Best advice for early-stage founders on building a team
Prologue
Moving past the “one-two people garage idea” stage in a startups’ life is an incredibly cool and crucial juncture. And a tremendously decisive step in that direction is talent. For super-early stage businesses, where the stakes are very high, and everyday you’re trying not to sink, sometimes, a new addition to the team can actually be destructive. Research shows that 60% of new ventures fail because of problems with the team.
We have held Calm/Storm’s fourth Academy session — our safe place where founders gather to exchange ideas, demystify mess-ups, genuinely advise and get advice. [More on the Academy here, and if interested — check here who some of our amazing speakers are!]
Hiring is another of these storms. There is no golden rule on how to do it, it entails a whole lot of processes, and it changes constantly. Add on top of that, you might be using 99% of your time building something from scratch, walking on the edge of the mountain.
Our speakers, hosts and guests intensively discussed the topics of startup culture, hiring in the early days vs later and founder issues. We tried to gather here some good tips and tricks that might be helpful when building your team.
A quick outline:
- Read a lot, look around you
- Get people excited about you
- Hire energy givers
- Being in a relationship is not all roses
Read a lot, look around you
We are never done learning. That’s true for all aspects of life, and when you’re running a high growth business, sooner or later you’ll be faced with hiring decisions. And most likely you won’t have a clue how to go about it — and if you do, you’re among the few!
Unfortunately, nobody will solve your problems by telling you exactly which steps to take. What works for someone might not work for another. And of course, practice has its perks, but another great way to start is to “simply” look around you. From getting your hands on many resources — books like WHO or No Rules Rules are great — to using information that you have in front of you.
One of our speakers had a cool take on what that might look like, he calls it “culture hacking”. While on detours at different startups’ offices — to network, meet and hang out — he observed and experienced their culture vibes. And if something struck out, he remodeled it and took it back home.
Get people excited about you
“Nothing motivates a great employee more than a mission that’s so important that it supersedes everyone’s personal ambition.”
- Ben Horowitz
One question that came up quite a lot during our Academy Session, was how to source your hires. An interesting point brought up was to “get the mission” out there. Build content, spread the word around the core elements of what you do, what change you’re working on bringing to the world. It not only gives visibility to your company but it also enables people to feel connected to the mission. You want to get to that level where people come to you — and stay — because of what your company stands for.
Your reason to exist, or how British-American writer Simon Sinek would call it your “Why”, can initiate a powerful relationship with your (future) employees.
And this is relevant for both specialists, generalists and C-level roles. Another of our speakers shared her story to hiring executives, an extremely thorough process which culminated always with the same question: “What is the vision for the company?” Her number one priority was to have people excited about what the company does.
Hire energy givers
And here is where the action takes place: who do you hire? This question might keep some of you up at night.
The approach to hiring is most often in line with the needs of the company. When you’re early, there is a lot of uncertainty, and you need to navigate it. It is critical to have on board people who acknowledge the highs and lows of startups and are proactive in their behavior. There is no universal rule on how to identify these people, so look for clues! “You don’t want people that take your energy away”. Something most founders shared during our Academy Session is to learn to dig deep into people’s personalities. Understand what motivates them.
Being in a relationship is not all roses
Interpersonal dynamics inside startups can often have many touch points with romantic relationships. And sometimes things can get messy. Some of our portfolio startups shared their personal experiences with hiring mess-ups or horror stories with their partner in crime. Because these situations can happen, and as much as you can avoid them, sometimes you just need to learn how to get out of them.
One of our founders talked about the difficulty of “letting go”. They had hired someone who was slowing down the company, and it took them awhile before realizing. When personal connections arise, making the tough call is not easy.
Another two of our guests, discussed challenges emerging with their past co-founders, and how they came out the other side. Today, they are both solo founders, but the road ahead of them was steep. They felt alone, uncertain on how to go about it, who to talk to. Add on top of that, a bunch of legal, financial, personal and commercial stuff to deal with once that decision was made. But eventually the experiences taught them to not underestimate the ability to communicate effectively insecurities to the people around them, “it’s amazing who will come out and stick by your side”.
