Over the years, I have created a number of businesses across a number of countries but I recently realized that I had never taken the time to share my personal experiences beyond an official About Us page.\u00a0 I\u2019ve decided that it\u2019s time for full disclosure: to share what really happened when SmartRecruiters went Inc.<\/p>\n
Warning: read carefully, there is a quiz at the end!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The corporate life of SmartRecruiters started on a sunny day of July in London. I was at the offices of Weil in the middle of intensive M&A discussions for the acquisition of my previous venture<\/a>, MrTed, by Stepstone Solutions. After a smooth and easy discussion (as always), Matthew Parker<\/a>, the CEO of Stepstone, and I agreed that I would spin off SmartRecruiters (my baby). I excitedly instructed our legal team to go ahead and incorporate the new company.\u00a0 The Weil team said \u2018no problem\u2019; all they needed to do was to quickly run the documents by Matthew’s lawyers, then the MrTed corporate lawyers would have to take a look, then they would have to review the documents again\u2026 and again\u2026 and again\u2026 Ironically, with our ducks in a row a few weeks later, it took us only one hour to physically incorporate SmartRecruiters in Delaware.<\/p>\n As soon as the acquisition of MrTed went through and the paperwork for SmartRecruiters was filed, I thanked everyone and took off for some celebratory sailing in Croatia with the family.<\/p>\n I came back in September, ready to change the world!<\/p>\n But wait\u2026 You didn\u2019t really believe it was that easy, did you? There is always administrative work to take care of before one can change the world. At first I thought \u201cNo problem, I\u2019ll just ask my CFO to organize this\u201d. But wait\u2026 I don’t have a CFO anymore (or \u201cyet\u201d depending how you look at it). So here we go: <\/p>\n \u2026 and on and on<\/p>\n Ok, now let’s change the world!\u00a0 Oh wait\u2026 don\u2019t we need a decent working environment for our start-up teams (beyond the garage)? I’ve heard “creativity is a function of how nice the office is” so…<\/p>\n We settled on a cozy office in San Francisco at 330 Townsend (note the strategic location for when the SmartRecruiters concept will be on fire) and on a cool workspace in downtown Krakow where the brains behind the software are sitting. It took some time to get everything in place (tables, chairs, printers, computers, signage, potted plants, coffee machines, pizza ovens, etc.\u2026) but we got there eventually.<\/p>\n On to change the world! Oh wait\u2026 how about our IT infrastructure? IT what? Well yeah, we’re going to need servers, software, phones, emails, ftp, intranet, backups\u2026 I used to hate that part of getting started but now, luckily, in comes “Ze Cloud”! I watched what used to take months of set-up be compressed into minutes or days:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That part was so cool, I\u2019m almost sad that we\u2019re done already.<\/p>\n And now the Quiz you have been waiting for:<\/p>\n How many lawyers are mentioned in this story? What did I do in the last month? Well anyway, you get the point. We may live in an exciting and connected world, but if you\u2019re out to start a company to change it for the better, expect to start with paperwork. Unless, of course, someone figures out a way to put paperwork and lawyers in Ze Cloud!<\/p>\n So now, finally, we can change the world! Oh wait\u2026 I still need to raise money \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Free Software Forever.<\/em><\/strong> Signup for SmartRecruiters Free Recruiting Software<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the years, I have created a number of businesses across a number of countries but I recently realized that I had never taken the time to share my personal experiences beyond an official About Us page.\u00a0 I\u2019ve decided that it\u2019s time for full disclosure: to share what really happened when SmartRecruiters went Inc. 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\nA: none\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 B: more than needed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C: a lot more than needed<\/p>\n
\nA: go sailing\u00a0\u00a0 B: a lot of paperwork\u00a0\u00a0 C: change the world<\/p>\nSmartRecruiters Goes Inc.<\/a><\/blockquote>