How the Venture Game Is Played

• Your blue-chip president needs to be surrounded by a great supporting cast that rivals his or her stature.
• The head of sales should be a distant relative to Attila the Hun who wouldn't think twice about sacking any village. This person should have a contact database and access to clients that make closing a sale a layup.
• The vice president of marketing should have developed and implemented strategies at household names such as Home Depot(HD Quote) or Coca-Cola(KO Quote) but should preferably have spent his or her formative years at Procter & Gamble(PG Quote).
• The head of technology should be a functioning idiot savant. She should have multiple degrees, should have worked for Microsoft(MSFT Quote), Oracle(ORCL Quote) and Google(GOOG Quote) and should be able to build anything. This person should also have the charisma to get people to abandon their families to work 60 to 80 hours a week until the company is profitable.
• The chief financial officer should look like George Clooney or Uma Thurman and have the financial skills of Warren Buffett. The CFO has to be able to convince investors that the numbers he has developed working with management are attainable and that he or she knows how to contain costs.
• The advisory board typically comprises about five people, who should have white hair and look like they stepped down from Mount Olympus. They should have experience and contacts that reduce the chances of failure by a factor of 10.
• You either have to know the guys who write the checks or know the guys who know the guys. This means hiring $500-an-hour lawyers from the best white-shoe firms in town, as well as partners of international accounting firms that have the venture boys on speed dial.