The Most Important Element of A Startup – The Team
I have compared the first year of running a solo operation to the last few months of running things with a team, and let me tell you, having a solid team is definitely essential for any successful startup.
One of the hardest things that any entrepreneur will have to face is building the team. Finding the right people to be a part of your startup isn’t an easy task. It took me years to find the right niche to explore, then a few more years to begin finding the right people to be a part of the startup.
How have things changed from being solo to having a team?
- Ideas that were good, become great when more minds are working on them
- Having people to keep you from becoming too grandiose or passionate about something
- Being able to have people by your side for extreme brainstorming sessions — priceless
- Synergy: exponential brainpower!
Human Capital Trumps Ideas
When I think of a startup team, I think of “Human Capital.” Human Capital is all about mind power; what people can bring to the table with their intellect, insights, and ideas. That’s the real value in having a team.
You can have a poor product, but with the right team anything is possible. When you have a group of people working together on a project, magical things can happen.
It’s a cliché, but two minds really are better than one.
Never Stop Searching
If you’re serious about your service/product, then you should never stop looking for the killer team to complete your startup. Seriously, never stop searching no matter how tedious, hard, and aggravating it may become. It’ll be worth it!
“A great team is a team that will always beat a mediocre team, given the same market and product.”
–Tim Shephard
3 Comments
lawrence
September 4th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
that’s right…
VC’s for example, invest in people/teams first - than it’s ideas.
you could be a joe nobody presenting a myspace or youtube idea back in ‘02, for example - and not get any funding.
or you could be a team of 2-3 from a good business school presenting an idea of selling dog toys online and get good funding.
Jay Hamilton-Roth
September 5th, 2007 at 9:22 am
I can’t think of any great companies that were started by a single individual - it took a team to get the idea to become a success.
David Askaripour
September 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Hey guys, thanks for the comments!
Lawrence, yup. VC’s care so, so, so much about the team — rightly so! That’s how funding deals are closed.
Jay, I’m not sure if I can either!
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