Starting a business, people usually think that a great idea is the key to success and nothing else matters. However, the right startup team is vital to your company’s future. Without it, even the best idea wouldn’t survive.
The necessary startup team roles
Launching a startup is not a trifle. First of all, you need to understand what the main startup team roles are or how to build your startup team. Here’s a short list of positions:
- PR,
- Developers,
- Fundraisers,
- Lawyers,
- HR.
Depending on the company specifics, the list could be shorter or longer.
What are the roles of the key positions in the team?
Now we’re going to understand why these positions are so important to make a top tech team for your startup.
The importance of PR
PR is the crucial element of your team. Why? Because no spin of your product or technology means that you will sell nothing. Even though your product is the most necessary thing in the modern world. PR responsible members of your team will promote your startup through social media, mass media and so on.
Why do we need developers?
We already understood that we need to promote our startup in order to get money. But what else do we need? Obviously, the product itself. Experienced developers ensure your future product’s stability, smooth performance and great functionality. No developers = no product = no money. Looking for certain rare tech experts or cheaper solutions, startup owners often come to the outsourcing option as the best way to find the developers you need.
Read also: How to Choose Outsourcing Contract Type
The role of fundraisers
Fundraiser is the best option if you don’t have couple of thousand dollars and you cannot hope on crowdfunding. Additionally, you will need to hire \ lawyers when it will come to paying taxes, register your business and so on. To be brief, lawyer will let you do business instead of litigating.
What do HR do?
HR is a person who should motivate all the described above to their job and to do it well. At first you can play the role of an HR manager yourself until your team becomes too large.
How to find startup team members
As we already know the key positions of our team, we need to recruit the suitable people for our vacancies. This process isn’t less important than the previous one since even the greatest structure couldn’t be effective with not suitable people in it. So, the question “How to find startup team members” should be one of the most important for you.
Why your first assignments are the most important
First and foremost, here you need to understand that these people will be your co-founders and will become administrators of different department. You need to have a common vision of your startup: what you will produce, what you want to achieve and more. This is the second reason, why you have to work with HR at the very beginning of your startup. You need to find people who will make this or that part of work according to your vision.
What do you need to know about your future co-founders?
Of course, you need to hire people with knowledge (experience) in the sphere they will work in and deep motivation to develop your ideas.
It means that during an interview, you need to figure out the candidate’s personal qualities, attitude to work, their plans for professional development, what they seek in career at the moment, which factors are important in their workplace. These things will help you get to know the person better and get an understanding of what to expect from them. Secondly, it is important to check the candidate’s professional experience and knowledge. At this point, you might need to get recommendation or hire an expert in the field to conduct a technical interview for you.
So, your startup team members should:
- Have common values and vision;
- Have the necessary knowledge (experience);
- Can become your closest friend (or at least, a person you can trust).
Founding a team
Let’s suppose that you already know everything written above. Then you need to learn how to hire startup team. It is very important, because building a tech startup team is not peanuts. You need to use your vision in order to share it with a potential team member. If you don’t understand how your technology should look like or what exactly it should do, nobody would probably join your team. To inspire others, it is important to firmly believe in your idea.
Then you need to be an HR Manager in order to persuade your wishful candidate, and find out unique reasons which could make them join your project. Of course, you need to have a lot of patience, since mostly you are going to hear the same questions time after time.
Is that all you need?
Definitely, no. Hiring specialists still doesn’t mean full success for startup. You need to keep in mind dozens of details. For example, you need to be ready to resolve any conflict that will appear in its very beginning. Why is it so important? In a small team each conflict could become a ticking bomb ready to explode in the most unsuitable moment.
Additionally, you may face a situation when a team member wishes to leave your startup. Be ready to find replacement for even the most important person in the team. Here is a list of popular reasons for leaving a startup team:
- Wish to earn (more) money;
- Offer of a better job;
- Lack of motivation;
- Lack of common vision;
- Conflicts inside the team, lack of teambuilding.
Steve Jobs once said: “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people”. So, build your team wisely and your success will be just a matter of time.