One You is Enough. About Teaming Up.

What is a team? What is a “winning team”? Do I need one? How do I build one?

“The most important ingredient for a successful venture is a winning team” – everybody says that. Endless articles, books and blogs were written about it. But still, when you come up with “the idea”, teaming up is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind, but rather how to win as much fame and recognition (and money) as possible with as little sharing as possible. It’s your idea, so why share?

Think of a basketball player. A really good one. He comes to you, the investor, and says “I’m going to win the NBA playoffs by myself”. Even if he runs a demo for you, and you discover a very talented player, will you be investing in him? If he were Michael Jordan, then maybe, but still only with the condition that he forms a strong team.

The problem? We all think our idea is a “Michael Jordan”, and that after the money comes, the strongest team will join as an executive team which will then be very good in finding employees.

Newsflash! You don’t win with a Michael Jordan idea, you win with a Michael Jordan business. The chances of succeeding with a startup are already very low, so why make it impossible? Just as you don’t let time developing your idea, don’t let it hire your team. Put on your human skills belt, and go find yourself a team.

My own lessons on building a team. In future posts I’ll write what I’ve learnt about managing a team. Feel free to add yours:

1. There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is an ‘I’ in teaming. Make sure you’re going to be happy within the team you build.
2. Don’t search for another you. One you is enough.
3. Think what kind of people you need. To do that, think of your venture as the customer, the investor and the business partner, not as the founder, and build the team structure from scratch. Only then put yourself in it. Now find the others.
4. Write a SWOT analysis on yourself. This is crucial.
5. Don’t go too far – unless you’re a financial services venture, you probably don’t need a CFO right now. Director of Asia operations may be too early as well.
6. Give your candidates only the 30 seconds pitch. If they don’t fall in love at that moment and see the beauty of your idea – don’t take them.
7. Don’t be cheap on equity: it’s better to take a smaller piece of a bigger pie than keeping your piece the largest of a smaller pie.
8. Make sure all the expectations are on the table. You’re going to practically get married, in marriage where the divorce is the hardest.
9. Make sure your vision is clear and that your candidates relate to it.
10. Don’t get family and important friends on board. It can make ‘divorce’ even harder and more painful.
11. These people are going to put their trust in you. If you’re not positively absolutely sure it’s the right person, do you both a favor and don’t take them on board.

And last, always remember that, like in marriage, you’ll have to compromise. Just make sure your compromises come hand in hand with your business and yourself.