2. REFLECTION ON TEAM BY TENURED VC
I am fond of quoting that about
70% of my investment decision of
an early-stage company is the
team. My rationale is simple:
everything goes wrong and only
great teams can respond to
competitors, markets, funding
environments, staff departures,
PR disasters and the like.
More…
Mark Suster.
2x entrepreneur
Sold Koral to Salesforce
Works at GRP partners (VC)
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
3. THE SKILLS YOU NEED
Define product
Investor relations
Customer support
Build product
Legal
arrangements
Error / bug handling
Sales meetings
Marketing
Accounting
Partnership
development
Design
PR, events
Testing
Hire, fire, manage
Quality assurance
Finance management
Share the roles based on your skills, experiences, motivations, etc
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
4. THE ART OF THE START - ROLES
Business
Hacker
Artist
Hippie
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
5. WHAT CAN YOU OFFER?
Salary
Legacy / vision
Challenging work
Options
Purpose
Titles
Shares
Flexibility
Exposure to people
/ meetings
Bonus
Fun environment
? – be creative
People have different motivators. Don’t get stuck in the traditional ‘hygene’
factors – ie, salary.
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
6. HOW TO FIND THEM?
Events, meetups,
conferences,
startupweekends
Other, local platforms,
ie Foundable
Friends of friends
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
7. ALWAYS PUT THINGS ON PAPER!
Responsibilities.
Define:
Describe role, ensure
expectations are
aligned.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
People with corporate
background, mngmt
consulting, etc:
BEWARE – THEY MAY BE
EXPECTING STHING ELSE
Salary
Benefits
Vacation
Hours
How to get in contact
Working mode
Notice period
Expenses (computer,
phone, lunches, travel, ..)
Candidate profile
Profile of the ideal
candidate.
Make a scoring of the
candidate against the
ideal candidate.
Take hiring serious.
Take hiring seriously. Hire slow, fire fast. Make sure to put things on paper from
the outset.
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
8. ‘A’ PEOPLE HIRE OTHER ‘A’ PEOPLE.
If you have good people on
the team, you don’t need to
manage them. They will do
the magic themselves.
Skill
High
Low
Will
Low
High
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
9. GET TO KNOW YOUR TEAM MEMBERS
Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013
