#3 Building a core team for your startup
I have built and scaled several high performing teams in my corporate career, but doing it all over again in my start-up has been a…
I have built and scaled several high performing teams in my corporate career, but doing it all over again in my start-up has been a completely different journey.
Creating a startup and growing a business is a hell of a task and one that requires an entrepreneur to have many roles. No one person has a skill set for every role and trying to take on everything yourself will hurt your company, especially if you don’t build the right team around you. Building a core team — a max number of 4–5 next level of leaders is a key process in the startup journey! I can safely say that 18 months down the line I have a solid next level of my core team built and we can scale on from here on!
Here is my guide on “ How to Build an A+ Core team”
#1 Analyze where your limitations are
Ego aside, be objective about what skills you possess, and — more importantly — what skills you lack. Be completely honest with yourself when analyzing your skill set, and make a list. Think about every skill in which you are deficient or have inadequate experience, and remember that there are always others with more experience and time to execute core aspects of your business.
Legendary businessman and investor Warren Buffet has said, “Hire smart people and get out of their way.” I tend to agree; however, the key is to hire smart people who compliment your talents! Those initial hires are key determining factors of how successful your business will be.
#2 —Mentor the talent
Identify very clearly a those high impact things that you want your core team to do , and work extremely closely with them for next 6–8 months!
Make sure you convey your vision to them clearly and concisely. In every meeting , rather than sharing what is to be done, first give the big picture on why we are doing this — what will be the magnitude of impact and then roll on your sleeves and get to work!
Identify the strengths of each person, and make sure their goals/targets are aligned with their strengths.Everyone has special qualities, they are kickass at doing a few things extremely well and your goal is to find those special qualities and cultivate them. I first put together what was required in the key roles of my core team.
Head of Learning — This person builds new programs at GreyAtom and decides how they must be built.This position needs one to have an academician’s heart. Passion for education, how can I increase learner efficiency by 5 mins, even if I must put in 5 hrs of my effort is his thought process
K.V.S. Dileep - Associate Director, Academics - GreyAtom | LinkedIn
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Head of Ecosystem — This person interacts with industry , mentor ecosystem , hiring partners.For education to bring value to the learners long term relationships are to be built with C level executives. How about someone who has been a part of A+ client delivery teams in MNC, and travelled across the globe interacting with customers across levels ?
Juhi Sabharwal - Head - Industry Partnerships - GreyAtom | LinkedIn
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Head of Program Delivery — This person is responsible for the delivery of programs to our end learners.A seamless end to end experience has to be delivered to learners.Technical learning difficulties need to be understood. How about this — what if this person has been a past GreyAtom learner and has a lot of perspective already (10 months worth), something that a new person coming in can NEVER replace.
Chinmay Chopade - Data Science Program Manager - GreyAtom | LinkedIn
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Head of Student Success and Operations — This person makes sure our vision get translated into reality on the ground. He manages external calendars, facilities. He meets with our learners every session — cares deeply about their success! He is the man who is smiling even if things are f**ked up!
Amit Pavithran - Head of Student Success - GreyAtom | LinkedIn
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One place where I spent good time was on mentoring - to have people not be scared to take their own decisions, see them fail, learn and again take another bold decision. I learnt a lot of things along the way too, however , empowering the core team was a long stride in the journey.
This team is chasing their goals at a fantastic rate with full ownership. Sometimes when they now tell me — “Step aside, I got this”,it makes me feel happy !
Over time, we’ve realized somethings that have been core for us, as a team. Let’s say it’s become a part of everyone’s DNA-
1. People Matter, Results count
To us people matter more than anything else- whether it is our learners, our instructors/mentors , our individual teams or even the interns who join us . We care about those we work with and those we serve. We are all about building trust-based relationships and establishing win-win partnerships. We care about results, but not at the expense of people..
2. Learning is in our DNA
Everyone has an endless appetite for learning. We never shy away to say we don’t know something. We never hesitate to ask each other for help and learn something new. We have upskilling plans for everyone across levels — from myself to an associate , we can always be better. We are always pursuing growth on all levels and fronts.
3. We are passionate about what we do
We are here to create remarkable learning experiences. Above all, we have passion for what we do, and we are proud of what we have accomplished so far. We swell with pride when someone says this is the best learning experience we have had. Our learners love us and that is reflected in our NPS, which is at 61 — higher than education industry benchmarks!
4. We always have the sight of BIG picture, but we stay realistic
We don’t welcome small thinking, but we’re all about small starts. We are responsible risk-takers. We try new things without losing focus on what really matters. We know that greatness comes from caring about the little day-to-day things.
5. We will laugh hard, loud, and often
We enjoy our work and we have fun while at it. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We are after a work life full of laughter!
My final thoughts on this: Building teams is not as structured or glorified as a load of articles will have you believe. It’s a meandering process that involves rapid experimentation, failures, and patience. But it is also a necessary process that determines where you and your company are headed.
Would love to hear your thoughts and stories on my experience.