Molson Hart

Had a call with @tsludwig a few days ago that's still reverberating in my brain. He has thought more about finding, recruiting and incentivizing high-quality executives in small business than anyone I've ever met. Honestly feel like I should have paid for the call.

Thank you, Moses. I got more than I gave in that call. You're even smarter and more sensible live than you are in your already great Twitter posts. I feel like we're going to have lots of fun and enlightening talks over the coming years.

Blog post summary??? Not a fair trade for my meager DD post, but I’ll take what I can get!

One aspect that a lot of owners seem to overlook is that a CEO or top exec role w/ equity is a scarce and desirable role -- tapping into the right talent pools draws out dissatisfied stars in droves. Great people crave agency and autonomy and you can provide that, plus upside!

Have you ever tried doing it without equity? Do you just award (or options) it upon hiring or do you force them to buy in?

Tried once without equity - a bonus program the details of which I don’t recall, but that I liked at the time. Deal didn’t close, so never got to see how it would have worked out. Usually a combo of time- and performance-based equity vesting.