As a tech startup, Building your core team is THE one, most important, job to accomplish. Learn how it's done, avoid the most common pitfalls, and learn from others' mistakes.

1. FRANCOIS MAZOUDIER
CEO, TECH LEADERS CAPITAL

2. Excited… and kinda scared

3. FRANCOIS MAZOUDIER
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4. IN DIGITS

5. THE CEO CO-INVESTMENT CLUB
HIGH END, GLOBAL, ACTIVE NETWORK.
TECH LEADERS CAPITAL

6. Russell Reynolds
85% of the largest European Tech
companies are run by first time CEOs.

8. VUCA: your new world
 Most disruptive era ever
 rapid change everywhere
 Old rules – broken
 new rules - added
 Repeat
 Fast paced, risk taking and
Ever changing competitive
landscape

9. Most Startups Fail

10. 3things TO BE sure OF:

11. 1.

12. 2. One shot

13. 3.You need a KILLER team
BUT Why?

14. you’re Hiring :
3 teams not 1

15. Technology adoption cycle

17. Portfolio structure
3 stages, 3 companies, 3 teams
 The startup stage
 the scaling stage
 The Large Company stage

18. Portfolio structure
3 stages, 3 companies, 3 teams
 The startup stage
 the scaling stage
 The Large Company stage

19. Early stage
IDEATION STAGE
PMF STAGE
(product/market fit)
MVP stage (min viable
product)

20. What’s your “killer team”

25. Should certainly

28. Balanced set of
characters

30. spot the disastrous one early, else !

32. killer team - WHY

34. "What matters is not ideas, but the
people who have them. Good people
can fix bad ideas, but good ideas
can't save bad people.”
Paul Graham

35. 70% of OUR investment
decision is simple.
It’s the team Mark Suster – GP, UPFRONT Capital

37. 8 VERY costly
common mistakes

38. 8 common mistakes
1. No co-founder pre-nup
2. Hiring people like you
3. Not knowing exact role/s
4. Testing the skills, not the fit
5. Hiring at Speed instead of a+
6. overselling
7. Inflated titles early on
8. Not getting help

39. The team
Founding CEO

40. Co-founders

41. Co-founders
end up fighting

43. 2 Hiring people
like you

44. 3 No detailed
knowledge of roles

45. 4 TESTING SKILLS
not (team) FIT

47. 5 Speed vs a*

48. your first hires dictate Everything else.
A+ talent attracted by other A+
A talent hire B staff
B staff only hire C staff

49. 6
overselling

50. 7
Inflating job titles

51. 8 Not seeking help
from the pros

52. hiring - WHAT TO DO

53. HR interview tips
 Sell first, then Interview. Failed interviewees often your
best advocates.
 Exciting then formal
 Make it competitive
 Hire BOTH direct & use recruiters
 Do formal ref checks only for process, else keep to team fit
 ASOS culture first: anybody can block a hire (for the right,
cultural fit or reason!)
 Go out! Games, drinks and dinners, must be informal.

54.  Avoid the 8 common mistakes
 Hire a* only after PFM stage
 Start immediately, hire
slowly, fire quickly
 Use your f&F&F
 Actively use your network
 use friends’ LinkedIn
accounts
 Admit what you don't know
 Use professionals for the
first hires.
 Hustle ! You’re expected to
 Ask for favours (2.5 x rule)
 Offer (small) finders fee.
 iPad works better than $600 cash
prize
 "subject to“ contracts

55. About Company culture
LOTS OF CHOICES – but only one is yours.

56. Company culture
“ What people do when nobody’s
watching them “

69. Why a company culture
Without one, it’s just a job.
After product/tech, 2nd best investment
Only way to attract top talent from better
funded tech firms.
Best tool to keep core values as you grow larger
extra boost for all
 employee attitudes, job satisfaction and organizational commitment
 discretionary effort of up to 20%.
(source: Arizona state university - 2007-2011)
Because nobody can buy it or steal it from you !

70. cOMPANY CULTure
What do you want it to say?
Set your culture or others will do it for you.

71. never write it. just do it.

