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How Can Startups Build Strong Teams?

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Founders execute their vision through their teams; thus, having a strong team is half the battle. Further, investors are interested not only interested in your products, traction, financial projections or competitors; they are also keen to see your team dynamics. 

Therefore, every startup founder should be concerned with the quality of its team instead of quantity. Thus they should recruit individuals who share their passion and drive. The article will highlight how founders can build a great startup team.

Choosing Co-founders

An entrepreneur should decide whether he will go alone or will need a co-founder. The biggest challenge that entrepreneurs experience here is finding the person that shares their passion.

One of the best ways of enlisting a co-founder is to seek a person with complementary skills sets, one who can keep you motivated and focused. More so, most iconic companies were established by a group of founders; thus, many investors are more likely to invest in companies with several founders.

These co-founders should spend a significant amount of time brainstorming on how they can overcome challenges. Therefore, being able to work together is one of the most important qualities of cofounders. Therefore, startup cofounders should consider their partnership like a marriage

partners

The Procedure for Selecting Co-founders

Identify Voids in the Business

Evaluate your business processes, procedures, human resource, IT, sales, marketing and finance units. Identify gaps that need to be addressed and how you can tackle them. One of the options of bridging these voids is by bringing an expert. This is a person who will complement your team’s skills and one who can mentor them.

Consider Your Network

The best place to find a potential partner is from your personal network. Partnering with someone you have worked with before is a good idea for you’re familiar with their work ethics, and there is mutual trust and respect between you.

Evaluate the Level of their Excitement, Passion and Commitment

Share your passion with the potential co-founder in order to establish something disruptive. This is because building a successful company requires years of dedication. You need to find some who will invest in your company the same way you are doing. An excellent example is Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are the co-founders of Google; they shared similar goals, and today it’s one of the topmost search engines.

Building a Successful Team

Your startup is likely to succeed now that you have the right co-founder. On the other hand, you need the right team to execute your vision. Therefore, the next step after finding a co-founder is to build a successful team that can manage different aspects of your company.

The following are steps of building a team.

Identify Gaps in your Skills: You need to isolate voids that you need the team fill and then identify the skill sets that they should have to meet your company’s needs.

Hiring the Team Members: Be specific when recruiting members of your team to hire the right candidate for the job. You can be picky at this moment because you want your business to succeed.

As ask them questions that can bring out their commitment and experience level as well as reveal whether they understand what it means to work in a startup. Further, their response will help you to determine whether they will fit in the startup culture, or they have the right tools for your business.

Tips for Building a Strong Team

Train them to Row in the Same Direction: Every person in this boat should be facing the same direction apart from the signal-caller who looks forward. The guide is the one who sets the course right; thus, he looks forward. On the other hand, rowing in the same direction should be evident in the way the company make decisions, the company culture and level of customer service. A company moving in the same direction should have a standardized way of doing things.

The Team’s Goal is to Win: Although each member of the team plays a different role, they should all be having the same goal. That means they should be able to cover each other since a startup has fewer employees. You should also have a means of measuring progress since mistakes are inevitable. This will help you to avoid wasting money and time as well as minimize the chances of failing as a business.

Encourage Collaboration between the Teammates: The leader should set direction but allow the team to execute the plan. The approach helps the leader to talk to his team and the members to talk to each other. Ensure that the people understand their roles for this help them get things done through collaboration.  

Define your Company’s Culture: The founders need to decide the kind of culture they want in their company. You can achieve this by defining the roles, responsibilities, right skills and abilities that are required for these positions. You should hire top talents or individuals smarter than you. Use your networks to attract such talents or attend seminars, conferences and tradeshows.

Adopt an Appropriate Leadership Style: like football businesses operate in an environment full of ambiguity and uncertainty. Thus you can’t hang on one style of leadership for your plan can be altered at any time due to changes in the economy. Therefore be flexible and adaptable to the real-time circumstances on the ground. These are qualities of a good coach and leader.

Conclusion

All great companies started with building successful teams at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. They made sure they have the right partners that share their passion and commitment as well as the best team players with appropriate skills and experience.

Further, the leaders continuously inspire the team to aim higher, move in the same direction and understand how their contribution affects the business.

Therefore building a strong team is a hard work that requires frequent adjustments. However, having a strong team is worthy of the efforts since all angel investors will consider your team dynamics before investing in your company. Further, the success of your business is in the hands of your team.

Kossi Adzo is the editor and author of Startup.info. He is software engineer. Innovation, Businesses and companies are his passion. He filled several patents in IT & Communication technologies. He manages the technical operations at Startup.info.

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