5 Tips for Building the Perfect Tech Startup Team

When it comes to reasons why startup fails, the lack of an adequate team is the No.3 on the list (right behind the lack of market need and running out of cash). In fact, about 23 percent of all startups fail for this exact reason. In fields like tech, where talent, work ethic and dedication of your employees make all the difference. All in all, building the perfect tech startup team can make you more competitive, as well as drastically improve your odds at getting the most out of your enterprise. With that in mind and without further ado, here are the top five tips for building the perfect tech startup team.

• Look for adequate leadership

The first thing you need is a suitable CTO (chief technical officer). This, however, is not a simple thing to find. In theory, you could just go to some of your senior developers and entrust them with this position, however, a CTO is not just a developer. While having a technical prowess to understand the work at hand, you also need to have someone charismatic, and someone with great organizational abilities. When it comes to charisma, it’s simply the art of giving people your full attention. This means that a great CTO excels at gathering feedback.

No matter how simple it is to describe an ideal candidate, the truth is that there are not a lot of people who fit this description. While the perfect CTO would be a mix of tech- and business-oriented, chances are that you’ll get one who leans to one or the other side. The dangers of tech-oriented CTO is the fact that they often lose the user from the mind, thus giving you an outstanding, yet too complex, expensive and beginner-unfriendly product. As far as the business-oriented CTO goes, the biggest hazard that you’ll have a rushed product of somewhat lower quality.

• Communication is a priority

One of the things that you can see early on in their employment is the ability of your staff to communicate. Unless you plan on running a one-person startup, the truth is that you’ll need to coordinate between various elements in your organization. Providing your staff with a proper communication tool (collaboration and IM software) is nothing more than giving them the means to make an adequate business structure. So, during the hiring process, pay special attention to the communication abilities of your staff while hiring them.

• You need more than just IT guys

Previously, we’ve mentioned the fact that your CTO needs to be a businessperson as much as they are a technician. This alone is there to indicate that for success in this field, you need more than knowledge in the field of IT. However, there are some tasks that you can’t just delegate to your employees. We’re talking about jobs that require specialists. For instance, sooner rather than later, you’ll have to start your own HR department, which is why you need to find an HR specialist to help you out.

Another specialist that you definitely need is a skilled legal consultant. First of all, in the field of IT, it’s fairly easy to fall into the pit of false advertising. Second, you have so much intellectual property that needs to be legally protected. Finally, managing the infrastructure of a business as a technician and not a businessman is incredibly hard. The biggest problem with this lies in the fact that you may not have enough income to keep a lawyer on retainer. A suitable alternative to this would be to have no win no fee lawyers amongst your contacts as a situational solution.

• Aptitude for learning is the most important requirement

When composing a list of requirements that one has to pass in order to get employed in your team, you need to ensure to put the aptitude for learning to the forefront. You see, previous work history, the degree that they have, as well as their ideas are incredibly important. Still, the field of tech is one that grows and changes at the fastest pace possible. This is why you need to ensure that your entire staff has what it takes to keep up. Nowadays, the bulk of the learning process takes place online, which means that intrinsic motivation and willingness to invest effort makes all the difference.

• Optimize your hiring policy

The last thing you need to understand is the fact that no tech startup ever has the consistently same team over the course of years. People will leave either to start their own projects or to find employment in companies run by your competitors. This is why you need to ensure that other than just hiring the right team, you have all the necessary mechanisms to refill it once someone leaves your employ. First of all, you need to make sure that your business is appealing enough to promising talent. People talk and mistreating your own staff will quickly become the talk of the town. So, make sure that you can deliver as an employer.

Second, make sure to understand promising candidates in the right way. You see, a lot of enterprises base their decision of who to hire based on their performance in the interview. The reason why this is problematic is due to the fact that extroverts usually do better than introverts during a face-to-face interview format. This is so problematic is due to the fact that the bulk of your most promising employees are introverts (especially in the IT industry).

In conclusion

The best thing about this kind of guide is the fact that it gives you a flexible model that you can apply regardless of your niche or business size. Sure, this does little to help one-person startups, yet, building a team is crucial even for the smallest of enterprises. With these five tips on your side, you’ll be well on your way to get the most out of it and start working your way towards the top of the industry.

Infographic Provided By in person team building activities Company, TeamBonding