How to grow your startup without a team but with the best people
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You are likely to be alone when you begin a startup but you know that you need a good team if you want to grow quickly. So what to do? Some people are able to put together a strong and productive team within few days but what about the others (the large majority)?
To be a single founder is not a bad thing, to be alone is
One common mistake of single founders is to stay alone and try to do everything even if they don’t have the ability to do it. If you’re not an expert in an area, just leave it to other people who are. Unfortunately we can’t be an expert of everything. The key to grow a startup is the skills’ complementarity.
But to be a single founder is not a bad thing. When you are starting a business, it is often hard to quickly find the right people to build a team. But your capacity to attract amazing people for your project is essential.
Thus, every entrepreneur should try to rub shoulders with the best. You can do that on social networks like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Another way is to assist some startup events and to talk with people at the end of the session. Doing that, you will steadily grow your interesting contacts: developers, designers, growth hackers, sales director… Don’t forget: to be surrounded by amazing people is a way to become amazing.
Grow your startup by asking advice from amazing people
How to grow your startup without money and without a team? Just ask pieces of advice to the best people of the world. Doing so, you will be able to get very interesting advices quickly and for free.
Even if you don’t think so, successful people are willing to help and share their experience. It is a way for them to help others into the startup community and discover new interesting projects. Albeit you’re a newbie, they know that everyone can build an interesting project so don’t be shy !
Overall, for you it’s a win-win strategy because it’s also a way to diffuse your idea and to start communicating on it. These people you are contacting are crazy about new startups and will be likely to talk about it.
Who Do I Ask for Advice?
To doubt and not ask the best professionals of the world is the worst mistake to do. Just feel free and be ambitious: contact who you admire the most.
For example I was working on a paper about entrepreneurs’ life. I just decided to ask Xavier Niel, the founder of Free, one of the top French telecommunication company. I found his email address harassing people of his 42 developer school. After that, he answered me very kindly and after only 5 minutes! Funny fact: what it makes him more happy everyday are his children (if you wanted to know).
Reaching interesting people is not so difficult thanks to the social networks. This article of Roy Povarchik gives you some advices to get the contact of famous people. LinkedIn is a powerful tool to get a first contact but Twitter is my favorite. Using it, you can reach almost everyone. You can either share interesting content to this person or just ask for his personal contact. Often it works very well.
One easy way to get the personal email of someone is to find him on Twitter or Facebook. After that, if he/she works in a company, just try this amazing tool called Norbert allowing you to find easily his email address giving his name and the domain name of the startup he is working on. I just reached some of the top leaders of big French companies using this tactic.
Another way to get good advice is to ask your immediate surroundings: comrades, friends, family… If you think some people you know can help you, just do it and don’t hesitate to be more pushy for details.
For example I asked a friend about communication during the early stage of BibliShare and he gave me plenty of ideas I never of thought before. It was insanely useful and I implemented it during the next days, reaching a +50% of my active users.
How to ask for advice without sounding foolish?
First of all, the key to ask something is to be kind. When I send a message to someone I am admiring, I begin with one or two flattering paragraphs.
One good tactic is to talk about one of his /her last articles or presentations. You can also talk about his/her work on a startup to create a trustful and kind atmosphere.
Moreover, try to be efficient. A message doesn’t have to bother your recipient. Save his precious time by being straightforward and allowing him to have time to answer you. Don’t write too much and put your questions (no more than 2–3) in bold at the end of the message.
Finally, if you are contacting someone you don’t know, just ask one simple question that is easy to answer. The idea is to begin a conversation and after you will be able to ask whatever you want. Asking too much too soon is a bad tactic.
And after?
Advisers are like your costumers but even more luxurious ones. Build engagement rewarding them for their advice and give them some news about your progress and your implementation of their ideas.
Doing so you will create a virtuous spiral and they will start to help you without asking them. Did you reach this step? Congratulations! You just created your own luxury consulting team quickly and without spending any money.
If you continue to reward your consulting team, maybe they will finally want to work with you and you will get a real startup team ready to conquer the world. Good advisors, no wasting time, let’s grow!
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