Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

The following Q and A from a popular source answers many of the questions we've put to ourselves recently, and serves as a general introduction to the crew. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride...  

  1. Why do you want to do this startup?  What are your personal goals here, both financial and non-financial? I want one of my many ideas to be an outstanding success and something that my son could (but likely won’t) pursue. Calvin got in touch because secure access floats his boat, and Pete’s up for any adventure. Kenan’s a coder but one who wants to be more his own man.
  1. What will our roles and titles be? How will we divide responsibilities? Who will be CEO? I bags CEO, and Calvin I think mentioned CTO or CIO. Whichever one of these he’s not, Kenan’s the other one. Pete doesn’t mind what people call him.
  1. How will we split up equity? We’ve drafted this, and it was around a third each for anyone whose title included a ‘C’ and the remainder with Pete and poss one other.
  1. Where will the company be based? Where will we each live? Will we work together in-person or remotely? Well Pete and I have stayed in Mountain View on a previous proj (and loved the breakfast at Cascal and dinners at Cafe Baklava), whilst Calvin lives just along the road. Kenan is happy with Bucharest or Istanbul, where frankly it’s a lot sunnier than the UK… so we’re footloose and flexible.
  1. What idea will we work on? If that idea doesn’t work out, are you willing to change the idea? Are you only interested in working on ideas in certain areas? Bloxlox, or block-locks in the vernacular. We’re flexible but focussed… nobody got to the Moon by switching to Mars along the way.
  1. What needs to happen for each of us to go full-time (quit other jobs, school commitments)? Kenan works online from anywhere, Pete and Calvin are at the stage in life when it’s not nearly the issue it was, I’m as skint as ever bit able to fund a sabbatical to see where it’s headed. The one kid still schooling would benefit from exposure to different cultures, as he has been from the get-go.
  1. What is your personal financial situation? Are you willing to work for free and live on your savings? For how long? If you'll need a salary to work on this full-time (either now or at some point), how much do you need to feel comfortable?  Will either of us put money into the company? I’d bet the farm on it if I had to, Kenan can ever make a living coding, and the other two are comfortable already.
  1. What will our typical working schedule be (what days we work, what hours / day, etc)?  How long do we want to keep that up?  Are there any things outside of work that are important to you to make time for? When I last spoke to Kenan he’d been coding for around thirty-six hours. I used once to stay up all night drafting patent specs and most of the ideas around bloxlox are three a.m. insights. None of us are destined for any form of retirement, ever.
  1. If we are successful enough to get to build a team of employees, are there things that are important to you about how we do that?  I.e., building an in-person vs remote company, having certain cultural values, having a particular approach to hiring or managing people? Pete has managed hiring and firing in his own software company and Calvin has led software teams at senior levels. I’ve spent a lifetime managing aircrews and organising related issues around the world, both on- and off-line and Kenan has run his own dance school. People and problems a-plenty.
  1. What will we do if we’re having trouble agreeing on an important decision?  What will happen if we decide we don’t want to work together anymore? I’ll tell them it’s my train-set. (We’re joking, that’s British humour…). I’ve known Pete and Kenan for years and Calvin feels he’s known us for years, due an upbringing in the UK prior to California. Finally I've no idea why some bullet-points are red and some black. It wasn't us, Sir, it was Google.

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