It’s important to consider the value of teams versus sole founders. A sole founder often begins startups. But before long, most sole founders realize that having a team is critical to the success of their company. Hiring a team doesn’t just help manage the volume of work, but also helps tap into a broad range of skills and perspectives. Being part of a team also provides moral support.
In this unit, we’re going to talk about startup teams. We’ll first look at the personal attributes that are highly correlated with success in startup teams. We’ll then consider functional roles and how to ensure that they’re filled at the right time.
Attributes of successful startup teams
This section lists important attributes that should exist within every startup founding team. It’s not essential (or likely) that every team member will have all these attributes, but it’s highly desirable that each of the attributes exists somewhere within the team.
It’s also important to look for these attributes in early employees, because they tend to correlate with high performance. Also, it’s vital to have a good cultural alignment between founders and key employees.
Curiosity
Curious founders are genuinely interested in understanding problems. Curiosity leads to solutions that better meet customer needs.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Are willing to spend large amounts of time talking to customers to understand their needs at a nuanced level.
- Genuinely enjoy exploring possibilities and new ideas.
- Tend to have a breadth of knowledge across a wide range of topics.
- Often have acquired a range of self-taught skills to satisfy their thirst for knowledge.
Domain knowledge
Startups that deeply understand the domain in which they’re operating are more likely to have important insights that are invisible to others.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Might have worked in the domain for an extended period.
- Have often experienced the pain point themselves.
- Have rare or unique insights that might be counterintuitive.
- Have established networks with potential customers or suppliers.
- Are viewed by their peers as a domain expert.
When combined with broad curiosity, this attribute can lead to T-shaped skills in which the person has a formidable combination of breadth and depth.
Bias toward action
Speed of execution and rapid iteration are important competitive advantages in any startup.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Focus on taking action wherever possible.
- Tend not to engage in prolonged deliberation or strategizing.
- Are willing to make decisions based on imperfect information.
- Aren’t perfectionists and realize that perfect is the enemy of done.
- Demonstrate in other aspects of life that they consistently take projects to completion.
Determination
Startup founders need to be able to persist despite challenges and setbacks.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Consistently get more done than other people in the same amount of time.
- Can delay gratification by working hard toward a long-term goal despite little near-term payoff.
- Have high levels of resilience and aren’t easily discouraged.
- Have a genuine, deeply felt desire to solve the problem on which the startup is focused.
This attribute is often closely connected with high levels of optimism.
Optimism
Successful startup founders understand objectively that most startups fail, yet they have sufficient optimism that they’re willing to back themselves to succeed.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Have a default mental state of this could work as opposed to here are all the reasons this probably won’t work.
- Are willing to explore new, untested, and absurd-sounding ideas.
- Recognize that unfettered optimism isn’t helpful and are able to balance their optimism with open-mindedness.
Open-mindedness
Startups don’t follow a linear trajectory, so it’s important to be able to pivot and scrap plans when initial assumptions turn out to be invalid.
Founders who have this attribute:
- Are able to think rationally and dispassionately.
- Are willing to listen to and act on feedback, even if it contradicts their existing views.
- Have a high-level of commitment to the problem, but a low-level of commitment to their current idea to solve it.
- Can manage their ego and separate their own identity from that of the startup or the idea they’re working on.
High emotional intelligence
Startup founders need to be able to maintain a good working relationship, even in a chaotic and stressful environment.
Founders who have this attribute (also known as emotional quotient or EQ):
- Have a default demeanor of friendliness and agreeableness.
- Tend not to overreact in stressful situations.
- Are able to understand other people’s perspectives and respond with empathy.
- Can engage in disagreements without becoming personally wounded.
Task: Identify strengths and weaknesses on your team
If you’re already part of a team, consider each team member’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to these attributes. Are any attributes conspicuously absent?
If you’re a sole founder, consider your own strengths and weaknesses and identify any gaps. This information will be useful to have in mind as you think about who else to bring into your team.
Core roles in startup teams
Let’s now look at the core functional roles that need to be filled in a startup. Because every startup is different, you’ll have your own ideas about the specific roles that you need to fill in your company.
The following table lists broad functional roles that need to be filled in most early-stage startup teams. In the early days, it’s not essential (and often not possible) to have a one-to-one mapping of an individual to a role. One person might have multiple roles, and roles might be split across individuals.
However, it’s critical to make sure that every member of the team is clear on which functional roles they’re responsible. You also must make sure that all roles are covered, or that you have a plan for how to cover them as you grow your team.
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