CoNotes

How to pick startup members

Posted on August 24, 2008 0 Comments

Jeremy Liew at LSVP just wrote a great post titled, “How to interview key hires.” To summarize, he said that companies need to evaluate three high-level criteria of candidates:

1. Technical Skills – Can they do the job?

2. Cultural Fit – Will they work well with the other team members?

3. Performance Skills – Do they have the intangibles that startup members need to have?

I would agree that these are the three main areas that a candidate needs to match to become a hire. However Jeremy didn’t really touch upon the specific position that a company should hire for. In startups, each hire makes a huge difference to the company, and figuring out the proper hiring needs is critical. I would think about the hiring needs of a company much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The next hire for a company is like the next piece of the puzzle. The hire should be complementary to existing pieces, and should be timed correctly for continued growth. Therefore, startups should focus on two main elements in determining its hiring needs:

1. Complementary skills and personalities

2. Upcoming milestones and priorities

Complementary skills and personalities

A company needs to make sure each hire is complementary to existing talent. A hire should add a missing component to a startup, and bring something new to the table. Especially in the very early stages, overloading on skills in the same areas is costly. Therefore a startup that began with 3 developers will probably want to seek out a more “business” focused person that can manage the non-technical issues of the company. In addition, a startup needs to balance the internal-focused and external-focused team members. The CEO is often the primary external-facing employee of a company, while the COO is the primary internal-facing employee. Product development and sales are also two complementary-type roles. A startup needs to ensure it has a balance of team members that can handle all the internal and external responsibilities that it faces. Yet, I am not suggesting a wall between internal and external-focused team members. The best companies cross-pollinate between these roles.

One of the best companies at team building is IDEO, so I also want to direct you to the complementary personality roles Tom Kelley of IDEO has defined in his book, “The Ten Faces of Innovation.” Kelley has broken down ten different personalities that are summarized on the book’s website: http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm. In addition to complementary skill sets, companies need to have complementary personalities. A company filled with Type-A personalities is just as likely to have issues as a company filled with passive personalities.

Upcoming milestones and priorities

A company needs to ensure hires match the timing of company milestones and priorities. A startup is constantly evolving, and its goals evolve as well. For example, product development and marketing are usually the primary focus at a startup’s early stages. Yet once the company matures a little, revenue growth and sustainability come into play. Mistiming a hire is costly in terms of time, effort, and money. Therefore, startups need to look at what milestones must be addressed in the next 12-18 months and where they are currently deficient in talent. The capabilities of the team need to match with the needs of the company. It’s a bit like paving the road that you are driving on (a tricky task indeed), but most startups will tell you that hiring is the most difficult issue for them to manage. As a tip, I would also suggest that startups budget in 3 months to find a hire, and another month to bring that new hire up to speed.

In the end, every startup will have its hiring hiccups — whether it’s hiring the wrong person or adding a position at the wrong time. But the key is to identify those mistakes and correct them as soon as possible.