Apollo Sinkevicius

3,255 reputation

422

bio	website	TheOperationsGuy.com
	location	Boston, MA
	age
visits	member for	3 years, 4 months
	seen	Jan 22 at 16:07
stats	profile views	364

I am a startup veteran and a business operations leader CEOs bring on-board to:

solve toughest resource problems and hack through emerging business operations impediments
help build loyal teams of extremely smart and diverse people
deploy and continuously improve sales, marketing automation, customer support, and other operational system
nurture culture of accountability and meritocracy

15 years in startups, 9 technology, entertainment, and professional services companies, 12 founders, 7 CEOs.

	3,255 reputation	bio	website	TheOperationsGuy.com	visits	member for	3 years, 4 months
422 badges		location	Boston, MA		seen	Jan 22 at 16:07

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84 Comments

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Nov 30	comment	Building an “A-Team” — How do I Build a Team I can trust from those I don't know? Hey, Josh, you are stalking me here too :-) You will notice, those who actually know what the hell they are doing rarely taught their education. Have you noticed those who attach every damn thing they can to their name tend to cover up lack of value they provide.
Nov 29	comment	Maximum number of angel investors? I don't think so. Investor management is one of the top 3 responsibilities of the CEO. Mismanaged investors cause a lot of problems, no matter how "angelic" and helpful those investors are.
Nov 28	comment	Maximum number of angel investors? You always have to manage the investors, their expectations, requests, etc. etc. etc. No such thing as "each investor should know". Everyone is a human with an individual ego, idea about their role, value, and impact of the money invested. It has been my experience, that the investor management can consume almost 100% of the CEO's attention (angel or VC, same thing).
Nov 20	comment	What Are My Options For Inexpensive 401(k) Plans? Don't know when you checked it, but it is not the case. You sure you were looking at their small business options?
Nov 19	comment	Zoho vs. Highrise vs. Salesforce BTW, migrating away from Highrise into any real CRM is pain I don't want to deal with ever again. I'd rather go see a dentist for a week.
Nov 19	comment	Zoho vs. Highrise vs. Salesforce Out of all the CRMs I have dealt with, 37Signals is the most arrogant company out there. It is not the license issue, but the capability and flexibility one. Highrise is good enough for a tiny shop that does not rely on CLEAN data. Just invest the money and effort into a real CRM and get it done 80% right from the beginning.
Nov 13	comment	Operations - Developing Processes for a startup Would love to find out why folks chose to vote this down? Didn't I point OP to what he asked for? Just wondering.
Sep 24	comment	Do I need a business partner? Hell no! Offering products for free is the dumbest thing someone not serving consumer market could do. #1 thing you need to do is know how to get $1. Your product is crap and your business is set to failure, if you can't get a customer to write you a check. If you are scratching the right "itch", customers will pay.
Aug 11	comment	1099 limitations of how much work you can give a contractor. Need some help with that Well... I am absolutely in compliance of the four you mention. I work with some workaholics, so I know besides bunch of my work they also get buch of work from others. Still DOL and IRS are merciless, so I want to be safe rather than sorry.
Aug 11	comment	1099 limitations of how much work you can give a contractor. Need some help with that I would love to convert several of them to W2... problems is neither I have a chance, nor my other friends working with them have. Those guys and gals got burned so bad with couple of companies before, there is no way they ever will do W2 ever again. Sucks... for the lack of better term.
Aug 11	comment	1099 limitations of how much work you can give a contractor. Need some help with that By saying "I treat my ICs just like I would treat my own employees." I meant I treat them with same respect and consideration as I do with employees.
Jun 30	comment	Digg vs. Reddit for promoting a blog post I just respond to them on HBR.org and either people click on my name or on a link or two I include from my own blog or some other source. I include those links only if appropriate. Conservative approach is the best. There are plenty of a-holes who will graffiti their comment with endless links. Don't be one of those people.
Jun 28	comment	Digg vs. Reddit for promoting a blog post Organic growth traffic beats any traffic you may have brought in through ads etc. I played with Adwords & Facebooks ads (heck, with hundreds of $ in free credits I had, why not) and found them not as effective as good old strategy of contributing on other sites and driving traffic of people who are truly interested in my articles. Re. Twitter. I focus on writing "good stuff" and if it is really good, people retweet it, share it on FB and other places.
May 17	comment	Did you use an incorporation service? What service did you use? I hear ya, but I still think entrepreneurs are MUCH better off reading up (2-3 hour investment will pay off big time) and doing it themselves instead of letting those documents mills do the work. Most of the stuff that comes out of those shops is atrocious!
Mar 30	comment	The Single Most Important Trait of a Founder Amen, brother!!!
Mar 27	comment	What is your opinion about start-ups adding legalese to email? +1. The email footer legalese is unenforceable, especially confidentiality stuff (SMTP is non-encrypted format - duh!) Only if you are an attorney, tax person, or accountant do the profession-mandated email footers have a real purpose.
Mar 18	comment	Proper procedure for providing references for former employees +1. I would only confirm dates of employment and titles held. Even with releases companies make candidates sign, I just would not want any chance of issues arising. If an employee was an exceptional one, then I would provide a review on the value he/she provided directly to your company. I would never answer questions about their character, compensation, or anything else beyond direct contributions to the company bottom line.
Feb 28	comment	How much financial info should I demand from my CEO (I'm a founder) Oh boy, you are in up to your neck here. I am sure there is no operating agreement in place, no contract with the CEO, etc. etc. etc. If the company is worth it, get a decent attorney, put checklist together, and go step by step cleaning this up. My gut feeling is you will discover some things only courts can fix. And that is expensive, takes forever, and is an emotional roller-coaster.
Feb 5	comment	Mutual or Unilateral NDA? I wonder if there is any way (via say ToS on this site) to eliminate the need of that bullshit Bar Association mandated disclaimer. Doesn't it take an engagement agreement to establish A-C relationship.
Feb 5	comment	Giving Equity to a Sr. Employee I have to absolutely agree with Keith. Profit sharing is the way to go. If you give someone equity, you better be extremely comfortable with someone. And that takes years of working together.