The People Matter

Even as we confront new implications of AI, I think people and the relationships between them still matter. And this is even more true in the land of high-potential startups that have their roots in the novel insights of the teams building them.

I once knew someone who does not like people. I am the opposite. People matter to me—a lot.

People are the building blocks of startups. They are the source of the magic, the novel insights, the determination, the passion, the collaboration, and the connections. Everyone brings their unique gifts to the mix, and when you blend all those talents together, you can create something extraordinary. The relationships we form as we journey together are some of the most fulfilling parts of work.

Joy #1:  Crafting the Team

One of the reasons I like founding companies is that I get to shape the team and choose the people I will get to work alongside. As part of forming a startup, I get to have a decisive role in determining the skill sets we need to solve the problems we are tackling.  I then find the people who bring those raw materials, combined with the right personality attributes for startup life, and convince them to join us on the journey. This is one of my favorite parts of the startup-building process and one of the most challenging.

As a startup founder, I find that many promising opportunities flounder because of the people involved in the invention development before it has even reached a startup-worthy stage. Today when I evaluate each new opportunity that crosses my path, one of my three make-or-break criteria for investing my time, talents, and passion is the people involved. I have walked away from more promising opportunities because of one or two problematic people than for any other reason. Examples include:

• The arrogant professor who had invented a remarkable medical technology but could not seem to let go of his combative academic style and figure out how to collaborate with a cross-functional team.
• The invention owner who was convinced that he had to own and control the venture-backed startup I was forming around his invention to recruit the required capital to develop the product and navigate a many-year FDA approval process, a position that made the startup unfundable.
• The cofounding doctor and student team who thought that grants and YCombinator would be enough to launch their idea into the stratosphere.
• The “uncoachable” founder who was strong technically but could not figure out how to coalesce a team around him to build the startup and whose workstyle turned off those who tried to help him.

The common threads in these examples include a lack of understanding of the diverse array of talent required to run the gauntlet of challenges that building a startup successfully entails.   They lack the ability to recruit others and collaborate successfully, and they fundamentally misunderstand the balance of value generated by the initial invention versus the execution in developing that idea into a business.

Startups are a team sport. You must bring together talent, focus the team on the right priorities, and execute well. You must be able to share the potential upside with others to get everyone aligned and pulling together to accomplish great things together. These are core people skills. If someone cannot demonstrate that they can be a team player in your earliest work with them, then consider carefully if that weak link in the chain is fatal to your chances of success.

Joy #2: Investing in Others’ Professional Growth

Another thing I love about investing in the people in a small startup team is that each is often called upon to fill more than one need in the startup’s work. I find great fulfillment in helping others achieve their professional goals, so I make a point of getting to know team members and exploring how their particularly shaped puzzle piece might fit into the overall team puzzle we are assembling, which often identifies opportunities for professional growth. Since startups often have much greater flexibility and broader needs, one of my greatest joys is mentoring and guiding people as they venture into new ways of contributing.

As I seek to expand my awareness of how I might help someone expand their skills in new directions, I ask them to share what they dream of being able to do and seeing if we can come up with ways to leverage the adventure of the startup journey to help them develop in that direction. For example, sometimes, when I ask what role someone dreams of growing into, I find that they would like to become a startup CEO someday. Armed with that information, I can look for opportunities to expose them to the many facets of my role, such as including them in some fundraising meetings, explaining what happens in Board meetings, reviewing the financial projections, and getting their input on how we might build out our team so they can take steps in the direction of learning what it means to be a CEO. Sometimes, a quiet technologist wants to improve how they interact with others. Intentional feedback and exposure to how I manage communication can sometimes help demystify person-to-person interactions. Sometimes someone wants to broaden and deepen their skills so they can credibly claim to be a startup CFO and we can work together to make that goal a reality.

While I wish I could claim that I have always had success in mentoring others as I love to do, unfortunately, it is not so. Sometimes I have discovered that some people have rebuffed my desire to invest in their professional growth. This situation tends to impact the startup’s progress over time negatively, so I am becoming less tolerant of it as I find that those who do not wish to grow are often poor fits in the culture I am trying to build.

Joy #3: Building Strong Collaborative Partnerships

In addition to mentoring, I love collaborating and finding ways to learn from each other and grow together. Since I do not have a boss to help me grow as a startup CEO, one of the ways I can grow professionally is through building strong collaborative partnerships with my high-powered colleagues. Over 20 years, I have learned so much from those willing to share and collaborate!

Sometimes what I hope would be sustained collaborative relationships turn out to be full of betrayal, mistrust, abuse, rejection, lies, and other disappointing muck. Unfortunately, relationships with people – much as I love them – can be painful. I wish it were not so, but in fairness, I cannot only talk about the good I have experienced in my treasured relationships with special people.  I have also experienced the other side of the coin. If someone emerges as toxic, I have had to tell them to leave the team to eliminate their behavior’s damage to the team’s overall performance; however, sometimes, because I care about people so much, I can wait a little too long to take action as I try to salvage the situation.

While not all would agree on the importance of this startup element, the people in my startups matter to me. I am vulnerable because, in my heart, I do care. In my heart, I do want to invest. In my heart, I do want to build together. But relationships are two-sided, and both of you have to contribute with integrity for it to work. When it does, it brings light into our day-to-day world. And that is something I seek when tackling the challenges of startup development.