BUSINESS

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

CLASS

LECTURE SLIDES

THE TEAM

ERDEM OVACIK

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

REFLECTION ON TEAM BY TENURED VC

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like.

More…

Mark Suster.2x entrepreneurSold Koral to SalesforceWorks at GRP partners (VC)

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

THE SKILLS YOU NEED

Build product

Define product

Sales meetings

Marketing

Design

Hire, fire, manage

Investor relations

Legal arrangements

Accounting

PR, events

Quality assurance

Customer support

Error / bug handling

Partnership development

Testing

Finance management

Share the roles based on your skills, experiences, motivations, etc

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

THE ART OF THE START - ROLES

Business Hacker

Hippie

Artist

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

WHAT CAN YOU OFFER?

Salary

Options

Shares

Bonus

Legacy / vision

Purpose

Flexibility

Fun environment

Challenging work

Titles

Exposure to people / meetings

? – be creative

People have different motivators. Don’t get stuck in the traditional ‘hygene’ factors – ie, salary.

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

HOW TO FIND THEM?

Other, local platforms, ie Foundable

Events, meetups, conferences, startupweekends

Friends of friends

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

ALWAYS PUT THINGS ON PAPER!

Responsibilities.

Describe role, ensure expectations are aligned.

People with corporate background, mngmt consulting, etc: BEWARE – THEY MAY BE EXPECTING STHING ELSE

Define:

• Salary• Benefits• Vacation• Hours• How to get in contact• Working mode• Notice period• Expenses (computer,

phone, lunches, travel, ..)

Candidate profile

Profile of the ideal candidate.

Make a scoring of the candidate against the ideal candidate.

Take hiring serious.

Take hiring seriously. Hire slow, fire fast. Make sure to put things on paper from the outset.

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

‘A’ PEOPLE HIRE OTHER ‘A’ PEOPLE.

Skill

Will

High

Low

Low High

If you have good people on the team, you don’t need to manage them. They will do

the magic themselves.

Erdem Ovacik – Business Entrepreneurship Project – Spring 2013

GET TO KNOW YOUR TEAM MEMBERS