The Ultimate Start-Up Guide

2

Repeat After Us:  “I Am Not Steve Jobs”

SILICON VALLEY MANTRA,

THERE WAS ONLY ONE STEVE JOBS.

CROWDED OCEAN

THANK GOD.

STEVE JOBS IS THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN to start-ups and their CEOs. Let us explain.

Aspiring baseball players may try to emulate Willie Mays when they’re kids, trying basket catches and running out from under their caps. But they give it up once the game goes live, catching the ball with two hands. Rock wannabes may try Jimi Hendrix’s guitar pyrotechnics once, but after they char their eyebrows and chip their teeth, they go back to a more traditional style. Yet start-up CEOs seem determined to model Steve Jobs, from his temper tantrums to obsession with detail.

Big mistake.

Neither of us ever met Mr. Jobs (or “Steve,” as ...