73. Values STATED
deliver best service
Embrace creativity and initiative
Most talented people
REALITY
failed in the bid to acquire
remaining 60% BSkyB
News of the World closed down.
Failure of accountability
Strong ethics problem
(phone hacking)

74. Values STATED
Our culture embraces
innovative and imaginative
thinking while striving for,
and achieving, excellence.
(1) Raise the Bar
(2) At the Frontier of
Innovation
(3) No Limits
REALITY
Autocratic , Old fashioned
Leadership
Crushing Innovation in employees
Poor quality product Releases
Stock price
Feb 7th 2011 $69.69
Dec 12th 2011 $16.21

75. Culture builder | your To do list
1. build a culture of accountability from day one
2. keep mouth closed and ears and eyes open
3. build understanding, trust, and credibility with new recruit in
the first three months on the job
4. over-promise and sets unrealistic expectations early on
5. Drive changes quickly, respect others’ business and culture
backgrounds
6. Complain to investors and board
7. focus, focus, focus on immediate opportunities and key metrics
8. too involved in execution – delegate
9. being CEO get means serving your team
10. No being self-aware, introspective – 360 reviews include you
11. No being too hard on people and set expectations too high

77. keep things simple

78. Profile it.

80. Building your culture
What you do
 Make your company clear
about its own.
 align people with clear
expectations of behaviour
 Match culture with talent
 build accountability and
high performance ethos
 Hire a*, show full support
and trust immediately
 Support failures - analyse.
wHat you need to do
 A Compelling Vision
 Transparency
 Shared Language
 Organizational Inclusion
 Development starting from
the top

81. CULTURE: I STRIVE TO BE
 Real. Don’t project any image, it masks true personality.
 Empathetic. Listen, trust, relate. A coach and advisor.
 Humble.
 Be direct.
 Be transparent. It’s your job to make sure people know what’s
happening--that means the good, the bad and the ugly.
 Never shoot the messenger.
 Make the hard decisions.
 Don’t state your culture, just do it.

82. SMART
 real numbers with real deadlines. No "I
want more visitors."
 Measurable or nothing. No buzz words e.g.
"brand engagement" or "social influence."
 Attainable – GOALS ARE challenging but
possible.
 Realistic - be honest with yourself, you
know you/R TEAM and limitations.
 Timebound – everything has a deadline. No
"someday."

83. Simple to-do list
 Get your team profiled. Only complementary hires.
 Set up your office space according to your values
 S.M.A.R.T everything
 Make decisions fast, even with limited data, then
course-correct
 Get outsiders to help, they want / like to.
 Celebrate micro-victories
 Get out of the office together

84. Celebrate micro-victories
 It’s a long way to a big victory
 Weekly updates, by category
 Kpi update by team/functio
 Open Fridays
 Lunch together
 Q&A
 Debate, poll, vote
 Celebrate reaching small milestones
 Invite your early adopters, make them part of the family

85. What worked for me
 Stand up meetings
 “Open mike” Friday lunches
 Share the data, especially the bad news
 Ask “ what would you do? ” often.
 Have the tough discussions early, ask for input
 Agree, then Set challenging goals
 Progressively give more control to people
 Have the team spend time on what it doesn’t know yet. People need
to learn new things to keep inspired.

86. Case study | Finland

87. Finland was Famous for…
 (Loooong) winters
 Snowstorms, Ice, snowstorms, ice.
repeat
 Vodka
 Sauna
 ice skates
 …ahem… virtual air-guitar

88. a New Culture in finland
low hierarchy
Transparency
freedom
Responsibility /
Accountability
be yourself, have fun.

89. SUMMARY

90. SUMMARY
1. Your new job: Chief people officer
2. Your company will hire 3 teams, not 1
3. Avoid the 8 most common hiring mistakes
4. First hires: A+ only, as they will hire most others
5. One chance only. Take your time.
6. Get help from pros.
7. Culture : don’t state it, live it out.
8. Try new things, break a few things.

92. HANDY TOOLS, TIPS & MORE
 FounderDating - premiere site for founders/co-founders
 CoFoundersLab - find a co-founder in any city
 YouNoodle - founder matching
 Stanford Business School Interns –Stanford interns are cheap
 Angel List – Angel List jobs board
 Startup Weekend - Launch a Startup and meet a co-founder
 FoundersHookUp - Invite-only find a co-founder
 Founder Strengths – Gallup Strengths Center
 PartnerUp- small business site to find partners, business opportunities,
real estate, etc.
 Meetup - go to a Meetup!
 How to hire developers - mike greenfield
 Foundrs - co-founder equity calculator
 Lance Laking, common sense on people management
 Netflix HR

93. disclaimer

94. disclaimer

95. “You look for three qualities:
integrity, intelligence and
energy.
The most important one is
integrity, because if they don't
have that, the other two
qualities are going to kill you.”
Warren Buffet

97. Great quote