photo credit: lumaxart
Interviewing developers is much easier than interviewing marketers
But still, you do need a marketing team (and a good one of course) and above all you want to be fair in deciding whom to hire.
Questions/conditions for hiring developers are quite straightforward. They either know or they don’t – do they solve problems easily? Do they say the right things? Do they know what they’re doing? Selecting developers is more towards the objective side while hiring marketers is more subjective.
Here are a few tips for hiring that ‘dream marketing team’:
Active on Social Media
Does he have a decent amount of followers on Twitter? Can she get people to become a fan of your startup product/service on Facebook? Is she an active content writer or does he have a separate marketing blog? Yes, ask these questions and make sure they’re ‘virtually active’ before hiring them.
Modesty
A startup operates in an ever-changing environment. Product, expectations, definition of a customer changes almost everyday, and marketing strategies must be invented and reinvented frequently. You need someone who is modest enough to accept what he doesn’t know and be motivated to work on it.
Someone who is detail-oriented
A big NO to someone who thinks they know everything. Willingness to learn and attention to detail is a key characteristic of a marketer.
Analytics/Measurement
Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing effort at an early stage of a startup can be somewhat unreasonable. Don’t hire anyone who thinks like that. Make sure the person believes in measuring efforts (of any kind) and is willing to take responsibility of success or failure.
Mutual Respect with developers
Developers and marketers don’t get along too well – a belief (I disagree though) many have. Make sure that the developers have a sense of respect for what the marketer is doing and they like him/her.
For more detail on this topic visit OnStartups
photo credit: Alex E. Proimos
All startups, at some point have to confront certain questions relating to their existence – about their current situation and the future. “Is our startup heading in the right direction? Will we reach where we wanted to, in the given time? Should we be acquired? Or shall we acquire and progress”? – Some of the dilemmas every startup has.
In several situations, mergers and acquisitions seem just ideal for a startup. But despite favorable conditions, many startups actually decide opting out of a merger or an acquisition decision. And the most common reason behind this is the ‘people issues’ involved in the process.
Mergers and acquisitions involve real people with emotions, egos and aspirations. Deals between companies (legal entities with a separate existence) are just on paper, in reality deals take place between people with emotions and feelings. For example: As a startup founder you are ready to be acquired by another company on a lucrative deal but the position they are offering you in the company is way below what you expect. In that case, you may decide against the acquisition. Your emotion and ego gets involved here.
The top four significant ‘people issues’ in mergers and acquisitions are:
• M&A culture issues
• Human capital Integration issues
• Lack of employee engagement
• Leadership/management retention issues
The discussions did not make much progress as there was no agreement on the pricing and more importantly on the roles and responsibilities of acquired company CEO in the new merged entity.
It is extremely important to understand ‘the people’ in a startup/company and tailoring the deal according to them rather than forcefully placing people in artificial positions and roles.
And yes, ‘people issues’ matter to the success of mergers and acquisitions.
For more information on the issue click here
photo credit: jaeWALK
The staff of any business/startup can be divided into three categories; A, B and C. The people belonging to “category A” – the extraordinaire and really talented people are the ones every business wants to keep. A huge problem arises when the “A players” decide to quit and the company goes haywire in trying to keep them from resigning. Suddenly star treatment is provided and all sorts of promises about the future are made to them. But does this work? Will the A star worker not resign?
After reaching a saturation point where you feel under-appreciated or mistreated, an employee will leave regardless of any newly created incentive. The star treatment and incentives aren’t enough to hold back the employee. Instead identify such employees from the beginning and keep them motivated and happy.
The article below is a great read and talks about first hand experience of an entrepreneur:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/16/dont-roll-out-the-red-carpet-on-the-way-out-the-door/
Don’t roll out the red carpet on the way out the door, but roll the red carpet inside the organization.
photo credit: gbaku
The importance of ‘right’ workforce in a startup can hardly be over-emphasized. You must hire the right people – especially the ‘early employees’ must be perfect.
The hiring procedure of a startup should follow a two-way approach – not hiring the wrong people and hiring the right people (the former is much more important). Hiring a wrong employee can be detrimental to the growth of a startup.
The main confusion arises in identifying the ‘right’ people for your startup. No matter how experienced you are, there is always a dilemma when it comes to hiring for startups. In the following paragraphs we attempt to outline some important points you should consider when hiring for your startup venture:
• Instead of spending a lot of time going out and finding the perfect person, let the perfect person find you
• Change the “what can they do for me” line of thinking to “what can my startup do for them?” It’s not only the responsibility of big companies to ‘create value’
• Generalists and Specialists – both are important for your startups so try maintaining a balance
• Hire talent, not skill – the talented employee will automatically learn the skills
• Have a probation period before actually hiring (you should date before getting married)
• Experience is important but don’t ignore the people with a ‘warrior attitude’. Reminds me of a post by Seth Godin I came across recently.
