Marc continues his “Guide to Startups” series with a post on hiring, managing, promoting, and firing executives.  It’s a good read for people in the midst of such things.  Some things that jumped out at me:

• What’s an executive?  “An executive is a leader …  The manager may ask what the right thing to do is; the executive should know.”
• In a startup, everyone — even executives — need to produce, not just lead producers.
• “Big companies can often tolerate internal rivalries and warfare; startups cannot.”
• Focus on the short-term first.  Hiring for people who will be a perfect fit when you’re 3x your current size will probably prohibit you from getting there.
• Hire from within.  This is a safer route and, when successful, better for the exec and the startup.  Marc estimates that only 50% of your exec hires will work out.
• “If a VC’s ideal investment is a company that will succeed without him, then your ideal executive hire is someone who will succeed without you.”
• “… reference check personality and teamwork, but look first and foremost for a pattern of output.”
• Always hire people who are as strong or stronger than you.  “When hiring the executive to run your former specialty, be careful you don’t hire someone weak on purpose.”
• Founders need to manage — even when the exec has decades more experience — but not micromanage.
• “A great executive never minds when the CEO talks to people in her organization. In fact, she loves it, because it means the CEO just hears more great things about her.  If you have an executive who doesn’t want you to talk to people in her organization, you have a bad executive.”
• When it comes to an exec, there’s no solution to the firing problem — it’s only exacerbated because it takes longer to evaluate their performance and they can do much more damage during that time.