Building winning teams in Startups

Early this month, I was invited to speak at an event 'YourStory - NetApp B2B Startup Accelerator' on How to build high growth teams in startups.

MadhurimaAgarwal from NetApp explained the concept and evaluation process of the NetApp journey. Vaibhav Agarwal from Lightspeed spoke on how VCs look at Startups and what triggers them to invest into some of these. Shantanu Mathur from Knowlarity spoke on what it takes to build a #startup from scratch.

While building winning teams is a humongous and tedious task, it is an extremely enjoyable process. I have shared a mantra of 5 points to build winning teams in Startups.

1. The founding team - Who shares your dream
2. Candidate experience and Employee experience
3. Connect
4. Growth path
5. Culture

The Founding Team are bunch of people for whom your idea/startup means what it means to you. This basically means they share your vision with you. They live, eat and breath your idea. They are your flag bearers and your curtain holders. They will sail your boat through all the storms. Never loose these gems.

Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people. - Steve Jobs

Candidate experience and Employee experience are most underrated in any startup. One candidate treated in the right way will pave roads for future talent of your startup. The branding exercise of a new venture entirely depends on word of mouth and #Glassdoor reviews. While the financial recognition will be met for an individual, the social recognition, which is more important in India - in terms of where one works, can be compensated by treating the employee in a way that s/he feels as if it's nothing but his extended family and s/he is working in a highly productive zone.

You hire great people the same way you create a great user experience for any product or piece of software.

Connect is the most important attribute to achieve the desired results. Generally the culture of all the #Startups is highly demanding and the work is fast paced. Such situation leads to stress and as a founder it becomes vital for you to connect with each individual. While the number goes on the higher side, work and other priorities pulls you in a whirpool of events, a culture when one can instantly reach out to you is a must.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. -Henry Ford

Growth Path for every employee becomes important after 2-3 years. No matter how small the teams are, every individual who is putting in so much sweat and blood, seeks a career and aspires to grow. Clarity in emerging roles and teams along with alignment of existing talent with changing dynamics is crucial to keep the flag high. Also having the right mix of people is a must from the beginning. A highly diverse team, in terms of work experience, technical background, different geographical experience, is a must.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. - Benjamin Franklin

Last but not the least Culture starts from day one. How you see your organization 40 years down the line, is a choice you make in the very beginning. Setting very high standards of integrity, respect and excellence and walking the talk is vital. As a founder, you need to exhibit and set this culture in the beginning. Later on the precedence will be followed and it shall echo in every corner of your office and in reviews on Glassdoor.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Peter Drucker