We have both benefited from many fine mentors over the years as I am sure all of you have done.  This issue we decided to ask our amazing advisory board members for their advice and counsel for startup CEO’s and for executives in established financial services companies.  Fascinating answers from them for you to study.

We have added the best advice we have gotten-

Dave-Mentoring pays dividends over and over again. 

As a result Dave spends a great deal of time mentoring across the Cogo Labs team and the portfolio companies.

Mark-Take two steps back to communicate and ensure alignment to be able to move very rapidly once an agreed course of action is shared.  

Turned out the two steps back was not a set back but rather a chance to get others inspired and excited by the opportunity at hand.

Feel free to share your insights with us by sending along a note with your best advice received to mcasady@vestigoventures.com. 

—Dave & Mark

Welcome Frazer and Farrah to the Vestigo Team

We are pleased to have Frazer Anderson join us as a full time analyst at Vestigo.  He brings an extensive background in evaluation of managers and use of technology for our team.  Farrah Nekui, who is a PhD candidate at Northeastern University, will be with us this summer as an intern.  She has an extensive background in economics and pricing as well as being quite nimble with SQL to assist us in the use of the Cogo Labs data.

Advice on management from our Advisory Board

I asked our fantastic advisory board (take a look at the team) to provide their best management advice.  Here is some wisdom laid down for all of us.

Think bigger and then be humble.  -Ray Wang

Never be late for a meeting.  -from Ducan McFarland to our advisor Darlene DeRemer

Surround yourself with a team of smart, confident people who know more than you do ..and are not afraid to share their views, even if they are different than yours.
Second, outlaw views on why things can’t be done until what can be done is considered. -Jarrett Lilien

Stay lean and agile and always be really careful to keep your self awareness index high.  -George Wilbanks

Self esteem and self confidence doesn’t lead to accomplishments and success.  Accomplishments and success lead to self esteem and confidence.  -Tom Streiff

Your entire business must be driven by your clients’ needs…
It takes many years to build a reputation/brand and takes three seconds to ruin it.
Teams beat individuals.
Invest for the long term.   -Pete Mattoon

Never promote someone to a managerial position, no matter how technically qualified, that doesn’t embrace the firm culture.  -from the CEO of Intuit to our advisor Andy Putterman

Management can be hard.  Nobody is the whole package.  Understand your blindspots.  Don’t only fill your gaps, do what you do well, really well, and learn how to do it better.  -John Werner

See the world as it is and not as you wish it were.  -Tom Gavin

Success leaves clues.  Patterns of success and failure repeat and are predictable.
Define failure very carefully when leading an organization-understand what failure to avoid as a prerequisite to success.  Advice from military history-there are only three types of failure.  Failure to learn, adapt or to anticipate.  -Maliz Beams

Startup Advice for a CEO from our Advisory Board

Now let’s move to advice for someone leading a startup organization.  Their thoughts-

From Ray Wang-Get the economic model right before you build the offering.  Make sure you understand your unit cost pricing model so you know where to bundle and where to decomponentize the cost structure.

From Darlene DeRemer-Strategy without execution is hallucination.

From Jarrett Lilien-First, make sure they have enough runway.  For Jarrett this is 18-24 months of capital.  Second, ensure they have strategic alignment with their major stakeholders.

From George Wilbanks-Be realistic about the time, budget and career risks you are taking.  As setbacks occur along the way, be nimble and creative in seeking strategic partners to help you reach your goals.

From Tom Streiff-Stay flexible.  You may have what you think is the perfect idea, with a perfect execution plan.  Listen to the people around you.  What you think is “perfect” may need some adjustments.  Stay true to your values but be flexible and open to “more perfect” ideas.

From Pete Mattoon-You will need luck to make it but the good news is that you can make your own luck with the right team, extremely hard work, and actually having a product/service that creates value for your target market.  Know your purpose.  Know your target market.

From Andy Putterman-Surround yourself with an advisory board to provide different perspectives, challenge assumptions and keeps you focused.

From John Werner-You are building a company and also a team at the same time. Focus.  Be passionate!

From Tom Gavin-There is a fine line between confidence and hubris-believe in your vision and your plan but be open to making adjustments along the way.  The flexible will always defeat the rigid!

From Maliz Beams-Keep your investors, partners and employees (and yourself) looking forward with surgically precise focus and discipline on the “differentiated” value you deliver to the market.  Very quickly find a way to fact base your differentiation. (Harder than it sounds) then ensure clinical objectivity and discipline around unbiased measurement.  Quantify it, measure it, base the team’s payback on that differentiation.

Student Loan Genius

Read about KIPP Houston’s choice of Student Loan Genius to assist their recent graduates in reducing student loan debt.

SLG-Debt studies

Learn more about the debt burden being placed on students today.

Netcapital

With a number of platforms that have been launched in the crowdsourced funding space, it’s great to see Netcapital get good coverage of their efforts.  They show up well for a company that has been at their work for a relatively short time.  Check out this article to learn more by clicking on their name.

New tools including LifeYield’s suite will help Morgan Stanley advisors be able to help clients solve complex planning problems.  They see it as a way to gain part of the $2 trillion in assets their clients hold outside the firm while serving their clients.

LifeYield now in the LPL Financial affinity program

Going from strength to strength in working with advisors, LifeYield has added LPL Financial with its over 14,000 advisors to it’s client list.

Mark Casady joins Devon Kinkead discussing regulation

Micronotes, Inc., an AI-enabled marketing automation firm, took on the issue of how to think about regulation of FinTech capabilities including AI.  Vestigo GP Mark Casady really enjoyed the conversation and questions.

Business development grows with the addition of Tom Mezera