Growing a Startup Team — Behind the Scenes

Startup or Corporation? Autonomy or stability? Sense of meaning or sense of security? Small fish in a big pond or big fish in a small pond?

I think the whole dilemma is getting out of hand.

I believe each person performs at her best in a specific environment; some are made for corporate, others for startup life. I don’t think one is better than the other and I don’t want to add more to the nonstop debate. What I want is to help those who are at least “pretty sure” that working for a startup is best for them.

I have been an entrepreneur from the very beginning. Professionally, this is all I know and over the years I’ve become better and better at it. So I want to share my insights with those that want to build or join a startup and are now where I was a few years ago.

I started my first business (a digital marketing agency) when I was 20. I’d been dreaming of working in advertising since I was in highschool and when I actually started, disappointment was right there to welcome me. I discovered that the industry I knew and loved was working in a very old school way — operating on a mishmash of excels, powerpoints, and back and forth emails. We were trying to do creative work, but our day to day processes were oh so boring. I remember thinking that there should be a more pleasant, simple and easy way to work together with your team.

So we started Planable.

We wanted to help brands tell their stories in a world transformed by social media and do so with a beautiful software that works the same way marketing teams do. Fast forward two years and we are a Techstars backed company, a team of five awesome people, and a product used by brands such as BMW, Virgin Mobile and Huawei.

No one should start a business alone. Only if you’re Oprah.

Starting a business from the ground up all by yourself can be brutal. After being a solopreneur before, I knew that I couldn’t (and shouldn’t) do it on my own with my new venture.

I was born and raised in Moldova, a post-soviet country in Eastern Europe. It’s a tiny country with the population of Brooklyn, minus the hipsters. Everyone knows everyone there. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that my co-founders and I were moving in the same circles. However, the real magic happened when we started working together at a Startup Weekend event. We never stopped since.

When you’re looking for a co-founder, aim for someone with a James Bond attitude. Unstoppable, ambitious, always professional, has an appetite for risk and energy to never stop grinding. But don’t look for a clone of yours, co-founders should complement each other. I knew what our customers needed, Vlad knew how to reach them, and Nick knew how to build the product.

Scale your team for long-term success one hire at a time

Planable went from three co-founders to five people on the team in two years. We have a bit of experience when it comes to recruiting for a startup because even though the delta is only two people, they were not easy to find. We went through four hiring failures during those two years and we learned a lot from our mistakes.

The most important thing in recruiting is raising the bar with every hire you make. “If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants,” David Ogilvy once famously said. Our first marketing hire was Miruna and she is 10 times better at growth than we are. As a startup, you don’t have the money to hire an intern or a junior. Yes, they are expensive despite their salary. The hours you spend teaching and guiding them is going to cost you more in the end.

During an interview I received a particularly interesting question. I was asked what is the difference in the responsibilities of a co-founder vs an employee. I might be wrong here, but I think there shouldn’t be any. You want to keep your structure as flat as possible. In terms of attitude I personally expect the same drive, madness, work ethic, energy and involvement from early employees.

Ideal startup employees don’t feel like employees.

They are rebels, they are makers, they care much more about the work they are doing than about their perks and salary. They are driven, they don’t think you can solve a problem just by throwing money at it, and they would rather act fast and break things than make business plans for 3 years ahead.

During our recruitment adventure, I started to ask myself if I’m looking to hire an employee or I’m looking to hire a friend. The answer is… both. You’re gonna spend 8 to 14 hours working in the same room so it should be someone you really click with.

I read 200 resumes to hire for my startup and here’s my advice

Joining a startup might seem fun and easy from the outside. It’s not. Any manager out there cares a hell of a lot about their team and their new hire. Now imagine that feeling and then triple it. Why? Because in a startup, every new hire can make you or break you. When you’re a team of four, adding a new person changes your company’s culture by 25%. Imagine Facebook hiring at once 6,000 clones of Dwight from The Office.

Also, in a startup any minute counts and any penny matters. I can tell you from experience — it’s not only about the scare of a bad hire, it’s about the need for the perfect hire.

For the most recent hire at Planable, I read over 200 resumes and interviewed more than 30 people.

Here’s what I found.

If you apply via Linkedin, always send a personal message, make them notice you from the get go. Don’t send Europass resumes (my European friends know what I mean). Make your resume look good even if you’re not applying for a designer job. If you’ve never worked in a startup before send them an email explaining how you’re different from the Oracle or IBM corporate stereotype.

No matter what position you are applying for — build a strong LinkedIn profile, put some thought into it and definitely have a profile picture. I’m a millennial so I would stalk you on all your other social media profiles too, so chose wisely what you post. Are you applying for a biz/marketing position? Have 500+ connections. Have a blog or an active social media presence. Applying for a tech position? Show me your Github. Be involved on Stack Overflow.

Always follow up after an interview. Be glued to your phone and answer fast to emails. I might be crazy enough to send you a question on a Friday night, weekends are no excuse when you’re applying for a startup job.

If you have an assignment to send over in three days, send it in two. Offer to present the assignment in person if possible. Show them that you know the company’s brand by using their tone of voice, style, and visual identity in your assignment presentation. All along, show me loudly that you can hustle.

My single most important advice for those who want to join a startup is “always go the extra mile, it’s never crowded”.

What’s it like working in a startup?

We all know that working in a startup means that you have to work long hours everyday of the week (and weekend), in an uncertain environment with little pay. Right?

No. I think the whole startup work culture is exaggerated. We’re not always working weekends and we’re definitely sleeping at night (most of the time). It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and you don’t want to burn out. But it’s a lot of hard work and it’s not for the faint-hearted. The number of hours you put in working in corporate or for a startup is about the same over a year, but it’s distributed differently. A typical job is 9 to 5, Mo to Fr. In a startup, you’re on call; you work from your home, your vacation or your Christmas dinner if there’s an emergency. In the end, it’s not about being in the office, it’s about getting shit done. And that’s exactly why I love it. My best days are when I go home at 9pm and realize I haven’t stopped for the entire day. Not even to pee. I’m only half joking.

In a startup, you know what you’re fighting for and you can see the impact you’re making. It’s yours. In a corporation you may make more money, have more free time, but feel just like a brick in the wall. All in all, the change we’re seeing in the industry, our happy customers, and the culture of my team are what’s pushing me above and beyond.

Work hard, play hard.

This was originally written by Xenia Muntean, CEO & co-founder @ Planable.

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If you are a social media manager — freelancer, work in an agency or part of a marketing team, give Planable a try 😍, it’s for you!