5 top factors that make a successful startup team

Five is a pretty, short and sharp number that can perfectly summarize what makes a happy and outstanding team. So here we go.

Technology evolves and new kind of lifestyles and trends arise, affecting all different factors in society. From daily things as the way we think or the way we commute, to major global aspects such as economy, education and health.

This invites innovative minds to want to seek more knowledge, get creative and develop business ideas. Some of these minds may feel more comfortable working in a bigger team and report back to their team leaders, others might want to be part of a more ‘liberal’ setup where they get to chip in and speak up more freely and moving with the world’s current trends, instead of a company’s regulations.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Steve Jobs.

Here is where both corporal and startups step in — Let’s start by laying out the standard differences between a startup and a corporate workplace environment.

A corporate is known as a culture of recognition: a well-established business venture that has managed to stand out from the competition and evolve further on. The working hours and other regulations are fixed. The manpower is divided into clear teams and there is a clear sense of stability.

A startup is a laid back culture: a new business venture, working hours are generally flexible, the professionals involved work on their own area of expertise and everyone is expected to think out of the box, create original solutions.

The D. or The D “dot” is a startup founded in 2007 in Cairo, now also with an office in Bonn (Germany).

We are not only a startup culture but a culture itself. Our team is made of innovators and creators coming from all around the world, we interact in different languages, approach tasks and challenges with creative approaches and create original solutions.

Having laid out the main differences between a startup and a corporate, and having introduced our team, let’s dig a bit deeper into our own environment as a startup, by starting with the most important points:

1. TEAMWORK

At the end of the day, the startup identity makes the main differences where potential and current employees identify with.

• The startup mission — Our very own mission motto at the D. is that we believe that we work to achieve extraordinary things through technology. To make the impact that will benefit people globally.
  Despite knowing startups as ‘free-spirits’ compared to corporates, a mission shapes, guides and defines any company. Stating your mission gives the team a sense of identity, and a way to translate the work goals onto their daily tasks.
• The startup growth strategy — As said on our mission stated above, is no secret that technology is the field that will shape the future and that is why we invest on it.
  Furthermore, we tackle current global issues where we know technology will make a positive impact and we surround ourselves with people and companies that have the same goals. You can keep up with our projects on our Instagram and Facebook.
• Hosting a learning environment — we encourage everyone to take action and keep developing themselves, through continuous reading, studying, and supporting each other, for a common growth.
• Acknowledging each employee individually — Sometimes people may feel worn down, left out or just unmotivated, so we know that continuous feedback, check ups and motivational chit chats make the difference, as every employee’s role is key to the company, and given the continuous interaction between the founders, clients and teammates.

2. FOOD, FUN & OTHER GOODIES

We know food unites people, that’s why we do our best organising team activities that evolve around nice BBQs, breakfasts or dinners outside the office.

• Cooking at the office — it sounds like this cliché movement that everyone says they want to do and quit after a couple days. But like with everything, with good organization is possible. Only on the last couple of weeks we have managed to master the art of butter chicken, chicken pesto risotto and Pho. Three countries right there.
• BBQs, movie nights & nights out — we for instance, work and almost live in a villa with a garden, so we arrange BBQs at least once per month. We also have occasional pancake days, movie nights after work, or we stroll downtown to Citystars Mall for a chance.
• Pet friendly environment — ok, not everyone likes pets. But at the D. we do and specifically cats and dogs without a home show up to our door. They provide the daily little breaks and a positive cheerful mood.
• Caffeine moves people — a good selection of coffee and tea is important in every workplace, especially at a startup which is a beehive of creative people in the making.
• Your mug is your spirit animal — at the D. almost everyone has their own mug that represents them: from a big Superman cup to a classy Ralph Lauren’s, which makes us feel represented.

3. WORKFLOW & WORKING HOURS

The daily little steps are the ones that make a difference: completing tasks, productivity, communication and organization.

• Communication is key — a startup is more ‘open-minded’ in terms of coming in and out of the office, sick and holiday leaves and other perks. However, without proper communication the team can crumble if individuals do not organize and perform within logical, weekly working hours.
• Daily & Weekly Scrums — we hold daily scrums in every morning where each team and individual presents their work of the day and let other teammates if they would be needed to complete a task together. So we all know where we are standing before beginning the day. Also, we hold weekly scrums where we summarize our expectations or results of the work performed each week, give and receive feedback, and reflect on the outcomes.
• Flexible hours involves even more responsibility — a startup is still a company and a team, so the problem of getting used to not communicate when are you gonna be available may probably break the workflow of others.
• Organization & communication — at the D. we use softwares like Jira and Slack to keep the workflow aligned and the different teams and people communicated. We can be sitting in front of each other and be chatting through Slack while also talking out loud.
• Multitasking vs. Productivity — you can be doing 10 things at the same time, but it doesn’t mean that you are actually completing tasks. At the D. we love to lay down the daily plan and plan every task on a notebook, with sticky notes and the steps necessary to reach our goals. This process help us visualize what needs to be accomplished and then finally, to put the work into action.
• Execution vs. Strategy — If you want to reach goals, you need to take action. No startup will survive following a traditional or monotonous strategy. Innovation and experimenting helps creating the difference and not fall on to the traditional ways.
  We do so by brainstorming constantly among the team, testing our products and asking experts on the field for feedback. That way we not only add our techy inputs but actual and practical knowledge from the current professionals.

4. LIFE-SAVING APPS THAT MAKE SENSE OUT OF THE MAD DAYS

The giant Google has chip in with a great deal of time-saving apps, from Drive, to Calendar, Hangouts, Slides, Docs and Sheets and having them all being able to interact with each other by anyone with the access to it.

But here we give you three current productivity apps ranked on the top of the app stores, that can help you bring peace to the stormy work days.

• Airtable ‘The App that helps you organize everything’ — in order not to be all over the place, we do set up weekly common meetings to keep up with the work progress. Airtable is this new app that helps you organize about everything: trips, shopping, meetings, and lays it out as a spreadsheet.
  But also, when individual, occasional meetings come up, we ‘throw them in’ Google Calendar to have it remind us as a pop-up message a day/ an hour before that meeting.
• SHAREit — people is usually either an iOs or Android person, and these two guys are not compatible among them. That’s why apps like ShareIt help share files without the Internet connection.
• Adobe Scan — send a clean scan of important documents and printed copies of documents to each other from your phone by taking a picture of them with Adobe Scan, an app that acts as a scanner.

5. TECHNOLOGY

Startups allow to find, recruit, groom and keep top talents. Following the right steps and being on top of the business games, successful startups can make a global impact, be a sample to new startups and entrepreneurs.

The employees get the chance to work along similar free-spirited, curious mindsets from different fields and discover points and learn new things about themselves they did not know.

The D. is made of fresh minds and a mature, wise foundation. We do our best to have teammates, contributors, partners and contacts that are on top of the game. Because as we said, we believe we can reach something extraordinary through technology.

One of our current projects is CUJU, a football training app that will allow anyone, anywhere to become a pro player and be found by people at the top of the industry.

You can follow up and learn more about it on CUJU’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

Do you know any other tips or apps that will get the innovative startup community ahead of the game? Comment or share your inputs!