Comments on: SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:19:34 +0000

Fantastic entry, thanks very much Steve. I feel that I’ve derived as much value from this post as I would from reading 2 or 3 lengthy books on the topic.

By: steveblank

steveblank — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:59:24 +0000

Sales material developed by marketers who have never left the building is more often that not completely useless.
I was impressed with the fact that he understood that.
As marketers we both understood the 10% was a figure of speech and neither of us took it as a literal number,
If I was in engineering I would have been interested in the percentage..

steve

By: Noumenon

Noumenon — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:40:57 +0000

He got the job when I asked him how much of his own marketing material his sales team actually used in the field. When he said, “about ten percent,” I knew by the embarrassed look on his face I had found the right guy.

This isn’t quite clear. I’m sure if he said “Oh, 100%” you could get rid of him for being unrealistic and out of touch, but isn’t 10% a little ineffective? Didn’t you want him to be more than 10% productive when working for you?

By: Twitted by lifeguru

Twitted by lifeguru — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:01:59 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by lifeguru [...]

By: Questions for which I’ve heard neither concise nor comprehensive answers… | Jeff Widman (.com)

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:21:12 +0000

[...] What’s your advice about hiring sales/marketing folks? (I was intrigued by “When he said, “about ten percent,” I knew by the embarrassed look on his face I had found the ri…“) [...]

By: The Sharp End of the Stick « Steve Blank

The Sharp End of the Stick « Steve Blank — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:01:51 +0000

[...] The Sharp End of the Stick  At some point in my career as I began to formulate thoughts about mission and intent, I started to think about the broader role of marketing in a growing technology company. It became [...]

By: How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks

How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:43:29 +0000

[...] your lawyers that you want to have an extremely firm date for the closing process. You can take the Steve Blank approach there, if you like, and tell them that prior to that date, if they need help you are available to [...]

By: Process for the Enterprise » Blog Archive » People, Staffing, and Steve Blank’s SuperMac Series

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:40:03 +0000

[...] his next article on SuperMac, “Building the Killer Team – Mission, Intent, and Values”, Steve further pounds the table on some principles of leadership that I think are [...]

By: Jerry Ji

Jerry Ji — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:09:02 +0000

Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months.

I just wish I don’t have to fight another company with such an unstoppable team led by Steve for my life.

By: Michalis P.

Michalis P. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:58:08 +0000

Amazing blog. Thanks so much for sharing such stories.
Greetings from Crete, Greece