The three most common reasons startups fail are having the wrong product, running out of capital and having the wrong team. So, how do you attract, build, and expand your team as a startup? How do you keep them engaged, creative, and focused on tasks? How do you keep them from leaving for greener pastures? How do you structure a team to succeed while the startup grows? 

These are the considerations of the founder - the most important decision a founding team makes is who will be the team that executes the vision and mission of the founder. It is important that the team have just as much ownership of the journey as the founders. A well constituted team is critical as there are no grey areas in building and expanding a team at a startup. 

Building a recruitment process that includes your “why” is critical to attracting the right talent. Every organization, regardless of size, understands the idea that attracting and retaining talented individuals is critical to the success of an organization. A startup, however, brings up the “criticalness” factor to a whole new level. A wrong hire can and does set back the progress of a startup in a way that can derail to outright kill a startup. 

For example, a startup set out to hire a director of sales after identifying the position as a key role to fill in the company. The founders had built a robust SaaS platform in the fintech industry, and the startup had secured a significant capital injection and was ready to expand and grow. They worked to create a founding team that was committed and was full of drive to succeed - they had built a culture where engagement was high, creativity was fostered and employees were encouraged to focus on details and champion outcomes. The team was well-synced. After several rounds of interviews, they settled on a hire. 

This hire had been director of sales at several fortune 500 companies and worked as a consultant in the financial services industry. With a stellar reputation in the market, an offer was extended and accepted.  Unfortunately, it turns out, the hire was not a fit. They did not understand the unique nature of a startup. They did not appreciate the culture that had been built and in fact wanted to dismantle it and replace it with a more top-down approach. The result was delayed growth. The carefully constructed reputation and sizable sales pipeline evaporated. The investors began to doubt the viability of their investment and within a year the startup shut down. Hire to culture is key, hiring the right fit is critical when contemplating growing your team.   

Keep your team from moving to greener pastures. Once growth momentum starts, it becomes critical that your key hires stay. It is often the case that highly talented employees at growing startups get scoped up as they’re lured by higher salaries, job promotion opportunities, and perceived view that things are better on the other side of the hedge. Build a culture that is inclusive, gives them the opportunity to be stakeholders. One of the commonly used tools is “options”, as in stock options. These tools help but what is important is culture. Culture trumps salary. Focus on building a culture that fits your startups and personality (DNA) of your growing team. Know that your culture will evolve but with an important foundation of inclusivity, open communication and empowerment will go a long way in retaining your employees. 

In another example, a startup in Cyber Security wanted to build a culture of inclusivity. They knew that hiring and retaining key employees was important for their both short term and long-term success. They made a deliberate attempt to build a culture that empowered their employees to speak up in team meetings, make suggestions and be given the freedom to implement the suggested changes. This alone built a team where employees felt and acted as owners. Their success accelerated where they were able to rapidly grow. 

Building process and structure while expanding your team will ensure your growing team is onboarded efficiently and are given the opportunity to “hit the ground running”. An often-overlooked detail - once you’ve begun hiring a new team - is the process in which you integrate them into their roles. Fast growing startups often overlook this process as they’re in hyper growth mode. 

Another example was a startup in the robotics industry. They experienced the growing pains of receiving investor capital and new clients. This technology company comprised a small founding team and a few contractors. With the influx of capital and new customers, they needed to hire quickly. They had 20 open roles and began to bring them in as fast as they could. Many of the new hires were experienced software developers who were lured from “bit tech” firms. Upon accepting an offer, they were given a laptop and log-in credentials to the developer portal and were scheduled to attend meetings with the product management team and the leadership team. As exciting as it felt by being thrown into your role quickly, many were unaccustomed to the unstructured nature of their new environment. As talented as the new team was, it took them months to integrate into their roles. Those delays cost money, time and general morale. Having a structured onboarding process (even in a fast-moving startup) can and does go a long way to ensure your team actually hits the ground running. 

Building and expanding your team the right way is essential in the short term and long-term success of your company. There are many books written about the right way to do it, but the key is to be deliberate.  Think about who you want to hire, the culture they’re coming into and once hired how they onboard correctly to ensure they make an immediate impact.

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