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September 30, 2005
Start-Ups Need Management Help more than Capital
IndustryWeek offers an illuminating profile and interview of Thomas Tyrrell, a founder and principal of Glengary Management, a Cleveland-based venture catalyst. That’s Tyrrell’s term, reflecting the fact that Glengary not only provides capital for its rust-belt start-ups, but active management guidance and nurturing.
Such guidance is not optional, says Tyrrell, it is mandatory:
The under-appreciated characteristic of start-ups is that they usually need help in running a business more than they need money. And if money is their primary problem, is it being made worse by an inadequate management strategy? Our mission is to change that. We believe that the introduction of intellectual capital is every bit as important -- and in some cases more so than seed money.
That’s certainly been our experience, too—-in spades.
Start-up management teams come believing that capital is all that’s required for their plan to be executed. In truth, starting a company is similar to parenting: it exposures weaknesses ruthlessly quickly. Whether they understand it or not, start-ups have management inadequacies, sometimes quite significant, just waiting to be exposed.
We recently had an entrepreneur come to us looking for funding who said, essentially, I not only need capital, but here’s the management inadequacies I have that I will need you to either supply or help me find. Quite simply, he was practicing a very important "unwritten rule" that we’ve highlighted.
Given our experience, I respect that approach tremendously.
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Comments
Bravo to the entrepreneur who saw more than capital as a critical pathway to success. This is a rare case. Capital only serves as fuel for the road. Everything else is in the steering, braking and guiding the vehicle (company).
Tyrell has nailed it completely with his description.
Posted by: Jonathan Blue at October 1, 2005 11:57 AM
Jonathan: Thanks for your comments; it's no coincidence that the entrepreneur I was referring to is in his early 60s!
JR
Posted by: John at October 2, 2005 10:16 AM
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