how to grow and scale your startup team

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How to Grow and Scale Your Startup Team

This presentation consists of insights inspired by 33voices® interviews with Jenna Abdou.

Table of Contents

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Lead by Example to Empower Your Team, Squad

Surround Yourself with an Internally Driven Team, CommonBond

Make Ownership a Reality, Founder Collective

What to Expect When Your Company Hits 100 Team Members, Work Market

Evolve Your Culture. Don’t Maintain It., Grovo

Credits

Adam Liebman

@getsquadapp

Founder and CEO of Squad

Lead by Example to Empower Your Team

@Adamliebman

“You can’t motivate people. You can only create an environment

where a motivated person can succeed. Martin Luther King Jr. said ‘I have a

dream,’ not ‘I have a plan.’”

Start each day by asking: How quickly can we prove or disprove

our hypothesis? And if it’s wrong, what are the next 25 hypotheses that we want to test?”

Be honest about the realities of “falling fast and often.”

Be honest about the realities of “falling fast and often.”

“I have never been wrong so much…I’m wrong all the time, and that’s okay. I’m a huge fan of making mistakes…As long as you don’t make

the same mistakes twice.”

Develop A Players by making it clear that your team members are “at cause, not effect.”

Develop A Players by making it clear that your team members are “at cause, not effect.”

“You can manipulate the way your brain works and processes external stimuli.

We are the people who get to decide exactly what happens to us.”

When you hire individuals who default to this type of thinking your team will “operate at the intersection of hard work, mental investment,

and a positive attitude. That’s where the perfect harmony of the team comes together.”

Always prioritize one-on-one’s with your team. This is especially important for new hires. Help each new team member map out a plan where he or she can experience small achievements

early in their career. Consider the goals as “bright lights in short tunnels.”

David Klein

@CommonBond

Co-founder and CEO of CommonBond

Surround Yourself with an Internally Driven Team

@DavidXKlein

“When you grow on the people side you have to be very conscious of the culture.

What you’re doing is building infrastructure to last throughout the organization.”

Prioritize these four traits in new hires:

Prioritize these four traits in new hires: Strategic Acumen: Leaders with strong business judgment who can individually

navigate a problem.

Prioritize these four traits in new hires:Ability to Execute: Initiators who

consistently do great work.

Prioritize these four traits in new hires:Internal Drive: “External validation can dry up very quickly. All of us need to find a renewable

source of internal energy so if and when external validation dries up there’s a fire

inside that keeps pushing us.”

Prioritize these four traits in new hires:Character: Make it a top priority to work with

authentic and mission-driven individuals.

Once on board, use these three criteria to measure contribution.

Once on board, use these three criteria to measure contribution.

Positive and Productive Attitude: “This is an intense environment, as many startups are. A good attitude can be the

difference between greasing the wheels to solve a problem or not being able to do it.”

Once on board, use these three criteria to measure contribution.

Real Ownership: “We want people to identify gaps in the

organization and then step up and into those gaps. We need everyone to act like

owners in this business.”

Once on board, use these three criteria to measure contribution.

Meaningful Results: Team members who produce great work,

consistently, over time.

Prioritize execution, not titles.

“The benefits of working at an emerging growth company mean that

increased growth and responsibility doesn’t have to come with a title. It can literally be

taking on more responsibility in your daily job. We really play down titles. What we are doing here is about the product and service. If we

win in the space or become a winner, everyone wins.”

Micah Rosenbloom

@fcollective

Managing Partner at Founder Collective

Make Ownership a Reality

@micahjay1

“Every dollar spent is a dollar of dilution.” - Eric Paley, Managing Partner

at Founder Collective

Encourage team members to approach each decision considering the impact it will make on the company’s burn rate.

The difference between managing a budget at a large corporation and at a startup is that at a startup, you have to

determine how to make it happen.

The difference between managing a budget at a large corporation and at a startup is that at a startup, you have to

determine how to make it happen. “You have to raise more or you’re burning

what you have. You’re all diluting.”

