William Lohse - Founder, Chairman, and CEO of SmartAge
[Originally published 9/7/99]
During his career, William Lohse has been a door-to-door salesman, a magazine publisher, an angel investor, and a trade-show organizer. He has also been involved with many successful software companies - both as an employee and as an entrepreneur. His latest pursuit is San Francisco-based SmartAge, an e-commerce and Web services company focused on the small business market.
You've done so many different things in your career. How have those experiences prepared you for your current entrepreneurial endeavor?
Those of us who have been around the computer, software, and networking industries for a while joke that all of that was simply a dress rehearsal for the Web revolution. What we're doing now is playing the real play. So everything that I've done before has helped - like playing Des Moines before you get to Broadway. Specifically, I have learned the fundamentals of starting and building companies. Especially for a small company in a young industry [like the Web] where there is so much to do, the danger is to be in early, see the opportunities, and try and do it all. So the first thing I've learned is focus.
The second thing I've learned is "be early." Between 1994 and 1997, the early entrepreneurs did a super job of business-to-consumer. But my observation was that business-to-business really wasn't being done on the Web - in a Web way. So we decided to go after business-to-business and be the first ones to do so. Being early also makes you lucky and luck is a wonderful thing to have on your side.
The next thing I'd recommend is to hire people who are better than you are. As a human being, it's emotionally so hard to do. You want to be a leader so your instinct is to hire people who you think you can make a contribution to - whom you can lead, whom you believe you are better than in some way. Instead, I think you should hire people who can make you look silly, clumsy, and stupid sometimes. Hire people who are better than you in significant ways, delegate to them, and then get out of their way. It's only by hiring better experts than yourself and supporting them in their success that you can grow at the speed of a revolution.
The final thing is "have a purpose." My view is that one should start with a market need, a purpose, that is big and worth doing. If that need exists, a company generates itself naturally. If it doesn't, keep on looking or go work for somebody else until you find it.
Regarding hiring people better than yourself, how do you recruit, retain, and motivate a group of highly talented people?
To me, hiring is the most fun part of my job. And having hired them, the next most important part is training them. And having trained great people, managing them - in that order. Most people think that they should manage to success. And if that's not working, they should do some training. And if that's not working, they better do some hiring. I think if you can do an effective job of hiring and training, managing is easy.
Over the last 25 years, it has been hard to convince really great people to come to a little company. In the last couple of years, it has gotten easy. Now everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. But you still have to convince employees that you're actually going to empower them. That means that you are willing to have them be better than you are and that you'll trust their judgement.
You have quite an extensive personal network. How should students think about building their own networks?
I think networks are fundamental. Every year that I continue in business, I have more friends and relationships. People put it backward in my view. They think that they should build networks. What I would say - to quote Al Davis [owner of the Oakland Raiders] - is "just win baby!" Decide what you're going to do and win. By winning, you'll gain a network of happy employees, customers, and investors. From there, you'll have the opportunity to do something else. If you win again, the cycle continues. My success has come from winning right here, right now - and from that comes a network.
During his career, William Lohse has been a door-to-door salesman, a magazine publisher, an angel investor, and a trade-show organizer. He has also been involved with many successful software companies - both as an employee and as an entrepreneur. His latest pursuit is San Francisco-based SmartAge, an e-commerce and Web services company focused on the small business market.
You've done so many different things in your career. How have those experiences prepared you for your current entrepreneurial endeavor?
Those of us who have been around the computer, software, and networking industries for a while joke that all of that was simply a dress rehearsal for the Web revolution. What we're doing now is playing the real play. So everything that I've done before has helped - like playing Des Moines before you get to Broadway. Specifically, I have learned the fundamentals of starting and building companies. Especially for a small company in a young industry [like the Web] where there is so much to do, the danger is to be in early, see the opportunities, and try and do it all. So the first thing I've learned is focus.
The second thing I've learned is "be early." Between 1994 and 1997, the early entrepreneurs did a super job of business-to-consumer. But my observation was that business-to-business really wasn't being done on the Web - in a Web way. So we decided to go after business-to-business and be the first ones to do so. Being early also makes you lucky and luck is a wonderful thing to have on your side.
The next thing I'd recommend is to hire people who are better than you are. As a human being, it's emotionally so hard to do. You want to be a leader so your instinct is to hire people who you think you can make a contribution to - whom you can lead, whom you believe you are better than in some way. Instead, I think you should hire people who can make you look silly, clumsy, and stupid sometimes. Hire people who are better than you in significant ways, delegate to them, and then get out of their way. It's only by hiring better experts than yourself and supporting them in their success that you can grow at the speed of a revolution.
The final thing is "have a purpose." My view is that one should start with a market need, a purpose, that is big and worth doing. If that need exists, a company generates itself naturally. If it doesn't, keep on looking or go work for somebody else until you find it.
Regarding hiring people better than yourself, how do you recruit, retain, and motivate a group of highly talented people?
To me, hiring is the most fun part of my job. And having hired them, the next most important part is training them. And having trained great people, managing them - in that order. Most people think that they should manage to success. And if that's not working, they should do some training. And if that's not working, they better do some hiring. I think if you can do an effective job of hiring and training, managing is easy.
Over the last 25 years, it has been hard to convince really great people to come to a little company. In the last couple of years, it has gotten easy. Now everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. But you still have to convince employees that you're actually going to empower them. That means that you are willing to have them be better than you are and that you'll trust their judgement.
You have quite an extensive personal network. How should students think about building their own networks?
I think networks are fundamental. Every year that I continue in business, I have more friends and relationships. People put it backward in my view. They think that they should build networks. What I would say - to quote Al Davis [owner of the Oakland Raiders] - is "just win baby!" Decide what you're going to do and win. By winning, you'll gain a network of happy employees, customers, and investors. From there, you'll have the opportunity to do something else. If you win again, the cycle continues. My success has come from winning right here, right now - and from that comes a network.
posted by gnp at 3:10 PM
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