Founders at Work.pdf

158 Founders at Work
Livingston: Was there anything about your technology that people misunderstood?
van Hoff: We spent a lot of time talking about subscription-based software distribution
and that took a long time for people to get. In hindsight, we were
probably a little early with that. Now it’s a very well-understood thing. The
Microsoft operating system updates automatically. Updates to virus programs
come over automatically. In the beginning, a lot of people we talked to said, “It’s
too early. Do I really want to do this?”
But we had a couple of really big successes—Morgan Stanley and Bear
Stearns. These companies that had thousands of traders all over the world
really needed to use the same software or it wouldn’t work. They needed to roll
this out at 100,000 endpoints and needed to get a report and warn people that
didn’t get updates. And we did that very, very well. Over time, Marimba went
from a consumer software distribution/push technology company to an enterprise
software distribution company—which is a lot more boring than in the
early days, but there was a lot more money to be made in that market.
Livingston: What would you tell someone who wanted to start their own
company?
van Hoff: If you have the energy to do it, then you should try it yourself. But
you do need to have the ability to form a team around you with good people.
Talent attracts talent.
A lot of people get stuck on the idea. They all want to invent something and
go execute on it. I think that’s a fallacy. You have to have an unfair advantage in
that you have to be good at something, or you have to have a direction that
you’re interested in or a market that you see an opportunity in—but you
shouldn’t get stuck too much on the details, because you can’t foresee your
future anyway. Because you’ll go through so many changes, I don’t think it pays
off to overanalyze the first business plan, for example. The first business plan is
there to make sure you can use Microsoft Word.
Eventually, you need to go to VCs and attract money, and at that point you
need to be able to put your plan in writing and sell it. That’s something you
need to practice a lot. Start with your friends and your parents and eventually
go to VCs. If you get good reactions, then keep doing it. If you get bad reactions,
then stop immediately, because it’s a really bad idea to sell a bad plan. You
can screw up once, but it’s hard to screw up multiple times, because the VCs
won’t give you the time if you come up with a few bad plans.
Another good idea is to join a startup that already has funding. That way you
can experience the startup atmosphere and all the pros and cons without really
taking all the risk yourself. Because doing a startup does mean that you have to
give up your job and your income and take the plunge. That’s what holds a lot of
people back.
I’m lucky I really don’t need to work anymore. If I do a startup, whether it
succeeds or fails is somewhat irrelevant—I do it because it’s fun. I’d like to succeed.
When it comes to taking a salary, at Strangeberry we worked for several
years without taking a salary because we had fun doing what we were doing.