What I Have Learnt

by Australian AntHill Magazine

Never be a solution looking for a problem.

We started our first company, Light Solutions, in 1993 amid a recession. We had invented the ‘holy grail’ of lasers, but we didn’t know who to sell it to, or even how to find out. It took a year to invent the technology and two years to find someone who cared about it. That was the catalyst for me to learn about marketing and verticals and how to penetrate them.

No one can do it alone.

As a technologist, you think patents and technologies are the core values of a company, but the team is more important. With Lightbit, we followed the market downturn right to the bottom. When the money started getting low, the team was so committed to the company, they gave up salary. The VCs said, “Okay, if you guys are so committed, then so are we. Let’s just keep going and get it sold.” Three months later, that’s what we did.

Extreme disclosure works.

I always share financial information with the team: salaries, equity, even the company profit & loss and balance sheet. I’ve fought tooth and nail with some VCs on this issue, but if you can handle that level of disclosure, then everybody trusts you implicitly. There’s nothing to hide.

There’s a point where you lose your ego.

When I went to Silicon Valley, I, like everyone, was worried about salary, title and equity, in that order. But, half your salary goes in tax, and title is meaningless: it’s what you can do that matters, not what your business card says you can do. So, as long as you’ve got equity, forget the ego-related stuff. Once you shed your ego, it’s amazing how much more successful you can be.

It’s always my fault, no matter what.

If someone screws up, I hired them, so it’s my fault. Maybe I didn’t enable them enough or I didn’t empower them enough, whatever - it’s always my fault. When you start to accept personal responsibility for everything that goes wrong, things start to go right. For the team, there’s nothing more empowering than the realization that, no matter what goes wrong, they won’t get the blame.

Even co-founders get fired.

I had a co-founder, a technology guy, who just didn’t have the horsepower for the job. For a year I tried to keep the board off his back, but eventually I had to fi re him. I later learned from my lead VC that the board was close to firing me, for not firing him. This is a key test. If you don’t have the balls to fi re someone who’s not performing, then you’re letting the whole team down.

Australian entrepreneurs don’t give themselves enough credit.

Australian entrepreneurs have products, customers, revenue; some are even cash flow positive. They’ve probably funded the business by mortgaging their home or borrowing from friends and family, so they’re totally passionate. The people we see in Silicon Valley have ten PowerPoint slides and an idea. Who are you going to invest in?

Larry Marshall is currently Chairman of Intersymbol, a semiconductor processor company, and AOC Tech, a cable equipment company. Marshall holds 18 patents protecting numerous commercial products, and has over 100 publications and presentations. He recently headlined the ANZA Technology Network US Experts Tour of Australia. See www.anzatechnet.com for more information.

Australian Anthill has distinguished itself from other business magazines by taking an irreverent and often 'edgy' approach to business reporting, to reflect the youthful mindset of its readers - entrepreneurs, private company investors and service providers.

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