Kevin O'Connor

Entrepreneur

I like finding the best solutions for really big challenges

Bluekai and 10gen

The hiring and managing of people can be both rewarding and frustrating. As an engineer I’m fascinated by the technology, and my first instinct is to spend most of my time knee-deep in product. But to build a great company you need to be at the helm and ultimately, I really enjoy working with a smart and motivated team.

The most rewarding is creating the best solutions for really big challenges.

Focusing too much on the competition instead of focusing on building the
absolute best, and most trusted, product for your customers. Entrepreneurs
need to stay focused on innovation, not the competition.

Hire “smart athletes”. Companies tend to hire people based on skills. We tend to hire extremely smart and competitive people. Smart people can learn any skill and find creative solutions to tough problems. Competitive because startups have a lot of ups and downs – just like in sports – and we don’t want quiters, we want winners.

Find the best solutions and build consensus. The answers are in the room
but buried beneath opinions and politics. We use a brainstorm technique that
allows us to quickly extract all ideas then to determine the critical few answers
we need. Everyone feels part of the process and nobody remembers where the answers came from – they come from everybody.

Don’t think big, think HUGE. People don’t naturally see themselves as having
the ability to do truly great things – big things yes, massively huge no. I try to
create huge (but doable) visions and find ways to inspire people to believe we can do it.