Startup Toolkit

Andy Palmer (CEO and Co-Founder, Vertica Systems, Inc.): My biggest regret over the course of my career is not moving to Silicon Valley back in 1988 after graduating from Bowdoin.  I went to New Zealand and Australia to play rugby after graduation – and should have just staying in CA rather than coming back to New England.  Coming out of college – I knew that I had a passion for software – and that there was this amazing phenomenon going on in the Bay Area – but for some reason didn’t just pack up the car and go.  What has happened in the Bay Area over the past 30 years is truly fantastic – as many have observed – similar to the dynamic in China today.

Nathan Sigworth (Founder, Gyrobike; Founding CEO, PharmaSecure):  One of my biggest regrets was not bringing on an experienced sales director and operations director earlier on. It wasn’t until a year after closing on venture investment – a year full of novice mistakes  – that my co-founders and I made these crucial hires. Earlier, we felt that we could do things ourselves, and that we couldn’t afford good senior people. I regret not making these hires as soon as we closed investment. When we finally hired and delegated authority to these key hires for whom this wasn’t their first time in the role, it was amazing to see how quickly the company began to grow.