Startup Hiring 101: Do It Right

Statistically, 90% of startups fail because they don't have the right team.

You’re not hiring to fill a job, you’re building a company. Do it right.

Start to hire as soon as you know that you need people and can afford them, even if it’s tight at first.

Founders should hire/fire the first 20 people themselves. Figuring out who those people should be, however, is easier said than done. The competition for talent in the startup ecosystem is intense. Startups are small businesses just getting started, with no established brand and reputation. This is why most resources founders will seek will tend to be suspicious and won’t trust them. Hence it becomes a very important task that cannot be outsourced at the seed stage.

Your team is the most important thing you’ll build. Do it right.

All entrepreneurs for their initial hires should be looking to build a team of self starters and hustlers. These people should be pseudo entrepreneurs who are ready to risk their stable job in the lieu for the wild success. They should search for candidates with an opinion, people who can honestly explain what they like and dislike. The kind of people who will align with the startup missions, values and visions. The best way to establish trust while doing the interview is to give them an opportunity to challenge the status quo and offer solution. It is said that motivation is another great indicator of a good hire. The potential resources join startups for the opportunity of accelerated growth in terms of titles, responsibilities, and mentorship. To help people who want to grow, attach personal meaning to what they do by helping them feel responsible for the startup success.

Hire for attitude, train for skills. Do it right.

In startup hiring, one shouldn't start with a function, but one should start to look out filling up a role with a set of tasks and attributes.

Personally I have seen founders in my 100+ startup portfolio, founders who have been able to quickly ramp up the right team are the ones who follow the below process of hiring as diligently as raising funds.

• Define the roles and responsibilities correctly, the problems looking to get solved. It sets the expectations right from the start.
• Make a compelling company vision for exclusively for hiring. Pitch in the first meeting and then check the interest of the resource on the vision alignment in the last meeting.
• Create an impactful job description on how valuable will be the contribution of the resource for the startup.
• Get the investors involved on the first signs of liking the resource and get it validated
• Make the hiring announcement public, talk about it on social media, interviews, website and whatsapp. Make it go viral.

The first team, are the people who will signal the startup ambition and set your platform for next hundreds of hires. Do it right.

I believe that you should always hire people are are looking to “punch above their weight class,” which means to hire people who want to be one league above where they are today. - Mark Suster

Make it clear that to a potential resource that it’s about the complete team and the startup long term goals vision, and not about only about “ the job in discussion”. Always pitch them on the idea of working with the team and being part of the big vision, not on the exact execution of things and their position in the company. Help them realize how their contribution to the startup and the job offer aligns. First 20 people should join not for the fancy title but for the relationship & emotionally aligned to the dream.

Startups are small businesses, but dreams are not small & nor the tasks team are required to perform. Do it right.

Everyone in the early team doubles up & wear multiple hats, and so on board people who are specialized but more importantly nimble and resourceful.

Startup resources are scarce. Taking care of the cash flow can be the biggest priority for a startup so do everything possible to keep things efficient for as long as possible. Founders should remain hungry and outsource non essentials tasks. As a rule of thumb, any role that is essential to your core business should be filled internally, while anything that is not essential can be outsourced. As the business grows, if required one may bring these additional services like accounting, legal, content writing, website development and so on in house. Contractual hires and remote employees are also other viable options to keep overheads low as you begin to scale up and take off. 

Diversity within the team brings strength to startups, but it's important to make sure the team has shared values and are able to work well together.

Think of these first hires almost as cofounders. Do it right.

Hiring should be one of the top priorities for startup founders, and you should be prepared to dedicate a lot of your time to everything associated with the hiring process. To being with founders should build a hiring pitch.

Hiring Pitch Should Consist Of

• The Team: what makes their potential co-workers great to work with.
• The Company: why your company is great to work for.
• The Benefits: be as detailed about the benefits you offer as possible.
• The Investors: talk why investors backed the idea & falunt their brand to evoke trust

Founders time is very important hence hire recruitment consultants who will only share only filtered resumes not forward anyone and everyone. Do not waste your precious hours going through hundreds of profiles. Hiring great team is not easy. Founders make mistake by lowering the standard and hire someone subpar. Don't hire wrong person. In the early days, one wrong hire can literally make-or-break your startup. It will come to bite you in short term and long term from reputation, cost and time.

Ensure you have employee contract in place. Startups founders are always in hurry and would want to skip legal formalites. Not having an employment contract means that you are not legally protected. A legal notice from a disgruntled employee can derail the whole business, makes investor shy to fund the company and brings the reputation down. Do it right first time and all the time.

Building a fantastic startup team is an ongoing act of prioritisation. Do it right.

About 100X.VC

We provide startups seed capital of INR 2.5 million using iSAFE notes as the first cheque. We believe founders at seed stage need business direction, mentoring and lots of preparation before scaling up. Our intensive founder engagement is designed to help them scale. We become the defacto lead Investor and promote the startup to get discovered by growth-stage investors for a larger capital fund raise. Once funded by 100X.VC, startups are part of an experienced set of VC Partners who have unparalleled access to a network of investors in India and across the world to help raise capital to scale up. We are a trusted VC Partner with a focus on helping our portfolio companies raise next round of growth capital.

We are NOT a: 1. Angel Network 2. Accelerator 3. Investment Banker 4. Incubator 5. Syndicate 6. Crowdfunding Platform

100X is the first cheque, SEBI registered VC fund and an investment adviser. 100X offers promising startups, seed funding, validates them and get them started. The team at 100X works closely with each company on every aspect of the business and make them venture investment-ready. One of the most important goals of 100X is to help every startup raise the next round of funding. 100X is a curated startup investment discovery platform for Angel Investors, HNI's, Family Offices, Angel Networks and Venture Capital firms. All that VC firms can provide is Money, Network & Experience. For us, money is a small component, but by far, our value is in the network of investor and experience in building seed-stage companies to scale. Visit www.100x.vc for more information.

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