Startup 101: Building your team with the right people
It is no secret that to make your amazing startup idea a reality and to build your business, you need the right people on board. But who are the right people? What should you look out for in a (first-time) founder? What people do you need in which phase? And finally: what does this all require from you as a founder? An important reason that startups don’t make it, in the end, is that the company remains too dependent on the founders. Let’s highlight the HR side of innovation.
Finding the right types of people
As your company grows, diversity in your team becomes increasingly important. To be able to turn your idea into a thriving business, you need the right types of people at the right place in your team.
In general, we can distinguish four types of people that you can have on your team:
The Strategist — This type of person is like a doomsday planner, for every scenario, there must be an appropriate plan. The strategist comes up with the kind of scenarios that you as a founder haven’t thought of or maybe don’t want to think about yet.
The Idealist — This type of person keeps track of the bigger picture and has a clear vision for the future. This includes ideas on how a particular industry or even society as a whole should change.
The Daredevil — This type of person is the one person that doesn’t hesitate to act. When necessary, the daredevil doesn’t waste valuable time and moves into action mode without worrying about failure.
The Doer — This type often is the backbone of the team. A doer brings structure to the work and is constantly thinking about business processes and how they can be set up as efficiently as possible.
The Tower of Babel
Does your team speak the same language? And no, we’re not talking about English, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, or any of the other 7000+ languages that exist on our planet. Instead, we are talking about the different types you have in your team and how they communicate with each other.
We often see that people with the same personality type attract each other. Startup founders often fall in the category of idealists. During the first stages of the startup, it can be beneficial to attract other idealists. Why? The advantage of having similar types of people around you is that you often have that ‘click’ quickly; you literally and figuratively speak the same language, this helps enormously with the communication between each other and allows for a quick formulation of ideas.
“Avoid blindspots and don’t have a team with only idealists.”
However, as your startup grows and gets more shape your operations can get more complex. At this time, it is important to add a strategist to your team. This person will have a great sense of oncoming risks and possible blindspots that you can have as a founder. The strategist can structure and build a scalable and realistic business model.
As your company grows even larger, you will have to add the bold daredevils and the diligent doers to your team. At some point, you need people who quickly snap into execution mode and just get things done. You don’t need salespeople who are busy making plans for weeks; instead, you’d rather have people that act.
Still unsure who you need?
Are you still struggling with who the best addition to your team would be right now? Talk to the people that have your back! Often, a (future) investor can help you on your way. As a starting entrepreneur, sit down with your investor and come up with what you consider to be the most important challenges for your customers: in a year, but also in three years and beyond. Include your mission: what do you want to achieve as a company?
When you map these things out well you will gain more insight into possible future scenarios and it will become clear which people you need in which phase. This will also make it easier to attract the right people in a targeted way.
This article is based on an interview with Paul Musters on mt/sprout