Start-ups attract the "Swiss Army Knives" of the world

Start-ups are amazing!  Guy Kawasaki has written a number of great books but my favorite is The Art of the start - if you're an entrepreneur and haven't read it, you should - it talks about the inner workings of early stage companies and some of the most critical things towards success - people is at the forefront, of course.

One of the qualities that we look for when interviewing potential team members at CleverSet is a person's ability to be a part of the 'swiss army knife" that is a start-up.  This means that they need to have multiple skill sets, a willingness to do it all on a moments notice, and be reliable in the tough, difficult and different circumstances.   

When your team members shines through in those circumstances it just reaffirms that you've hired the right people.  I had one of those moments today, except not with someone we have hired - it was the guy who hired me, our founder, Bruce D'Ambrosio. 

Today Bruce was introduced to a potential customer (to remain nameless for now) and went into a meeting expecting to talk about our technology, ease of implementation and then hand it off to our sales team. 

I called Bruce three hours after the meeting had started to find out how it went.  He wasn't able to talk much because he was STILL  in their offices, and was in the process of helping them implement our Recommendations on their site right then.  He had short-circuited any sales "process" and was moving this customer to 'live' - simply amazing.

Great work Bruce, but be careful, I may give you a 'bag' and tell you to go close sales from here on out!!!!