It Takes a Village to Build a Startup

A village combines the contributions of many people to build a functioning community, which is an excellent metaphor for what it takes to build a successful startup. And this Thanksgiving season, I am reflecting on how thankful I am for those who have joined the villages I have been part of.

While sometimes we think that startups are all about an exciting product concept, the right market, raising money, and various other elements, ultimately, building a business means building an organization of people who are aligned with achieving a vision together. That’s what I mean when I say it takes a village to build a startup. You must bring together a group of people who will do the hard work of creating something new and valuable.

It takes a multi-skilled team.

Just like a village divides and distributes the life-sustaining work of the community, high-potential startups demand the contributions of multiple people to succeed. A solopreneur just cannot bring the full suite of skills required to develop a product or service offering, market it to customers, and fulfill and service orders.

A team of individuals who have complementary skills enables a startup to excel in multiple dimensions. For example, hardware products often demand the specialized contributions of different engineering skill sets, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, embedded systems engineering, and software engineering, to realize the combination of product attributes required to meet user requirements. High-quality manufacturing processes demand specialized roles to ensure consistency of execution across different stages of the production process, plus manufacturing engineering to focus on continuous quality and efficiency improvements. An entirely different type of people will fulfill the roles of engaging with prospects and customers to promote, sell, and serve. Plus, there will be those specializing in finance, HR, and regulatory staff functions.

While the particular needs of each startup will be unique, the principle to consider when assembling the necessary team over time is that different roles will demand different strengths, and the goal of the startup leadership is to assemble all of those pieces into a coherent whole that can execute well. It is essential to consider how individuals are wired and what they are passionate about as you design and assemble the balanced team required to execute the startup’s work well and then recruit those who can contribute to the whole from those areas of strength.

It takes a community of supporters.

Beyond just the startup’s dedicated team, successful startups will also recruit a community of supporters around them to build and sustain momentum. The community of supporters will likely include those:

• Advisors who represent the customers and help the startup make sure that what they are creating will delight those they intend to serve and sell to

• Investors who contribute their financial resources to the cause because they believe in the vision and the plan
  
  
• Suppliers and partners who are willing to collaborate and contribute to formulating a breakthrough solution
  
  
• First-mover customers who are willing to take the chance to experiment with something new and innovative
  
  
• Families and friends that support the team’s dedication and effort
  
  
• And more, depending on the startup and whom they need to come alongside and join in realizing the vision.

What I have noticed over the years is that when you are trying to make a positive difference in the world in an innovative way, you can often find others who get excited about participating. If you can engage them effectively, these people can form a community of supporters that provide critical help that the startup needs to succeed.

It takes leadership.

Initiating and convening the “village” of a startup requires leadership: someone or someones to begin to focus on a problem, define the unmet need, and formulate an innovative approach to solving it.   Achieving cohesive group action is what leadership is fundamentally about, and it is an essential ingredient in creating a village.Such leader(s) must continue to seek to understand the bigger picture, see the critical path and continually evolve the plan to guide the village to accomplish great things together.

It takes a village to build a startup. Bringing people together to accomplish something and care for one another along the way is our way of collectively making a difference. Thank you to all who have joined me in seeking to build businesses that positively contribute to the world. I am thankful you bought your vision, contributed your imagination, time, talents, hard work, insight, creativity, resources, and took a chance to do something new and meaningful.