Couple of months back I attended a Tie Networking event and the topic of the event was “Importance of team building and Team Dynamics”. The major focus of the talk was on the starting up team – the founding members of a start-up. Also, the speakers on the panel discussion were VC’s – so the insights here represents the VC community view on what they really seek in the founding team of a start-up.
Here are the few insights from the panel discussion -
1. Dont make your dining table your boardroom – A lot of start-ups are started by family members. Husband/wife, brothers, sisters etc. Usually its found that unless you are very professional, family influence in the business affects the way decisions are meant to be taken in the organization. The question that arises – Are the team members the best people to do what they are doing? Has a professional/equally competent person been evaluated for the same position? If not, then the hiring capabilities of the organization becomes questionable. Not that you need to have the most expensive resource on your payroll, however, you should never compromise on the team that you ideally need to build to make your company successful.
2. Undisputed leader – A good start-up has an undisputed leader. When companies are started, there are a lot of decisions that need to be taken at every stage. All the team members have equal right to raise their concerns contribute their opinions, fight/debate if they are against and be a part of the decision making process. The leader will make sure that all the pros and cons for the same are evaluated and finally takes a decision. This is a very important and desirable behavior in a start-up. In a young start-up, there may be a lot of ego issues which is very harmful for its growth. Having an undisputed leader makes sure that the start-up is going in the right direction with a clear focus and right responsibilities for each team member.
3. Magnet Founder – balanced team – The most desired founder of a start-up is a “Magnet founder” who is good enough to attract the best people to himself. This not only helps in building a good strong team, it also helps in getting the right contacts through networking. His charisma, clear vision and focus towards the goal makes himself and his team work very hard to give whatever it takes to achieve their goals.
4. Hire people better than you – The only way to grow a company is to hire people who are better and smarter than you are. When you start, you take care of a whole lot of stuff – but that limits your growth as you can do only so much by yourself. You need the smartest people on your team who can take over things and do it much better, faster and bigger than you can – who can take responsibility of specific roles and sprint with it – this is the success mantra for a start-up. This ensures that you grow at a rapid pace in all areas of your business.
5. Good people hire good people – Be selective about your 1st 10 hires – Its the people who make a start-up a success or a failure. A start-up is very scarce of resources. The only resource it has is – people. The founders have to be very selective about the first 10 people who join the start-up – these are the people who are going to hire you the next 10 and grow your team. Make sure that these are the best people in your team – who will attract the right talent in your team and grow your company in the right way.
6. Do what you say – “Actions speak louder than words” – The culture in your start-up is going to be built by the founding team. As a founder, you have to make sure that the motivation levels in your start-up are always high. You have to make sure that all the people are as excited as you are to make the workplace a fun place to work. You have to make sure that everyones vision is aligned and all are on the same page. You have to make sure that there is positiveness in the workplace and all are craving for the success of the company.
It was a great panel discussion and I hope it would provide good insights to entrepreneurs about their approach to a start-up.
Interesting read. Came across your blog after a Google search for “Shravanbelagola” and found something even more interesting. Thank you.