Ex-founders, the hidden talent of the startup world.

Being the problem solvers of the 21st century, startups have been impacting millions across the globe with their products and services. As HR advisors for the Indian tech startup ecosystem, we understand how the team is the most important factor for a business to flourish and create an impact on the market.?

As a founder of an early-stage startup, you want team members who bring on the right skills set on board based on their competency skills but are also behaviorally inclined with the true essence of the startup. Someone who understands the mission vision of the company and is in sync with the growth of the company as much as the founders themselves. People who have been hustlers and understand how to keep themselves structured in case of an emergency. Within the past few years, we have seen a cultural shift within the hiring practices, where founders are inclined toward hiring Ex-entrepreneurs.??

What makes Ex-Founders such a great hire for new-age startups??

Courage: As empiricists, founders constantly run experiments and test ideas against their products or service offerings. They have the innate ability to place their bets and take risks to follow their dreams while serving a purpose and solving a real-world problem for consumers. Ex-founders have the courage and capabilities to turn your vision into reality.

Excellent Leaders: Every founder hires for two types of roles- Contributors and Leaders. While the contributors are responsible for carrying out various phases of the strategy along with specific talents, leaders dive into larger issues by constructing those strategies. Ex-founders tend to be excellent leaders since they come with the experience of building businesses from scratch.?

Unconventional Thought Process: The entrepreneurial world provides opportunities to jump into unknown territories, the best we can do is to learn from our mistakes and excel. A traditionally trained manager uses similar prescribed approaches while devising strategies, whereas the entrepreneurial bent within ex-founders will make them think outside the box making your startup stand out from the crowd.?

Determination & Grit: A startup founder gets hardwired with determination, grit, tenacity and the process to grow. Having an ex-founder leader in your team can help in keeping your team motivated to move forward towards the vision. Their determination to solve the problem enables them to break through the conventional methods and look at the resolution from a whole new perspective.

Fast-paced work ethic: Ex-founders come with the past experience of running a company with skills to excel in certain roles that require quick decision-making. Their ability to analyze risk situations enables them to act faster with limited data and resources.??

As per the early-stage startup founders, one of the most critical challenges is to source builders like themselves. Even for the ex-founders, it is frustrating to land the right job as the normal sourcing process does not cater to the needs of an ex-founder who wants to step into the startup world in a full-time capacity. Career consultants often overlook the kind of expertise and skill set that an ex-founder can bring on board. It does not matter whether the startup was successful or has shut down operations, founders bring along a set of learnings with them that can help your company in a certain way. While the former can bring with them a success story of scale and traction, the latter knows what could have been done differently for better results and can help you avoid similar mistakes in your startup.

How can you hire such leaders for your team?

At Passion Connect, we noticed this was a gap that needed to be bridged. We have now restructured the entire hiring process for ex-founders. We bring and connect like-minded founders from the startup fraternity and provide a platform for them to share their journey and be a part of building India's next-age Unicorns. We started with the ex-Founders' Initiative in 2019 and have had an overwhelming response from the community since. We have successfully helped companies like Unacademy, Dunzo, Servify, Exotel, Apnaklub, Idfy and so many more across the B2B & the B2C space in hiring ex-founder leaders who are at key positions within these companies today.?

-Ayushi Verma, Senior Associate Acquisitions and Acquihires at Passion Connect.