This document provides advice on building an effective founding team for a startup. It discusses common reasons why startups fail, such as going it alone without a team. The key takeaways are to build a diverse team, figure out how team members will work together, and define clear roles and responsibilities. It also outlines the RACI model for assigning responsibilities and discusses how to make decisions, participate equitably, manage influence within the team, and work through conflicts. The document aims to help teams establish processes and norms to maximize their effectiveness.

1. MIT Entrepreneurship and
Maker Skills Integrator
How to build a winning team
Elaine Chen, Brian Yen
January, 2018

2. Why do startups fail?
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4. Example founding teams
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5. Takeaway #1: Don’t go it alone
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Source: Chan Chaiyochlarb, https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com HT @dharmesh

6. Take away #2: Solve for diversity
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Hustler
Hacker Hipster

7. Takeaway #3: Figure out how to work together!
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8. “A group of people working
together does not automatically
equal a team.”
– Linda Hill, Harvard Business School
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9. 6 Ingredients that makes an effective team
1. Clear roles and responsibilities
2. Clear working approach
3. Effective decision making process
4. Equitable participation from all members
5. Managing influence
6. Working through conflict
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10. The RACI model (a.k.a. what does everyone do?)
• R: Responsible
• A: Accountable (i.e. the project lead)
• C: Consulted
• I: Informed
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1. Clear roles and responsibilities

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12. There can be only one CEO.
• Decide how you will pick the CEO.
• Volunteer based? Elected?
• Idea premium? Experience premium?
• Other?
• Consciously define roles / responsibilities
• Write down and share your “job specs”
• Revisit periodically & adjust as needed
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13. 2. Clear working approach
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Things to decide up front:
• Logistics
• Project plan
• Division of labor
• Project management

14. 3. Effective decision making process
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• Is this a solo or group decision?
• If the latter: Who will facilitate the discussion?
• Points to ponder:
• Dictatorial approach versus groupthink
• Knee jerk decision making versus analysis paralysis
• The need for speed – and agreeing to disagree
Learn to agree to disagree

15. 4. Equitable participation
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• Who participates a lot? Why? To
what effect?
• Who doesn’t participate? Why not?
To what effect?
• Did anyone suddenly withdraw from
participation? Why?
• How do you treat the silent people?
• Are the interactions excluding
people?

16. 5. Managing Influence
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Questions to pose
• Who has influence? Why?
• Who is ignored? Why?
• Is the influence shifting? Why?
• Is there a division within the
team? Why?
• Who interrupts whom and is this
tolerated? Why?
• How does your team treat
minority views?

17. 6. Working through conflict
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Working through task conflict is good!
• People who agree all the time are
probably stuck in groupthink
• OR they may be cowed into becoming
yes-people
• OR they may be just lazy
Unhandled interpersonal conflict is bad!
• Why is it unhandled? Are you being
lazy? Are you hiding?
• Are you being passive aggressive?
• Are you being outright aggressive?
None of these states are
conducive to success

18. Some ideas to help manage conflict
• Define the rules of engagement. What behaviors are OK
and what’s not OK?
• Agree to disagree – then move on
• Have a mechanism to discuss issues privately
• Ground discussions on data, not opinions
• Consider multiple alternatives
• Be fair – empower members to contribute equally
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19. If things get funky, who will fix it?
• We are here to help – come see us any time privately or
in a group if you need to talk through things.
• BUT: Ultimately it is the responsibility of each and every
one of you to speak up (nicely!) when there is an issue,
and help the team work towards a solution.
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20. Resources
• Note on team process by Linda Hill and Maria Farkas - Harvard
Business Review https://hbr.org/product/note-on-team-
process/402032-PDF-ENG
• Effective Meetings: A Checklist for Success
https://hbr.org/product/effective-meeting-a-checklist-for-
success/C0103A-PDF-ENG

21. Questions?
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22. Imagecredit:istockphoto.com