nanogene case discussion culture - stanford university · susan stone (the vc) seems concerned by...

• Nanogene Case Discussion • Culture

Evaluate the Nanogene founding team and the resources they bring to the venture.

Independent of the equity ownership issue, what are two risks associated with this founding team?

How would these risks be reduced if Paige Miller joined the team?

Susan Stone (the VC) seems concerned by the equity split among the founders. What consequences for NanoGene might she fear from the present even equity split?

Startups  Don’t  Last  Forever  

A Startup is the organization you use to search for your scalable business model

Startups  Search  For  A  Business  Model  

Management  Strategy  Changes  

Development Team-centric

Mission-centric Process-centric

Customer Development in the High-Tech Enterprise

Fall 2008

8

Management  Skills  Changes  

• Values • Norms • Rituals • Created by founders • Changed as new leaders are added • Tacit, implicit, often encoded • Sub-cultures emerge based on region,

country, job function, industry

• Individual Contributors are rarely founders

• Founding team typically has different skills

and temperaments

• Startups are about the team

• The 100x team – Not just competent

– Not just your roommates

• Sources – Stanford

– VC’s

– Professors

– Professional network

• Agile

• Resilient

• Tenacious

• Pattern Recognition

• Fearless

• Comfortable with Chaos

• Cash – Salary and bonus – Benefits

• Equity – Common Stock – Vesting Schedule – Stock “budget” for future hires – Tax Implications and Security Laws