I’ve been thinking a bit this past week about startup teams and what makes them work (or not work). Most people that are in and around startups will readily agree that recruiting the best team possible is critical to success.

This leads to statements from startup pundits that look a lot like “get the best people possible.” Far be it from me to argue against this kind of sage advice. You should get the best people possible onto your startup team. All things being equal, who wouldn’t want to recruit the best people possible?

However, the phrase “best people possible” is a bit too vague for my tastes. The question is, what makes a given team member the best? Are they the smartest ones? The ones with the most experience? The ones with the greatest skillset for a given role? The ones with the most domain expertise? For purposes of this discussion, I’m going to “merge” all the things that makes a given individual really, really good into something I’ll call “Capability”. You can feel free to make Capability a function of whatever attributes (intelligence, experience, skills, etc.) as suits your taste. Continue Reading…

Do small business owners take advantage of search marketing the way they should? Often, they don’t. If you own a small business and you’re wondering what’s passing you by, and more important;y, what’s stopping you, read on. Small businesses that ignore search marketing might find their competitors leaving them behind.

First, let me say thank you to Mike Moran for giving me the opportunity to talk to his Biznology audience. I admit that I feel a bit like a substitute teacher but don’t think you can slack off while I am at the helm! Pardon me….I am a little woozy from the power.

I’m going to share with you an all too common occurrence I encounter. You see, as a search marketing provider to small and medium businesses (SMBs) I am all about helping the “little guy” use the search engines to level the playing field. There literally is no other marketing discipline that can put you in front of a prospect at the exact moment that they have asked for the solution you provide. A small software company with a great product can do the right things to get them mentioned in the same breath as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft etc. within a SERP (search engine result page) and have a chance to win a client from industry giants. That happens all the time in search. Continue Reading…