Whenever I talk to an audience or even write about the importance of having a good team on board, I never fail to share one of the best advice I ever got as an entrepreneur: A great team can make a bad product work, while a bad team will almost always make even a great product fail. The concept of a great team could be viewed in several ways and construed in many dimensions,but we all know when a team works well together and when it doesn’t. It’s always obvious.
I once spoke about this topic to a small gathering of young entrepreneurs in MD where I live and from my perspective, the ideas of a lot of the people in attendance were skewed. As far as I was concerned, they were ill-enlightened in their judgment of what makes a great team and what doesn’t. Just to clarify at this point, the age range of the people in attendance was around 16 – 27, so rationally they would be considered smart and aware. I wanted to get a better understanding of how some of these guys would pick their teams if they had the luxury of building their own start-up, so I came up with a game. I picked 5 people out of this gathering of about 30 people and they would be the ‘founders’. I asked them to come up with a team of minimum 6 people with whom they would build and grow their web 2.0 start-up. It was amazing the criteria with which some of the decisions were made. I had one guy who picked the oldest 5 people…he claimed they would be wiser, hence would “be better at business”. Turned out none of them could even code a web page, the most tech-savvy of them was average at best at basic HTML.
In my honest opinion, picking a team that would be great and make great things happen is a lot more complicated than making decisions based on how things look on the surface. It takes time, a lot of research, perhaps some rejection (from potential team members) and much more.
Individual Talent is NOT everything. Many times we tend to pay attention to stacking up the ‘Roster’ with the most talented guys, because we believe they will bring success. “They are good afterall, they know how to deliver the goods, isn’t this enough?” I believe not! For me, team chemistry more than anything sets the tone for success. A team with players that can effectively compliment each other will always laugh last. When I was hiring guys for my new start-up (currently being built), it was the first time I was ever having to bring people into my ‘wolfpack’ (which is now 4 by the way), I made sure not to look for people who were all round gurus, jack of all trade. Not only because they will be too expensive for a bootstrapped start-up but also because I worried about having too many ‘cooks on the same pot of soup’. I found a guy who was a genius with PHP, CSS and so forth but wasn’t necessarily the best designer in the world, I got a designer who is close to impeccable at his trade yet lacked the guile and class Google might look for in a developer or software coder. I sort of looked for people with different skill sets and had them partner up. I personally do not believe in having the best all-round guys to come on board with you and neglect team chemistry. If it was all about individual talent, Real Madrid would have won all the Trophies up for grabs in the past decade.
A good mix of Experience and youth never killed a start-up. All that talk about having only new guys on board a start-up is crap as far as I am concerned. I don’t like hearing it. Experience is the best teacher! If you have been through it, felt the joy of success and pain of set-backs, there’s no telling how much value you can add to a start-up. I believe having an experienced teammate on board just gives me a lot of confidence in them. I feel like they can spot a no-no far easier and more quickly than a novice, they can also come up with solutions for problems based on what they’ve seen and endured in the past. While the novice player is often enthusiastic and energetic, the experienced head brings the calmness, focus and tact to the table. Why not have a union of both if you can?
Professionalism is vital. I once read on the door of a Professor while in college that “Professionalism breads quality and efficiency”. Spot-on! in my opinion. Team members who will work well together must be capable of understanding that they are working with each other for a business and must constantly put their best foot forward. Characters that impair the progress of the team cannot be allowed on board. If one person slacks, it means the entire business slacks and this must be avoided at all costs.
They better be willing, not just able. Dedication, Dedication, Dedication! A great team comprises of people who are willing to sacrifice whatever they need to in order to see the start-up succeed. Whenever you have people on your team, ask yourself, are these people going to stay even when things get rough? Are they going to keep coding even when we can’t seem to get any Angel or VC to believe in us? Can they be willing to stay up several nights fixing bugs so we can meet our pre-set launch date? Are they willing to sacrifice their stipend when money is tight so we can advertise instead? I know it is a rarity to find people who will respond positively to these questions but those are some traits you want to look for in people you bring into the team.
On a final note, remember that a Start-up is like a fragile boat in the middle of wild waters, who you let on board decides whether you stay afloat or you sink!
