Startup Tips: Assembling a Team
In the spirit of basketball and the NCAA championship, I would like to highlight an important concept that we are all familiar with and which make up a very important part of our lives: teams. This weekend will continue the tournament with the Final Four matchups between the two underdog teams, Loyola-Chicago and Michigan, and the two number-one seed teams, Kansas and Villanova.
What I enjoy most about college basketball in comparison to the professional basketball, is that stardom and dependence on individual players is not particularly evident at first, like it is in the NBA. When you hear Cleveland Cavaliers you immediately think of Lebron James, or the Warriors, Steph Curry. But not so with college teams. A college basketball team is like a well-oiled machine that sticks to offensive plays that it has run hundreds of times and holds defensive formations that the players dream about in their sleep. These plays rely heavily on all players knowing which spots to be in. One person slips up and the whole thing crumbles. But at some point, when it comes down to crunch time, there is only 5 seconds left in the game, and the team is down by 1, one college player has the ball and that person has to score. This is when leaders are made. You might finally have a shot to be recognized and join the NBA. All the events that you have trained for have finally led up to this moment, and you have to win. Now press pause and rewind the tape…
Let’s think of how we can apply this to a startup with a basketball analogy. The game is about to start as you hold the ball in your hands. You are scheduled to play against the powerfully gigantic MonStars; thinking of even setting foot on the court makes you feel insignificant. There’s no way you can win against them without your own super star team. It’s 1996, who is the best basketball player you know that could possibly help you beat these clowns?
Well, Michael Jordan of course! He is your co-founder, and you need a co-founder when you start a business. A Patrick to your Spongebob, a Snoop Dogg to your Dr. Dre, a Chewbacca to your Han Solo. You need someone who understands the gravity of every situation you will be in and someone who will fight with you to the death. It’s not just about passion though. They have to have their own mysterious back story. They have to have the skills that you do not possess. If you don’t know how to swim, they better be able to do the 1600m butterfly. If you don’t know how to cook, they better be cooking up entrees like Gordon Ramsey. It’s about leveraging one another’s skills to begin the vision and tangible product/idea that is your startup. And now the two of you can make the best decision to bring on new people to your superstar team.
Let’s move on to the other players. How then do you pick the rest of a stellar team that is destined to beat the MonStars in the basketball game of the century or become the next billion dollar startup? You can count on one thing for sure, it is not up to chance. In basketball, the 6 foot 8 guy gets chosen over the 4 foot 11 guy for a reason. You have to construct a team that is well suited for each other and whose skills all combine into one giant, complimentary product. Take for example, the elusive and hard ass group of drag racers that dominate the Fast and the Furious franchise. Dom Torreto, played by Vin Diesel, has a group of talented individuals at his disposal to get him to pull off the most ridiculous heists in the history of movies. His team consists of characters played by Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, and the one and only Christopher Bridges, better known as Ludacris. Each player brings his own unique talents to the team: Paul Walker is an undercover cop gone rogue with supreme driving capabilities, Ludacris is the tech guy that can hack into anything controlled by software, and Tyrese… well…. check out this clip for a better understanding of how he operates:
Although Tyrese is being a smart-ass for evading the more difficult questions of his elaborate plan, he brings up a great point of a good leader: delegating. Being able to delegate is probably one of the most overlooked aspects that make a good leader. You have to be okay with handing off the baton to your teammates. You have to pass the ball to the guy with the open three! You simply cannot do all the work yourself and if you decide to take it on single-handedly, you will begin to feel overwhelmed with the amount of resistance or work that is piling up against you.
Another important task is to outsource, and find individuals who are willing to help you for a small fee. These are the guys that support your team but are not necessarily in it. Think of the water boy or the kid that picks up the balls stuck at the net in the middle of a tennis match. Or the guy who mops the floor of sweat once the whole basketball team is on the other side of the court. This person is vital to keep the match running like a car engine. I just witnessed a great example of this with a demonstration through Planet Earth. Animals can teach great lessons about startups! The bee-catcher is a bright red bird that lives in the grasslands of Africa. It is a very skilled predator. It can catch insects very easily in midair. But what’s really difficult for them is to get the insects to become airborne. So the way they do this is to sit on the backs of the animals that pass through the grasslands, such as an ostrich or an elephant, and as the large animals stir up the grass and disturb the insects, the bee-catcher snatches them right out of the sky as they attempt to fly away to a new grass stalk.
The last thing which definitely will help your chances at success is to find yourself a mentor, a coach, or an adviser to your team. This person may or may not be financially invested in your cause, but they should be at least emotionally invested somewhat. They care if you win because they have trained you in their own craft. Think of Doc Brown to Marty McFly, Obi-Wan to Luke Skywalker or even real life basketball coaches like Phil Jackson or Steve Kerr. They have already experienced what you have been through and have priceless advice. They have the strategy to take on the gigantic jerks waiting for you out on the court.
So you now have a starting five, some backup players, a few helpers on the court, the knowledge of how to effectively run a team, and a coach. Do you think you’re finally ready to take on the MonStar miscreants? Your lovable band of Looney Tunes finally has a fighting chance to succeed. Fast-forward the tape. You have 5 seconds left, you have the ball, you are down by 1, and you have the support of the whole team behind you as you hear the fans all around you yelling “SHOOT IT!” You didn’t come all this way to miss.
