Entry-level Positions for Aspiring CEOs at Blue Dot Motorworks
Tom, Blue Dot Motorworks' CEO, learned the importance of collaboration early on, wishing someone had advised against a "fairly incremental approach" to bringing others aboard. This delayed collaboration significantly hindered early progress and complicated later attempts to equitably compensate team members, especially while pre-revenue.
Teamwork, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Business Development, Financial Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Tom Gurski
CEO
Blue Dot Motorworks
MIT 1999
N/A
Engineering - Mechanical
Automotive & Auto Parts
Entrepreneurship and Business Owner
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Build a strong team early on. Don't try to do everything yourself; it's crucial to bring in people with diverse skills from the beginning. This will significantly accelerate your progress.
2. Bringing on team members later can create challenges. As the CEO invests more time, it becomes harder to fairly compensate new hires, especially before revenue is generated.
3. Fair compensation can be difficult pre-revenue. Structuring equitable arrangements for team members when the company is not yet profitable requires careful planning and consideration
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you entered the industry?
I'd definitely say don't go it alone. I took a fairly incremental approach to making this my full-time thing.
I wanted to de-risk it to some degree before involving other people. I waited very late in the process before I started trying to bring others aboard.
There are so many different skills needed, and having people with those skills involved early will make your progress grow so much faster. It also gets more complicated to bring people in the longer you wait.
There's a big disparity in how much you've invested versus how much someone coming in has put into it. This makes coming up with fair and equitable arrangements challenging, especially when you're pre-revenue and can't pay people yet.