Should I Go .Com?

There's also a considerable compensation risk -- and much more complicated negotiations over how and how much employees get paid. Obviously, people are becoming less interested in trading cash for equity. Not only do they want a big salary to go along with their options; they're also starting to demand guarantees. I don't even blink when I tell a venture capitalist that a CEO candidate wants a $2 million guarantee. People are asking for accelerated vesting on their options and for 100% vesting upon change of control.

The third risk on people's minds has to do with personal sacrifices -- the risks involved in uprooting their families, either geographically or in terms of lifestyle. The Internet is still so full of surprises that some executives don't move their family right away when they join a new company. They want to make sure that their gamble pans out first. Others think that since they'll be working 15 hours a day anyway, their family might as well stay put. I've worked with several new senior executives at major Internet companies who moved to the Valley but didn't move their family with them. I know one guy, a top person at a really important company, who, when he realized how little time he'd be spending with his wife and kids, moved them back to Boston so that they could be near friends and relatives.

Aside from understanding and accepting the risks involved, what type of person is best suited to making the move?

This is where Web DNA comes into play. One of the attributes that's required in order to thrive in this environment is what we call carpeDiem.com. We're looking for people who seize not just the day, but the second. And what that comes down to, once again, is having a level of comfort with risk.

For example, we ask people to explain a decision they made that put either their career or their business at risk. One executive claimed that the riskiest decision he'd made was changing the color of the company's new packaging. Now, this packaging had used the same color scheme for a long time, so it wasn't a trivial decision. But was it hugely significant? It was to him.

Another executive told us about his decision to use 80% of the money that his company had in the bank to run a Super Bowl commercial. He knew flat out that if his idea failed, the company would likely go out of business. Now, you could argue about whether this was a smart move. But what we wanted to understand was the thought process behind the decision. That's the secret to exploring risky decisions: Were you right for the wrong reasons or wrong for the right reasons?

What else do you look for?

We look for organizational improvisers. Executives who come into this environment have to make due with the resources that they have -- and to do whatever it takes to get the job done, regardless of their job description. Your job title may be "senior vice president of marketing," but that doesn't mean that you'll never have to spend time in a warehouse.

If a framed org chart is your idea of great wall art, then you're in trouble. I talked to one guy who was the chief marketing officer at one of the country's largest retailers, and it was clear to me that the company org chart was really important to him. He loved mapping it out. He loved the boxes, especially since his name was in the top box. I knew that this guy would never be comfortable at a Net company.

Daniel Kohler, an executive vice president at PeoplePC, is a good example of someone who had an amazing skill set -- and was also dead-on in every behavioral category. Originally, we recruited Dan from TyInc., the company that makes Beanie Babies, where he was senior VP of operations and administration. Before that, he had built the catalog-operations department at OfficeMax. So we brought him to PeoplePC as executive VP of operations, logistics, and systems. He was one of the company's first employees. He understood that resources were scarce and that for several months he'd have to get down in the trenches, roll up his sleeves, and really help build the operation. This didn't frighten him -- it thrilled him. One thing that motivated Dan was his desire to be a part of building something from the ground up.

Compare that situation with my favorite example of someone who wasn't right for the Web environment -- my 90-minute wonder. This candidate seemed like a slam-dunk fit. He was a phenomenal logistics-and-distribution guy from a big catalog retailer. His résumé would make you salivate, and he was a very nice man. But in a staff meeting on his very first day at the young Internet startup, when the senior team decided that it had to tweak the company's business plan -- emphasis on the word "tweak" -- this guy freaked. He had signed on believing in the three-year plan that the startup had created, and he couldn't handle even the smallest deviation. He left in hysterics and returned to a brick-and-mortar retail company.