Startup advice from John Major.

John Major is the Founder and President of MTSG, an investment and strategic consulting partnership. Previously, he was the CEO of Novatel Wireless, Inc., a San Diego based provider of wireless broadband access solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market, where he led the company's successful IPO.

- Remember, a great idea often sounds dumb initially to smart people.

- Get the goals explicit and clear. When you don’t know where you’re going, all roads lead there and this slows you down.

- Keep the message simple. Remember the line from the movie Jerry McGuire; “You had me from hello!”

- Have operations review meetings once a week. Ask, “How can we all work together to make the success we want happen?”

- Get people used to asking themselves, “How do I have to change my behavior to make others more successful?”

- When people aren’t successful, they know it. So, help these people out the door and make sure to thank them for their contributions. In a small industry, you’ll probably end up working with them again, so don’t burn your bridges.

- People can be categorized along the following continuum:

Some are dumb - Some are smart

Some are high energy - Some are low energy

Make sure the dumb, high energy people are working for someone else, preferably for your competitors.

- Impose limits on your growth. Too many opportunities can kill you as easily as too few.

- Don’t look to maximize sales; look to maximize profits.

- Many growing companies fail because they don’t really understand their economic model. When they don’t stay aligned with their market, they don’t have enough money.