How to Build a Team that Scales

By Erin Robertson, People Consultant

Hiring your team is one of the most important processes you will undertake as a founder. Great employees can bring energy, focus, and excitement to moving business forward and unlock untapped potential leading to greater product market fit, revenue strategies, and ultimately a successful company that is appealing to investors and buyers. In contrast, hiring the wrong employees can take an otherwise viable business and drive it into the ground or leave tremendous potential unrealized.?

Founders should be proactively focused on team-building before they get to a Series A. Having the right team in place can be a huge asset when pitching to investors and can take a company from a founding team to a funded team.?

With this in mind, we assembled a panel of experts on June 4 in NYC who have lived through the good, the bad, and the ugly to share their unique perspectives on how high impact hiring can drive success for high-growth companies. Because the best information is that which is shared widely and can actually be applied, we're sharing key takeaways from the conversation with you and all of our network.

• Brie Kluytenaar, Partner at J&O Law - Be Proactive. When you see a potential problem, run towards it, not away from it. Hire a team of people you trust to delegate decisions to so that you are not trying to do it all.
• Rebecca Price, Partner at Primary Ventures - The job description of a CEO can be boiled down to MVP: Money, Vision, People. You need to make sure you have enough money in the bank (through capitalization and revenue), you need to clearly define, clarify and reinforce your vision, and you need to always be recruiting and re-recruiting talent. Start perfecting your skills in these areas to be a successful leader.
• Laura Wheeler, Co-Founder & COO at RVNU - It's never too early to align & document your Company Values.? This will be the north star of how you operate: decision-making, building your product and hiring the right people that will help you grow your business.??
• Mike Nesser, Head of Global New Business at Front - As a founder, when considering your first hire(s) - prioritize talent over skill. You will need agility, urgency, resilience, critical thinking, a growth mindset, curiosity etc. Those things are generally intrinsic. The right person can learn your industry or a particular skill that they may lack relative to your needs.?

My advice is to tap into fractional leadership options early. These folks can help provide strategic leadership in any vertical until you're ready to bring someone on full-time, long- term. There are so many options for fractional People leaders who have experience scaling teams and cultures and can support you every step of the way.?

Happy Hiring!?

Erin Robertson & The J&O Law Team

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