Make it clear that: “The less we spend, the more of this company we own. The more we

own, the more we’ll all have at the end.”

Jeff Wald

@JeffreyWald

Co-founder and President of Work Market

What to Expect When Your Company Hits 100

Team Members

@WorkMarket

“The overwhelming thought I have is: ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people who’s livelihood

depend on decisions I make.’”

Delegation Is Not an Option.

Delegation Is Not an Option.

Despite wanting to contribute to each decision made at your company “there are certain

things you have to give up and have confidence in your team.”

An inability to delegate will stifle your entire organization’s success.

Delegation Is Not an Option.

“It becomes a question of how to allocate your resources to the area where they are going to

add the most value to the company.”

Delegation Is Not an Option.

“As the company gets bigger my time is more valuable if spent in front of a customer, a recruit,

or an investor, not sitting in my office for two days working on a budget. Other people

can do it incredibly well and in some cases better than I can.”

Find a True Mentor.

Find a True Mentor.

Despite possessing genuine intentions your investors and team

members have a monetary interest in your company succeeding. Find someone who

has a clear distinction between your success and the company’s success.

Find a True Mentor.

“I always thought that my only goal was Work Market’s goal. The reality is that there is a divergence of the two…You can’t scale what you were doing the first two years -

Waking up at 2 and 3 in the morning and impacting relationships - to

the detriment of your health.”

Find a True Mentor.

Jeff on the value of working with hisprofessional coach Jonathan Shapiro:

“I can’t explain how immeasurably I have benefitted as a manager and professional

because of his guidance. I’m at a point where I won’t make a decision until I talk to him.”

Evolve Your Culture. Don’t Maintain It.

Jeff Fernandez

@Grovo

Co-founder and CEO of Grovo

@jefernan

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Start with a highly detailed job description that you develop with your team and advisors.

Outside advice is especially beneficial when hiring outside of your expertise.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

“Recruit and enlist the support of folks and mentors that you trust who can help you gain a point of view on the status quo, what’s missing, and what you’re likely to see in a candidate.”

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

“Given all of that, ask: What should I be thinking about in a candidate? When forced to choose,

should we prioritize A and B, over C?”

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Use these conversations to create an ideal candidate matrix (your job description) and scorecard before beginning your search.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

If you only remember one thing hiring:

Be deliberate. Don’t settle.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

“You really need be deliberate about what you are looking for and the

functionally for that particular role.

It’s 80% functional, and 20% composition of the executive team.”

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

What do you need this person to contribute

to the others?

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Start the interview process with a brief phone conversation where you

ask functional and humanistic questions to get to know a candidate.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Next, bring a candidate into the office where they can meet and interact with members on the management team as well as individuals

who will work in their functional unit.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

Take your candidate to dinner, it’s best to bring a board member, to gain deeper

insight into his or her aptitude.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

The number of meetings and settings are intentional for you and your candidate “to observe and be

observed” in different environments.

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

“Take a deliberate approach so you can have your points of calibration.”

Grovo’s Framework for Hiring Senior Executives

The last step is a final evaluation of how an individual’s experiences compare

to your ideal candidate matrices and scorecard. The right match leadsto a formal dinner and an offer.

How to Develop the Next Phase of Your Culture

How to Develop the Next Phase of Your Culture

“You’re not looking to maintain your culture. You can never maintain your culture. It’s an impossibility. What you’re looking to do is

intentionally evolve your culture.”

How to Develop the Next Phase of Your Culture

18 - 24 months out, ask these questions: • Where do we want our culture to be?

• What works well now? • What are some areas that we need

to refine or totally remove?

How to Develop the Next Phase of Your Culture

“The idea is that you evolve it as you go. The more deliberate and transparent you can be,

the more camaraderie the organization will feel relating to changes as they are happening.”

How to Develop the Next Phase of Your Culture

“If we are trying to maintain our culture, I feel like we are losing. If we are trying to evolve,

it feels progressive and exciting.”

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Presentation by Chase Jennings

Insights by Jenna Abdou