Interesting post on rules for startups, which every successful dotcommer seems to be posting nowadays, but this one rule made me giggle:

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista… ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

Cuban links to another dude’s post on tips for saving money in a startup, which aren’t really that groundbreaking, but the first comment is funny:

1. Never buy new servers from a Top3 vendor. Refurbish fire sale hardware from imploding startups or roll your own to spec. Newegg is your friend.

2. Always use open source and free software when its feasible. Leverage your dev talent in growing homebrew solutions for CRM and infrastructure. Look for third party alternatives to the money pit of enterprise solutions packages.

3. Instead of buying dedicated bandwith you don’t need 24/7, buy redundant pipes from multiple vendors, then consildate using a load balancing router bought at a fire sale. Then supplement with burstable cache provider for those critical moments. Also S3, etc.

Funny only because it’s about 3 billion times more technical than any of the original post’s suggestions. Buy cheap tables? Check. Buy redundant pipes from multiple vendors? Umm…

Apparently the reaction to his post was a lot more hostile on TechCrunch, primarily because he wrote that you should fire people who aren’t workaholics (which I agree with), so he wrote a follow-up article that has this tidbit in it:

My philosophy of building companies is not that I “fire people who have a life,” it’s that “I don’t work with folks who don’t love their work.” If you’re not into it and I fire you than I’ve actually done you a HUGE favor in my mind. So, perhaps we should change the headline to “Calacanis fires folks who don’t love their work.”

How can anyone disagree with this? Shouldn’t this be the norm? Employing people who don’t enjoy their job is the worst thing you can do to your company and to your other employees. And although most of their tips center on ways to keep people in the office more productive, I’m not sure it’s an employer’s responsibility to make the job “fun,” as such. The work itself should be the source of enjoyment for the employees, not the free beer that comes when you’re more than mediocre. What happens when the company/economy falls on tough times and you can’t afford the free beer anymore? How many of your employees will stick around? All of a sudden their source of on-the-job enjoyment has disappeared. Building team unity and genuine friendships out-of-office is one thing, but the only rewards your employees should be getting for doing a job well is their salary (they’re being paid to do it well, after all – I mean, no one’s paying their employees to be mediocre) and the satisfaction of having performed to their potential. I don’t see how taking them out for free beers or whatever is communicating the right message. Again, please, by all means, hang out, just don’t make it a reward. It’s the same thing with coaching – you’re not supposed to use conditioning as a punishment. You go through conditioning drills because it makes your team better.

Etc.

Related posts:
Uh-oh. Problems in paradise (“paradise,” for the purposes of this blog post only, refers to Toronto…please don’t read into it, Torontonians).
Creative, I guess.
Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger

Tags: Mark Cuban