This is part one of a series of posts, I have no idea how many posts it will be, but I hope you will find the information useful and valuable.
First, a bit of background info.
I spent virtually all of 2008 working on a startup that I was the CMO/founder of. The startup was Jamptu and it was focused around building networks and communities within condo buildings. I don’t need to get into the details but basically each condo unit had it’s own private and secure network where residents could interact with each other and get to know each other, find out about events, engage with the HOA, etc. The startup was originally comprised of 4 people: myself, the CEO, the COO, and the CTO (even though titles mean nothing). I should also point out that we had no outside funding. We started around the beginning of last year with eagerness and determination. Although I am no longer a part of the startup (because it doesn’t really exist anymore) I am definitely thankful that I was given the opportunity to build something from the ground up, it was an experience that I consider extremely valuable. Since we were a startup my role included everything from hosting events, to designing a product, to building partnerships with local businesses to working with designers/developers to build the product (and oh so much more). Here is what I learned from running a startup (part 1).
If you’re launching a company in a particular space then all the members of the team need to understand that space. So this means that if you’re launching a company in the social media real estate space you’re team needs to understand real estate and social media. This was certainly not the case for our team. The CEO was a real estate developer…that’s it, that is the only real estate background we had. I was the only guy that new social media. This caused problems and huge time delays. The CEO had to explain to everyone how commercial real estate works and I had to explain to everyone how social media works, then everyone asks questions (I actually studied for the real estate exam and past 2 courses, one more to go…or not). In a nutshell we didn’t have a fluid forward movement of progress, it was always stop and start. Constant slow downs caused some tension among the team and a lack of a solid conceptual vision for what we wanted to achieve. After a few months of plugging away, the COO took a full time job somewhere else…crap! You might also want to make sure that every single member of your team is 110% committed to making your startup work. No matter, we were still determined to succeed.
On another team note make sure to hire someone that you are not. Meaning hire someone that has a skill you do not posess. If you have a bunch of people on your team who are all good at the exact same thing, you will fail. If you have someone that’s good at marketing and relationships then hire a math/numbers guy to make up for what you lack. In short you have to be able to identify your core weaknesses and strengths and either fill or support them. I know this might sound contradictory to the above paragraph but it isn’t. There’s a difference between putting together a team of people with various skills and capabilities and not understanding your space, we didn’t have a good understanding of our space.
What you should take out of this post:
- make sure you’re whole team understands your space and your industry
- make sure your whole team is 110% committed to making your venture work
- make sure your team is comprised of individuals with a diverse set of skills
Hope this information is valuable, lots more coming!
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