Your startup is developing in the Information Age so take full advantage and look out for the best talent. Detailed information on this subject is available in the following articles:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/1278/5-Quick-Pointers-On-Startup-Hiring.aspx
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/185/Startup-Hiring-Why-You-Should-Date-Before-Getting-Married.aspx
I’ve been in the startup business for a pretty long time now. One of the things that I’ve found hardest to do is find and recruit exceptionally talented individuals. This is not particularly surprising, I think all businesses (big and small, young and old) have this challenge.
Gone are the days when human resource was just considered to be back end work. Today human resource at a startup is considered as more of a business partner, advisor and mentor to the management. If a startup has to reach the peak of success, it is possible only through out of box and innovative thinking and through a well placed human resource and best practices.
But a problem many startups fail to realize is the one highlighted by ‘The Peter Principle’. It means that employees, who are a part of the hierarchical organization, are eventually promoted to the highest level of competence, after which further promotion raises them to incompetence. The employee’s incompetence is not necessarily exposed as a result of the higher-ranking position being more difficult – simply, that job is different from the job in which the employee previous excelled, and requires different work skills, which the employee may not possess. This is exactly the reason why most employees in a startup fail to deliver excellent results.
The move to incompetence in most startup occurs when ‘technical people’ try to step into management or executive roles, for which they have no aptitude, training or interest. And needless to mention but many technologists have tried to run startups and failed for this reason.
Some ways of solving the problem are, concentrating more on communication skills of employees, mentoring or training or probably keeping a check on the spectrum of responsibilities the employees have. The keys to avoiding ‘the Peter Principle’ are further explained in the article below:
http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2009/12/peter-principle-thrives-within-startups.html
Recognize and deal immediately with the occurrences of Peter Principle because a good HR team is an asset to any startup, as mentioned earlier.
The Peter Principle is something that we all have to deal with, in our own career, and with other team members. In a small startup, everyone has to carry a maximum load for survival, and everyone sees the non-performers. If you are the last to see the problem, or the last to react, maybe it’s time to look in the mirror.
There is an ongoing debate about the age of entrepreneurs when it comes to establishing a new venture. What do Venture Capitalists actually prefer; the youth with fresh ideas and passion or the older serial entrepreneurs with market experience? If we have to believe the records, VCs flock to young entrepreneurs when it comes to setting up a startup. Why do VCs favor the young? So is this one of the reasons of high failure rates of startup ventures? All these questions are answered in an article written by an‘old guy’ himself:http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/07/when-it-comes-to-founding-successful-startups-old-guys-rule/
I’ve got a message for all the Silicon Valley venture capitalists who think a CEO is over the hill after age 40. Old guys rule. And they are far more likely to be the founder of a successful technology company than most of you understand.
Many people believe that they can easily sell packaged ice to Alaskans— but finding the crème de la crème sales team is really a difficult job. For Startups, consider not hiring salespeople until the products or services are completely geared up for deployment. It sounds quite obvious but even building it too early could be emaciating. Later also, you do not need to build a very big sales team but a small fulgurant team can drive in terrific sales. Here is a nice piece of information by Dharmesh Shah on Venture Beat’s Entrepreneur Corner about building up a stellar sales team:
3. Don’t hire several sales people at once. Your goal is to figure out the “pattern” of what kinds of people are best based on what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to. You need some feedback from the system so you can continue to iterate on your hires.
Once the sales team has been set up, you need to pose in the compensation structures correctly and make it sure that you are tailing sales metrics thoroughly. You should be ready to wait in the dark as it requires atleast six months to start converting the leads in an efficient manner. You can get more insights about this informative article from here: http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2009/08/05/14-tips-for-building-a-startup-sales-team/
One well known saying goes this way – “You are only as good as the People around you”. And this is true for any company and for start ups it becomes truer. A start up team will not be HUGE in size. You need to find workmates who fit in their corresponding roles and are also able to take care of cross functional tasks or those who at least appreciate the effort that different people put in.
Serena Ehrlich of the Start up Army enumerates some very good points for the start ups that are building teams. One of the best ones that I like the most is:
* Gets things done. Smart people know what’s required, or can figure it out, and are confident enough to make decisions without you. Getting things done is crucial to running a business. Often people with advanced degrees have academic smarts, but are not closers. You can’t afford to make every decision, and have to push every action item.
It’s true that people who play devil’s advocate might be the ones who ask all the right questions, but you need more people who have the right answers rather than just the right questions. Carry on with this good start up team building read here:
http://www.startuparmy.com/armyblog/sales-and-marketing/running-your-startup-how-to-build-your-team.html
Do you really believe that social networking sites are relevant enough to cater to the ever growing needs of the job market? Are they capable enough to provide quality manpower to organizations? Is it a good and reliable solution?
I would like to tell you my story in few lines.It really feels strange that I got my job through a social networking website. None is ready to buy my story, but it is as true as the sun rising in the east. Everyone is amazed that I landed up with such a good job when others really have to slog it out scanning sites, looking for opportunities and mailing resumes. Things just don’t end here and have to keep waiting for the response. Luckily I joined the famous Indian student networking portal – www.collegespeaks.com, where I would regularly post comments in the ”Quotes” section and that helped me grab my first job offer even before I finished my college. Read more…
