about and can you sign it off?" If they don't say yes, then move on. 90% of the conversations you have will be with someone who says they know rich people who invest and they can get you the money for some fee. Ignore these people; less than 5% of them can help. You have to get to investors who actually have money that they can invest. Don't be afraid to be blunt and ask them if they have money. Do they sign it off. Angels and small family offices are good because they can mobilise money quickly and usually don't have a pesky old investment committee who can kibosh your plans (but do often have accountants and lawyers that you need to convince). One downside to note is that most of these guys didn't make their millions by being kind to all the animals. Many of them had to put a bullet into Bambi's mum to get rich, so they can be difficult to deal with and they don't have the accountability of the corporates or the VCs (who won't kill Mrs Bambi because that looks bad). They can make your startup life not fun anymore. Choosing well is a minefield, but the piece of advice to make your life way easier is to chop out the middlemen at least you can get rid of that problem. It slows you way down and is unnecessary. Its simple: you are raising money. So talk to people with money. Not people who know people with money. This is a picture of me on a beach in Bali. Go Bali United and go Holland for today.

Startups: Sales is the most important thing you are doing. If you are good at sales you never lose your job. It is better to be good at sales than good at coding. And no one sells better than founders, so if you are too busy and think you don't have time to sell and want to hire a new sales person don't. Hire yourself a PA instead so you can free up more of your time to sell more. As for schools Ned is right, we don't teach sales in schools which is why I am teaching a high school class in my kids school. Sales is a big part of what I teach. If you are a founder and want to get better at sales follow Ned and listen to what he says

Phones and study and work. Imagine when young folk they go to work. Will they suddenly go from 6 hours a day on their phone to nothing while at work? Look at the graph. Phones are messing up kids in school because they aren’t studying. Is this why the young folks are demanding fully remote working so that no one can see them on their phones all day? As an employer do you take phones away? This is a massive opportunity for anyone who wants to do real work. Start a startup and out-gun all these phone addicts by simply doing work. :)

Startups: When to hire. This advice is bang on from startup founder Helen McGuire who knows the answer to these questions because she has lived it (and I know it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows because I invested in the company she successfully exited). Don't hire anyone until you are at 150% capacity. Do not hire for future growth. Grow, then hire. Don't go on a hiring spree when you get new VC money. Do it yourself and when you are up nights and weekends and about to go absolutely crazy, then automate, then hire. Don't ever hire when your team says "We are really busy we need to hire more people!". Your team will always say this. The two things you must do before this is 1. work out how to automate what they are doing more efficiently look in to AI to help. (i.e. work smarter), then 2. wait until you are all really really really busy. And when you do hire, don't hire someone remote or (especially for dev) offshore. Hire someone who is willing to work late nights and weekends and go crazy with you by your side in the office. Pay them 10 to 20% under market value but have generous profit share.

Startups and sacrifice: It isn’t all ice creams and rainbows. Many people I speak to say “I want to start a company to have more time for myself / more work-life balance” This won’t happen. But your thinking will change from ‘I don’t like work” to “I love work” and you will willingly work harder and sacrifice things. When i worked at KPMG in my early 20s I worked hard during the week and then on the weekends I sailed on Sydney harbor and skydived at Picton and rocked out in the evenings with my rock band and spent the money I earned on friends and booze and dinners and partying. In my late 20s when I quit KPMG and started Tigerspike I worked all week and all weekend. My band broke up, I sold my parachute, and I broke up with my girlfriend. I couldn’t afford to buy ice cream. But I was happier and more creatively fulfilled. Don’t believe anyone if they say you can have some sort of passive income from a startup business. It almost never happens. You have to work for it. Harder than you work at your job. But the good news is you will do it willingly and enjoy it. And luckily all the work paid off and with the money I made I can buy Layla as much ice cream as she wants!

Three SaaS sales tips from Ned Phillips 1. Have a CRM you use every day 2. Use LinkedIn sales Navigator 3. Write a weekly newsletter But I would add - be a genuinely good, enthusiastic and authentic person who wants the best for your customers. You must sell something that is genuinely good that you really believe in. Something the really solves the problem your customer has. That makes their life easier. Sales guys get a bad rap because the cliche is of a used car salesmen selling shit cars pretending they are good. Getting one over on the customer. Don't do that. If you are a great sales guy, find something that really moves you. Be genuinely passionate about it. Then you aren't really selling you are just having a conversation about how what you are selling can help people. I know Ned Phillips and Ned loves sales. He loves helping people learn how to sell better. He is genuinely happy when people get better at it. I know many others (you can see them all over LinkedIn) who don't care about what they are selling. They are doing it to make money for themselves using some formula. "Find a niche, then create content for that niche using AI or something (i.e. minimum effort), take a picture of yourself, post every day, build an audience, monetise that audience". I can not tell you how much I want to punch these guys in the FACE!