John Doerr's Startup Manual

Also, measure the members of the group against some hard standards. Are they great at recruiting other talented people? Are they great at selling? In a small company, everybody is selling all the time. Believe me, selling is honorable work -- particularly in a startup, where it's the difference between life and death. And make sure that the group has a sense of humor. You're going to be spending a lot of time living together as a team. Of course, everyone you'll need for a great startup isn't going to be there at that first meeting. Teams always need to grow, to get stronger and better. But be sure to answer the question, "Is this a group I wouldn't mind getting in trouble with?"

Does it make sense to look around the table and start to identify the skills that the group needs? For example, do you start listing functions such as marketing, sales, or personnel that you need to go after?

That's one way to do it. Often the founders at the House of Pancakes all come from the same department, usually engineering. They're expert in their own world. But frequently their world is all they know.

But you might think about it differently. For instance, when you're putting your team together, look for really smart people. It's fundamental. When you get exceptionally smart people on your team, that's a big plus. Besides smart, look for a combination of experience, drive, commitment, and passion. You don't want all experience -- but you also don't want all drive, energy, and passion. Getting that mix right is the difference between ventures that achieve greatness and startups that are merely successful, or worse.

Let's say the team thinks it's got the right mix. Who writes the business plan?

Let the most articulate team member lead or edit the writing, because it is a communications piece. But don't obsess over the plan. The better plans we've seen are the shorter ones -- often 30 pages, but sometimes just 3. The Intel business plan was one page. The Sun business plan was three pages. What we're looking for in a plan is how that team thinks about its business. We can figure out the rest in conversation with the founders.

What's the most important part of any business plan?

I always turn to the biographies of the team first. For me, it's team, team, team. Others might say, people, people, people -- but I'm most interested in the team as a whole - its mix of experience and personalities, its chemistry.

Of course, once it has a great business plan, our team still has to get it to you. How can the members possibly get your attention?

Just send an email message to jdoerr@kpcb.com to get my attention. But to really stand out, get a referral from a CEO or vice president we've backed-they're all listed on our web site. Today entrepreneurs are smarter about raising money than ever before. They know there's lots of venture capital around. The really thoughtful entrepreneurs talk to other entrepreneurs before starting the process. I've never met a successful entrepreneur who wouldn't take time out of his or her day to help an aspiring entrepreneur think about a new business. So if you're serious about the venture, invite a successful entrepreneur you admire to lunch.

Most successful startups have a leader from whom everyone else takes their cues. What do you look for in a leader?

Great leaders are great communicators. They have incredible integrity: they're usually the first to recognize problems. They're ruthlessly, absolutely intellectually honest. They are great recruiters: They're always building their network of talented people. And they're great sales executives: They're always selling the value proposition of the enterprise.

When a team comes in to see you, do you look at them and try to identify the leader? And if there isn't one, do you try to recruit one before you work with the team?

We're always looking for great leaders. But no, we don't need to recruit one before we'll work with a team. Just as important as the leader is the technical genius. At the heart of every great technology company is a technical genius. Apple had its Steve Wozniak, Sun had Andy Bechtolsheim and Bill Joy, Netscape has Marc Andreessen, @Home has Milo Medin. A great marketing company like Intuit has Scott Cook.

These founding geniuses are the heart and soul that represents the real reason for doing the startup. Its more than, "Lets build a big business and get a lot of stock and make money." The idea is, "Let's do something that's technically excellent. Let's make a difference." Sooner or later as the venture grows we can help the founders find someone like Netscape's Jim Barksdale, Intuit's Bill Campbell, or @Home's Tom Jermoluk.