Building your Team

Almost every startup begins with only a few founders; more often than not a company is started by a single individual who has the vision and technical know-how to bring a product to market. Here’s some thoughts on how a lone gunman can build his startup team:

• Your first several hires are important. What are they?  Who are they? Plan then execute.

• Find complements. If you’re a technical genius then partner with a sales or marketing guru.  If your background is sales and you have an amazing technical idea find a technical genius to help implement your vision. Think Wozniak and Jobs or Brin/Page and Schmidt.

• When picking a leadership team keep in mind that this group will run day-to-day operations, track financials, market/sell and develop the products and services you’ll be delivering.

• When recruiting your team be an evangelist and a cheerleader. Know when to get in the pulpit and when to put on a skirt.

• When forming that core team provide each member with performance incentives in the form of equity and/or cash. While shared equity isn’t necessarily shared vision; it goes a long way to ensure that the start-up team is focused on the same economic targets.