Jason Calacanis Wants To Help Your Struggling Startup

• Are you a great web startup, but struggling to raise more funds in the down economy? Tech evangelist and Mahalo.com founder, Jason Calacanis, wants to help. Last hour on Twitter, he released the following message, which may be the most important 140 characters of your life:

JC: Based on feedback I’m looking for startup with less than 6 months of cash left to try + help save.interested? email jason at mahalo.com

• Getting Jason behind your company just may be the right combination to lead you to that acquisition you’ve been dreaming of. With his PR tactics, combined with his slew of celebrity investor contacts, your cash startving startup could be on it’s way to stardom. (you may even get a Tesla out of the deal).

Here is a Calacanis tip to those with 6 months of cash left that may not be in the running for his help:

If you’re down to six months of cash, you’re gonna have to cut the
bottom 1/3rd of your staff, if not half. This sucks, but there is no
choice. You’re gonna also have to cut salaries. So, here are some
suggestions on how to do this:

1. Get rid of the non-core staff. Look in places like PR, marketing,
and admin to cut. See if you can put some of these folks on part-time.

2. Look at the salaries of your current staff vs. market and look for
ways to cut the high-priced ones who you can get cheaper at the
current market. I know this sounds cutthroat, but remember, this is
advice for folks going out of business in six months. Another way to
run this test is to ask yourself “Would I hire this person for this
amount today?”

3. Go to each member of the team who is over-paid by today’s market
rate and tell them that you’re probably going to be cutting their
salary and that you’re increasing their options. Ask them how they
feel about it. Some people can take a pay cut, others can’t–you don’t
know until you ask.