Building your Team - talk @ ReaktorX

Gave a talk on behalf of https://www.gyfted.me/business re. building teams in startups.

Transcript

1. Team formation workshop November 2021 workshop
2. Startups are really hard 9 of 10 startups fail 2 of 3 startup failures are due to people problems ~60% of startups fail due to founder/people issues
3. What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking of starting a start-up? “Try to have a good cofounder. I think it’s all about the people, and if you are doing it alone, it’s really hard” - Max Levchin, Cofounder PayPal
4. • Founder matching • Would you marry after one date? • Would you partner up for a hardcore, stressful, long (startup) journey with someone you just met, even via a personal referral? • Look for alignment 1. mission /passion /values 2. agency/entrepreneurial life vs ‘fashion trend’ 3. quick exit vs big win 4. VC$$$ vs f*** VCs/bootstrap? 5. skill/experience complementarities 6. mindset eg. “owners” and work style • Combinations that win: technical+non-technical co-founder (tech biz) > two technical (tech biz) >/= two business (operations, non-tech biz) Founding team
5. • Many factors at play • Evidence from sample of 531 US unicorns with 1,356 co-founders: How many cofounders?
6. • Begins with hiring. • “Hire slow, f ire fast” silicon valley mantra/bias… • Hiring people aligned with your mission, values, goals; mindset • Team’s like a tribe set up to execute and collaborate and conquer • Be careful: • hiring friends - vet for above • very careful hiring & promoting managers/heads/leads • with titles early on • being ‘unstructured’ in your screening • Biases (more later) Team formation
7. • Re f ined job description: information, marketing • Who’s your target? • FOCUS: the more you can focus the better • Leverage your network above all • Structured hiring / Structured interviews - do benchmarking Startup Hiring 101
8. Does psychology matter? (videos)
9. Hiring in startups • Determines your people and culture • impacts everything • Getting the right people at the lowest possible cost • “right people” ie. type of worker needed when product/market/stack change? • identify “right people” • cost = salary + equity + hiring costs • Discovering which job applicant has the desired abilities (when people play a game & hide their true type to f irms if they know that will a ff ect the hiring decision..) • technical skills: depends • cognitive abilities: depends • personality (strengths eg. adaptability, “ f it”), Motivations, Values, Mindset
10. Does personality matter?
11. Personality, biases & culture matter
12. More perspectives
13. Startup Performance • Performance = team composition + team dynamics + outcomes of work • Team inputs • Diverse employees (diversity of thought, background, thinking styles etc.) with a shared passion • Adequate enough resources • Culture • Team processes • Monitor, manage, communicat • Interventions eg. con f lict resolution, workshops (eg. communications), goal setting, team building (cohesion/relationships), get sh** done!, etc.
14. Psychology of startup teams • Individual • Satisfaction, personal characteristics & preferences • Interpersonal • Communications • Team/group • Culture, trust, team performance • Organization • Culture Emotional rollercoaster (esp. founders)
15. Biases • they make recruitment harder • false positives + false negatives + costs $$$ • Similar-to-me bias • people perceive those similar to themselves more favorably eg. interviews (!) • Halo e ff ect (bias) • f irst impression of a person in f luences general perception of person on other dimensions eg. interviews (!) • Overcon f idence bias • subjective con f idence in one's own abilities eg. selecting/evaluating applicants correctly (!), ignoring feedback • Stereotypes.. • “women are bad at Y”, “men are bad at X”…
16. Culture 🥳 • Culture is “glue” that holds teams together in good/bad times • values in action, norms, habits, communication styles, mission, vision • Matters for high performance and talent • especially important in the knowledge economy (= tech startups) because you have little else to o ff er, shit tons to su ff er and muddle through to succeed… • Harder in remote — nature of it! • Culture f it matching happens at point of entry (hiring) and inside - see Net f lix • "Matching" = does he/she f it our team? Does company f it me?
17. read: "Net fl ix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility" v1: https://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 current version: https://jobs.net fl ix.com/culture
18. Adaptability • Super important in startups: adaptability/ f lexibility, learning aptitude • eg. early-stage important to: • adapt • get sh** done • wear multiple hats • Over time super important as company grows • adaptability = your employees grow with the company • or they leave if they're unable to adapt..
19. Interviews • Informal “chit-chats” - useless (often negative impact) • Unstructured interviews (v. weak) • Structured interviews, but: a) do you know how to do them? b) are you collecting & benchmarking data? c) how's data analyzed/used d) does every candidate get structured interviews? e) training on how to do it • You don’t need more than 3 interviews (incl. behavioral, technical), but you need other ways to ‘learn’ a person’s intangibles
20. • Yep • “Di ff erent skills… attitudes… culture… remote!” • Nope • the above is incorrect… meaning… • the process should be similar but what & who you’re looking for di ff ers a bit • you’re evaluating the same qualities eg. technical skills, soft skills, personality, culture f it, cognitive abilities, passion/drive/energy, motivations/values etc. • but you’re looking for di ff erent composition/ f it eg. vs a corporation Is startup hiring different?
21. What matters?
22. • Empathize with job-seekers • Job-seekers think “what’s in it for me?” (it = job), “I need a job”, “Is it a f it?”, “what are my prospects for growth/x/y/z… ” etc. • Inform, sell and attract to get the right applicants Job description #fail in 2017 Job: “10 yrs of blockchain tech development experience” 😂
23. Do you know well who you actually need? • Often: no 🙃 Warning
26. • Founder matching YC tool: https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder- matching • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/5C-tips-on-company-formation- and-fundraising • Growth team: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/59-how-to-set-up- hire-and-scale-a-growth-strategy-and-team Links
27. Hiring? Measuring your team? Use Gyfted for free @ gyfted.me/business twitter @kowalskr We help you hire for team culture f it