#5 Easy Ways To Build a Winning Team for Your Start-up
By: Megan Phoenix
Tags: Recruitment, Hiring, Startup, Entrepreneurship

At TwinklHive, we believe that innovative and mission-focused entrepreneurs should be given a platform to succeed. By investing in like-minded entrepreneurs, we provide tangible support that will help turn their ideas into opportunities for success.

“Nothing is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not strategies.” — Lawrence Bossidy, CEO AlliedSignal.

Expanding your team and hiring new people is crucial for any organisation, but for start-ups the recruitment process is particularly key.

In a team of around 4 or 5 employees, just one new hire can have a significant impact on the company’s overall success and development. Any new employee will fundamentally change your company’s DNA, which makes hiring a large risk.

This is why many start-up founders and entrepreneurs stay within their network when hiring the first few members of their team. This makes them feel confident that they are getting the right people for the job, with the correct skills and expertise.

Yet there comes a time when this no longer works and they must look at hiring people they don’t directly know. For many start-ups, this stage is daunting — particularly for first-time founders or those who haven’t been involved in the hiring process before.

However, done correctly, growing your start-up team beyond its founding members can be an exciting and rewarding milestone. It can bring the fresh skills and experience needed to really drive your product forward.

At TwinklHive we understand that getting it right often makes or breaks start-ups. So, what can you do to ensure that you take a strategic approach to hiring and that the people you hire are the right fit for your start-up, now and several years down the line?

1. Choose the first 10 people carefully

When you’re an early-stage company, the people hired during the initial expansion stages will determine those who follow and will play a critical role in the long term success of your business.

This said, finding great employees can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack — where should I begin and what should I be looking for?

If you’re asking yourself these questions, it’s essential that you start by identifying the top priorities for your new hire. Try honing in on the business problem that you’re attempting to solve and the skills gap that you’re trying to fill, paying particular attention to the role the new team member will play in the growing company.

By outlining a list of specific skills your start-up needs, you will be able to streamline your search process as well as better understand the type of employees that you want to find.

2. Hire an attitude, not just experience and qualification

Another important element to consider is energy versus experience. Whilst there’s no easy answer to whether it’s better to hire an experienced candidate, or one less qualified but with a hunger to learn, it’s an important question to examine.

It’s easy to assume that the most qualified candidate is your best option, however, attitude can be just as integral within a start-up where new hires must mesh into a small, budding team and culture. Developing skills can be easy enough, yet developing the correct attitude and personality to thrive in a start-up environment is far more challenging. In an early-stage company, skills are just one element of a complex puzzle of needs — culture fit and mindset are absolutely critical.

That said, your answer is likely to be driven by a multitude of factors such as budget, company culture, the role you’re recruiting for and the capabilities of your existing team.

3. Look for adaptability

The rapid rate of change within a start-up environment may not be the right place for someone who craves stability, predictable procedures and a long-term plan.

To succeed in a fast-paced organisation, hires need to be adaptable individuals — people that are flexible enough to take on diverse responsibilities and who will thrive off the unpredictability that comes with being a part of an early-stage company.

This sudden and erratic change can also mean encountering short bursts of, occasionally unforeseen, development that can put significant pressure on an employee’s skill set. An individual who was an expert in their area may suddenly find that their skills are now somewhat obsolete.

For this reason, it’s crucial to ensure that your new hires crave variety, welcome high levels of collaboration and have that start-up mindset.

4. …and a proven hunger to succeed

New hires also need to be resilient, persistent and passionate about the concept you are developing. Your team will contribute many of the ideas that help to grow your start-up, so it’s important to choose individuals who have great ideas and aren’t afraid to share them.

For any company, a bad hire can have negative consequences, but for a start-up they can cause serious and expensive problems, especially in terms of motivation and collaboration amongst the team.

It’s critical that during the interview stage you probe the candidate’s drive and how well suited they might be within your company’s culture, ethos and vision.

You can do this by asking them to describe the work environment in which they are most productive and happy, or the management style that will bring forth their best work and efforts. This will allow you to assess whether the prospective employee is a suitable match within your company culture.

5. Hiring is not a perfect science

All being said, hiring certainly isn’t an exact science.

When recruiting, you have to make quick decisions and are undoubtedly going to form assumptions of those you meet. For this reason, it’s inevitable that you’ll face a number of challenges along the way.

You should always pick your non-negotiables in a candidate first and then expect to adapt in order to make things work. Even candidates with all the non-negotiable traits are likely to have some that are less than ideal — but, don’t we all?

So, be prepared to invest in your new employee and provide everything they need to adapt to your business. If issues arise, make sure to address them as quickly as possible — find out why it has happened and explore what can be put in place to make it right.

Hiring is a two-way conversation; providing help and clear expectations from the start will ensure your new team members are able to meet you in the middle. Not only will this make them feel more comfortable with their new positions, but it will also mitigate any issues that may occur further down the road.

So, to conclude…

Building a successful start-up team is hard — it’s certainly one of the most pressing considerations for many startup founders. But investing time in building a great team is a prerequisite for ensuring the success of your company. A collaborative, motivated and passionate team will help drive forward your product and create long term impact for your customers.

If you’d like to learn more about TwinklHive and our offering to start-ups, get in touch at hive@twinkl.co.uk or visit our landing page!