My Journey Series — Chapter 4: Team Building is Hard! Mucho Respeto HR!

SELLITIC and AFOMA is my first shot at being an entrepreneur. Being a startup, the expectation would be that most founders had to put on multiple hats while growing the company. So, I did not have the privilege of just interviewing candidates, but I had to search for these candidates and eventually build a team. Not just a team, but the right team! A team aligned with the company’s vision and mission statement.

As a social enterprise, I wanted to build a team of individuals that were naturally inspired by what we were doing. Over the past year, we did attract individuals who were inspired and showed the desire to be part of what we were building. However, as a founder, it’s our responsibility not to take this for granted. We must continue to inspire, mentor and lead our team. But most importantly, hiring an individual who is inspired by what we (you) are building, doesn’t necessarily mean they are a good fit for your business.

My experience with team building came with frustration and disappointment. Imagine building a digital marketing and software development team, only to let go of over 90% from both teams, and in a matter of 3 months or less. Yes! True story!

Can I assume that this is not unusual for most founders and (or) startups?

To satisfy your curiosity, my reasons for downgrading the teams ranged from lack of professionalism, lack of self-motivation (or tenacity), and most importantly, lack of ideas or out-of-the-box thinking. Some others had personal issues that got in the way, and they chose not to communicate with their team or peers, resulting in some of our project tasks and timelines not done or missed respectively.

Regardless of my disappointment, I am still thankful for whatever part they played during the short time they were with us. I firmly believe that our paths were meant to cross and we were meant to learn from each other regardless of the outcome. I truly wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

I will point out that one of my regrets in undertaking the team building process was not bringing in someone with a background in Human Resources. However, I do recognize that this may have been difficult to achieve anyways. Why? Well for one, would anyone be willing to accept equity (token allocation). This is what we are currently offering the entire member of our team working on our startup.

As Michelle (my Co-Founder) always reminds me, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”, so if you are reading this and you are in HR (or know someone in HR) and looking to join a team looking at making a difference in the world and open to equity (token allocation), please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Someone with that expertise, will undoubtedly make a huge difference in our operations.

For any founder out there looking at starting their own venture, I highly recommend bringing on someone with a HR background. As a founder, I believe you should be focused more on building a customer-centric product, collaborating and forming partnerships, seeking grants and investments. HR related tasks can be challenging and can eventually take a toll on you. In my case, it sometimes led to negatively impacting thoughts, especially when it related to letting people go. However, it comes with the role.

In fact, I learnt through the Accelerator program (Altitude Accelerator) we were part of, the need to let people go when they no longer add value to the company. Keeping them longer doesn’t help and it becomes much more difficult to let them go eventually.

On the bright side, I am so grateful to have a few amazing individuals in our team.

Williams Ebenezer Ajoonu. A committed and brilliant software developer who understands and sees the big picture when it comes to our mission. I came to know and work with Williams through a web development project he did for AZONETA, my charity registered in Canada. Williams has led our software development for AFOMA and SELLITIC for over a year now. We would not be where we are today without his knowledge and expertise.

Coe Kerby and Ethan Grice. Two exceptional and amazing interns who were inspired by our work and chose to continue working on building SELLITIC. I have been inspired by their dedication to work, professionalism and problem solving abilities.

As we continue to grow, I am confident that we will bring on incredible individuals that will do amazing things with us at AFOMA and SELLITIC. I have no doubt.

In Chapter 5, I’ll begin to explore the technical stuff. The decisions and the reasons behind making the choices to the technologies we are currently leveraging.

Christmas is around the corner, and as much as we wished to carry out our soft launch before the holidays, we unfortunately couldn’t due to circumstances beyond our control. The plan is to push for early January, 2024. I hope we can count on you to support us and our artisans in the new year.

For now, let me use this opportunity to wish my fellow founders and everyone a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Kindly follow us on our social media channels? It would mean a lot to me.

AFOMA: Twitter LinkedIn. SELLITIC: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Thank you!

Eric Osuorah, Founder AFOMA and the SELLITIC Marketplace