Startup Team Formation
When you begin an initiative, you need to put a team together. This is a critical point: the people you involve, and the expectations that get set, have a lasting impact on the initiative. This is true whether the initiative is internal to an organization, or external—such as a startup company.
A startup company is arguably the most challenging in the range of kinds of initiative. This is because there is no owning organization to provide a safety net. People often leave their jobs to form a startup, and usually invest their personal resources. And there is often a lot at stake: people expect that if the startup succeeds, they will reap large personal benefits.
For a new initiative within an existing organization, it is usually the owning organization that makes the investment, and so the core team is only risking their standing within the organization. That is significant, but it is less than risking your savings and your job.
Personalities
It is essential that the members of an initiative’s core team are able to work together effectively. Toward that end, it is usually necessary that one of these situations is true:
There is a single person who is a decision-maker, and others respect and trust that person.
There is a small group that collectively make decisions, and they are very much aligned in their goals and the strategies that they think will work.
Other arrangements are possible, but 1 and 2 above are the most common. What tends not to work is when one of these is true:
The members of the core team do not respect or trust each other.
There are two or more people who are “headstrong” and want to be a decision-maker, and they are not well aligned.
Complementarity
The members of a core team need to complement each other’s experience and skills, and collectively they need to comprise all of the important experience and skills that are needed.
If there is significant overlap in people’s skills and experience, there is a heightened risk of conflict, pertaining to the second bullet in the prior section.
Setting Ground Rules
People who are inexperienced in launching a startup initiative often try to anticipate every kind of event or decision that might arise, and prescribe in an operating agreement how each situation should be handled. That approach is destined to fail for several reasons:
It creates a climate of distrust.
It is impossible to anticipate the many situations that might arise.
ISetting ground rules is important, but it is often best if they are general. Startups that operate well have a high level of trust between the founders. They view each decision in terms of how it benefits their initiative, instead of how it benefits them personally. In fact, it is best if they value their partnership more than they value ultimate success of the initiative. That might sound idealistic, but consider that most startups fail, and that the relationships that you build in the attempt become important for your next initiative. You also develop a reputation: people will remember if you behaved fairly and with integrity.
It is essential that the members of a core team all respect each other, and that they feel the arrangement is fair. If there is a perception of competitiveness or stinginess, then others will respond by becoming more concerned with their situation than with the situation of the initiative, and that will “poison the well”, so to speak, and most likely destroy the startup.
Defining Roles
One approach is to,
Be vague, and allow them to evolve to some extent.
Refine and sharpen roles over time.
Another approach is to be extremely clear on roles. That might be appropriate if the new initiative will be doing something that is well understood and for which the core team has a great deal of experience doing. For a new initiative or startup that will be building something brand new, it is probably better to take the first approach: allow roles to evolve.
Regardless, do not make promises that cannot be kept. If things are vague, be transparent and intentional about that: explain that the vagueness is a strategy, so that everyone can find their optimal role.
And remember that in a startup or new initiative, everyone needs to do things that are outside of their normal expertise. Just because you have a role does not mean that you should not do things that are outside of your role. Everyone’s goal should be collective success.
Frequent Contact
To build a strong relationship among the core team members.
Learning About People’s Strengths Over Time
Over time, you develop a better understanding of what people are able to do, and what they are inclined to do. Actions speak louder than words.