The Return of the Chicken Bus

In 2013 I planned to launch a consulting practice to help tech startup founders and leaders build out their teams with intention. I spent the previous four years inside of a venture capital fund providing its portfolio companies with similar support. I saw the growing wave of companies attempting to scale, only to find that their ability to attract, align, and motivate talent didn’t stand up to the task at hand. To announce the launch of my new consulting practice, as well as share my point of view on the topic, I wrote a blog post with a provocative title: “Is Your Company a Chicken Bus?”?

My article compared tech startups to a chicken bus, the preferred mode of transportation in the developing world where people and animals are packed indiscriminately into a barely functioning coach. I wrote in deeper detail:

Repairs are improvised - often implemented while the vehicle is still in motion. Little thought is put into who is packed onto the bus and rarely is anyone refused entry. Passenger comfort, let alone safety, is not a priority.

I went on to make the case that this approach to building startups is actually pretty standard practice. Getting from “zero to one” doesn’t need to be pretty. The act of pulling together an initial team around an early product is more an exercise of improvisation than planning. It’s when startups start to scale that the “chicken bus” approach breaks down.?

However, before the blog was published in August of that year, I accepted a job as the Talent Partner at a VC fund and abandoned my consulting practice before it had the chance to get off the ground. Joining Drive Capital, a new firm that would become the largest VC fund to ever exist between New York and San Francisco, was an offer I couldn’t refuse. And over the next nine years, I continued to work closely with the founders of dozens of companies, helping them hire hundreds of engineers, product managers, designers, BDRs, recruiters, executives, and board members. I also helped founders build companies that were a little less chicken bus-y through strategy, training programs, and people ops best practices.?

After a decade at Drive, I decided to take a break - in the form of a year-long travel sabbatical with my family that included visits to 24 countries - where we spent a lot of time on actual chicken buses. While my mind was on our adventures, I did spend some time reflecting on what I wanted to do professionally when we returned. Like a lot of people in their late 40s, I took stock of my experiences, interests, and talents. I asked myself questions. Where do I want to work? With whom do I want to work? And how do I want to work? I landed on three certainties.

First, we were definitely coming back to Columbus. We love the community and want our children to experience the rest of their childhoods here. The region is thriving and full of opportunities. And remote work extends that opportunity set further. It’s home.

Second, I still want to work closely with growing tech companies. I understand the nature and specifics of their growth challenges when it comes to talent and people ops strategies. And the need for help with these challenges didn’t go away while I was gone. But mostly, I love working with founders, especially helping them grow into the leaders their companies deserve.?

And finally, I needed to do it on my own. Working within a VC fund was a privilege in many ways, but there are limitations as well. I could only support companies in the portfolio. And executive coaching, a natural extension of working with founders and leadership teams, was off the table. Coaching is all about supporting the person, not the company. At a fund, as much as we might say otherwise, the entity we support is the company, not the founder.?I’ve learned that better people make better leaders. And better leaders make better companies. Working on the company but not its leaders isn’t going to solve the problem.?

So I dusted off my LLC and I re-launched Ten-X Talent. The mission is the same as it was back in 2013: help the leaders of tech companies design, align, and motivate their teams for scale.

How do I do that? Engagements start with a multi-week deep dive where I collect data to understand company growth goals and evaluate current talent, team, and organizational capabilities. Next, I deliver an actionable Talent Blueprint to accelerate company growth by design, not by default. Finally, I support companies by assisting with the implementation of those blueprints.

The timing feels right. With a tougher funding environment, building a durable business matters more now than at any point over the last hype cycle. Every hire matters. Founders can’t hide leadership or culture problems with capital and inflated valuations. It’s time to build great companies again and that begins and ends with the people you put in them.?

If you’re the driver of a chicken bus, DM me. You don’t even need to pull it over to the side of the road. I can hop on and chat while it’s moving.