Jason M. Lemkin shares five tips for founders in downturns. His top advice: hire one great VP. A strong executive won't drive exponential growth, but in tough times they can meaningfully improve product, sales, marketing, and churn.
So it's work harder, but work smarter. And how do you do that? Okay, so let me give you five ideas on how to actually take care of yourself as a founder that will actually make a difference from the Saster post. Okay, the most important one of all, this one always works. It's worked for me again and again. It worked for me twice as a founder. It's working for me at Saster. Go hire one great vp, one great executive on your team. I can't tell you how game changing this is in tougher times. Actually, in great times, hiring a great VP is nice, but sometimes there's so much momentum in the business, you don't even see an immediate lift. Sometimes when. When things are exploding. But boy, when times are tougher, everything slows down. You can't get any features out, sales slows to a crawl. It doesn't feel like there's any leads or new customers. And marketing, the churn goes up. Everything's tough. And one great VP can't take you from 10% growth to 100. I mean, sometimes. Sometimes if the leads are there, it can happen. But in tougher times. But they can make an improvement.
