For much of my time working in entrepreneurship I saw startups like a lawyer. They are empty boxes into which we place assets. Those assets properly assembled create value and an efficient means for transaction. The startup was the package by which a buyer acquired a technology. Though not *technically* wrong my understanding was tragically limited.
Startups are organizations that solve problems. And the parts of the organization that solves problems are people.
“Mr. Ocean, what do you think you would do, if released?”
Danny Ocean is a people person – mostly. His first scene starts at a parole hearing, where he unpacks the psychological basis of his past criminality. His tone is detached, and vaguely sarcastic. He seems more confident that he’s reformed than sincerely reformed. The entire first act of the movie is Danny assembling his crew. We only get to meet Rusty at the club, Frank at the lounge, Basher at the botched job, or even Linus on the train because Danny brings them all together. It’s a hoot.
If Ocean’s 11 works because it has charismatic performers transcend the archetypes they’re playing, then their performance works because we believe Danny can bring this crew together. That his dethatched warmth and Teflon cool has created relationships, a reputation or even just a myth that this group of specialists want to follow. These are formidable people that trust Danny for more than the reasons we’ve seen on screen.
They sold me.
People solve problems for startups, but not in the ordinary way. Usually, to get a person to do a job an organization pays them. Salary, benefits, hourly work, 1099 labor – whatever – people trade labor for money. Most startups can’t compete with salaries offered by established companies. The people solving the startups problem, they’re doing it because there’s a score coming – and they’re confident that score can happen.
“we’re just supposed to walk out of there with $150 million? Yeah”
When people ask me what makes for a good startup CEO I usually don’t know what to say. There’s no one way to lead a startup and each organization I’ve worked with – in success or failure – has had to find its own way. If you must pick one ability, however, it’s the trick to find and attract talent. It’s the magical way to convince dedicated professionals to set aside paying work and take a risk. If Danny had the payroll to hire mercenaries to run his heist it would’ve been a very different movie. It was the self-selection: the composition of a crew willing to risk the impossible heist for cryptic reasons unique to each of them.
Startups main competitive advantage is their greatest weakness. They can’t recruit people through the usual means, so they have to offer something else: risk, romance, and that compelling score. Ocean’s 11 taught me the importance of the messenger in making that pitch. Danny Ocean sold it with dethatched movie star charm, but I’ve seen similar pitches work with engineer earnestness, true believer zealotry, and even a cool girl invitation to a party you can’t miss.
As someone that tried to engineer startups from legal abstraction, take it from me: Startups are made of people. Danny Ocean taught me the power of a founder and the team the founder recruits.
a candle, unlit 