Sunteți pe pagina 1din 18

Business Ethics in

Early Stage
Companies
Luis F. Rincon - Co-Founder/CEO, Wearables.com
Who am I?
Luis Felipe Rincon
Co-Founder/CEO, Wearables.com
Former Product Manager in E-
commerce, BuildASign.com
JD, The University of Texas School
of Law 2012; BS International
Business, Pepperdine University
2007
3DS Volunteer/buddy since 2011
Business Ethics in Startups
Typical occurrences in early stage companies to explore
ethics:

Founder disputes
Investor relations
Conversations: How to make ethics a focus
What are business ethics?
A set of principles to provide guidance for the many
decisions that [business] managers face on a daily
basis.
*Taken loosely from MBA Oath FAQs

As to ethical problems in business, I have made myself


tremendously unpopular by saying...that there is no such
thing as business ethics. There is only ethics.
*Peter F. Drucker
1. Founder Disputes
Typical founder dispute examples:
Who gets what?
Who gets to decide?
Youre not pitching in (enough)
Be very careful and objective when choosing a co-
founder.
Founder Disputes
Famous co-founder
dispute, Eduardo
Saverin and Mark
Zuckerberg:
Founder Disputes
Be transparent in operations
Maintain respect
Define roles and expectations
Set a strong shareholders agreement
upfront
2. Investor Relationships
Types of investment for early stage companies:
Friends and family
Seed round
Convertible notes
Institutional: venture capital, private equity, etc.
Asymmetry of Info
Entrepreneurs:

Know more about their likelihood of success,


including both current position, projections, and ability
to execute.
Can make representations that are more self-serving
than beneficial to the company.
Asymmetry of Info
Investors

No NDAs = no legal obligation to keep the


entrepreneurs info a secret.
Shelving or starving
Asymmetry of Info

Ultimately transparency is needed on both sides of


the table.
Entrepreneurs must understand the nature of the
investors business.
Each side should do its homework before meeting.
3. Conversations: Implementing
Ethics
What is ethics?

Ethics is not about avoiding harsh realities; its about


positioning yourself, your team, and your company to
weather hard realities with character. - Josh Pierce
Conversations: Implementing
Ethics
Dustin Wells:

As founders [leaders], it is our responsibility to drive


the culture by example.
In his company: Core Ideology Stack
When: with the co-founders and by first hires.
Conversations: Implementing
Ethics
Jonathan Spillman:

We believe that ethical behavior is a byproduct of


being transparent and making sure all levels of
communication are exhausted.
We are hyper-focused on being a data provider that
takes ethics incredibly seriously in how we both
collect and handle data.
Conversations: Implementing
Ethics
The most important part about making ethics central to
your company culture is to simply start by having a
conversation around what guides your team and your
business. - Conversation with Peter Escher

The purpose of my startup is to _________. The


purpose for me being at this startup is ___________.
Some Takeaways
Have a higher purpose than short term gains
and profit
Create a Culture of Openness and Welcome
Dissent
Learn from others (both bad and good)
Be transparent
HAVE THE CONVERSATION
Thanks!
Dustin Wells, Headpring. Dan Graham, Sources:
com BuildASign.com MBAOath.org

Josh Pierce, JR Kraft, Ethics in Venture Capital


StudentLoanBenefits.com BuildASign.com By Ashish Nanda

Peter Escher, Starbucks. Earnie Broughton, St. Posts:


com Marys MBA & Exec.
Education Mike Knoop,
Jonathan Spillman, Umbel.
com Lachlan McKnight,

Dharmesh Shah
Luis@Wearables.com

See ya!

S-ar putea să vă placă și