In this episode of the Revenue Accelerator Podcast, we have invited Steven Hoffman aka Captain Hoff. He’s going to give us a little bit of backstory about how he was crowned with that amazing title. Steve is the captain and CEO of Founders Space- one of the world's leading startup accelerators. It was ranked number 1in terms of incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. He is also a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning books. He was the founder and chairman of the Producers Guild in Silicon Valley Chapter, served on the Board of Governors of the new media Council and was a founding member of the Academy of televisions Interactive Media Group.
Positioning for exponential growth
[6:57]
The thing you need to consider is don't do it yourself. Nobody built a billion-dollar business alone. If you want to set yourself up for doing a bigger company, spend 80% of your time finding the right people to bring.
[11:28]
How much of the doing versus positioning & marketing?
[14:43]
You have to have a high tolerance for stress. You have to be flexible. You have to have the resources to last at least a year. It takes a lot of trial and error. Things won't go your way. Everything you think of will take longer than you expect. So be prepared for all these things.
What is the right characteristic for a successful CEO?
[23:37]
The thing that defines a great leader is a couple of things. Number one, you have to know how to pick and motivate people like that. Everybody else can do different things, but especially of the leader of a company, you set the formula. You basically lay the foundation.
[24:15]
Number two, you need to be curious. You need to question things, you need to go into the world and say, couldn't this be done better? What if we did it this way? What are the competitors doing? Because only by getting more information, understanding more, and seeing the opportunities as they come up and taking advantage of them can actually build this great business and keep it great.
The rule for good management
[27:39]
Ask, Don't Tell. Do not tell a single one of your employees what to do. Every time you interact with them, instead of telling them, ask them. What do you think is the priority right now? What do you think you should be doing? How do you think you could do it better?
People not investing in their business
[31:29]
A lot of people will not invest in non tangible things. They don't mind investing in hiring people. But a lot of them don't invest in getting their employees be trained to perform better.
Advice for CEO’s
[37:10]
When your business hits a wall, the answers lie in one place. You have to go and re-engage your customer. If you want to innovate on your business, you want to increase your revenue, you want to figure out new ways of adding value, you need to continually engage that customer. And that means not just servicing what you already told them that you do, but going to them again, and asking them, where are you struggling right now? What processes do you want to improve? What could we do better? What can we give you? Pay attention to what they're saying.
Visit Steven’s website at:
https://www.foundersspace.com/
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