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Startup step by step: team and mentors



We continue the series of articles on how to build a startup, where we talk about each step on our own example. In the first article we talked about how to come up with an idea, now let's talk about the team.

Our idea is the Learzing educational platform with educational applications / games and a social component.


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We moved from the general idea to the first brief concept: you play games or use learning applications on various topics, and your experience gradually grows - a common one and in each subject separately.

It looks like characteristics in role-playing games - strength, dexterity, mana, etc., but instead of similar characteristics there are real areas of knowledge - English, math, history, etc. As your experience grows, the level of your “hero” also grows. You play / learn with friends - help each other or compete with each other.



An interesting idea is good, but who will implement it? The next stage began - the search team.

The ability to find like-minded people is one of the values ​​of the Online Technology Entrepreneurship course from Stanford University, from which our startup started (the course is regularly repeated, you can sign up for NovoEd ). The course deliberately gathers people who are interested in IT-entrepreneurship.

In order to come up with an idea, we organized a brainstorming online on the course forum, which attracted the attention of students, and as a result, the team gathered 10 people from different countries of the world, after which we teamed up with the second team, and the team became even more international. the number of participants increased to 20.

In addition, we searched for people through a search form where you can specify the user's area of ​​interest (for example, “Software-Internet-Mobile”) or the desired keywords (for example, “designer” or “HTML5”).

If you read books and articles about startups, you can often see the phrase that a good startup is a good team. Not an idea or even its implementation, but a team. [1] Because a good team can realize any idea, do not fall apart after an unsuccessful implementation, but switch to another idea and continue the path to success.



One of the main problems is to assemble such a team. As part of the resulting international team, it was great for everyone to work together on course assignments, but when the course ended and it came to real work, the number of participants began to decline gradually.

Someone does not have enough knowledge and experience to work at the right level; someone doesn’t have enough time because of the main job or family, someone doesn’t take a startup seriously, doesn’t believe in it - the reasons may be different, but the result is one - the team gets smaller, and as a result there are only a few people left with us now. On the one hand, this is not very pleasant, on the other - it is thanks to such checks that the real team is created.

But even if the person does not join the project, you still have useful contact. So we found our mentors, met a specialist in promotion on Kickstarter and Indiegogo from Belgium, a professional English teacher from Estonia, an animator from Brazil and many others. Even without actively participating in the project, people can help in various issues and at different stages.

While the course was going on, we started a startup in our free time and on weekends. After completing the course, it became clear that this time is not enough, the project is progressing slowly. Now, part of the team saves money for half a year or a year in advance in order to quit work, switch to freelancing or part-time work and devote more time to the startup. Risk is an integral part of the business. By the way, making a startup on weekends and evenings, it’s easy to save on fun :)

Many people think about breaking the “work-home-work” vicious circle - working not for someone, but for themselves; not depend on the boss; not to spend a lot of time on getting to and from work, etc. We also thought about it at a certain moment, and for us our startup is the very opportunity to move to a new level, and not to “go with the flow” .




Where else can you search for members

The first thing that comes to mind is to talk with friends and acquaintances, tell them about the project and ask if they want to join or recommend others.

In our case, the percentage of failures was at the level of “slightly less than completely,” and this is only the first stage in attracting a new participant. Typical reasons for refusal:


This method was not the most useful for us, however, it also brought several useful contacts.

Another place to look for participants is hackathons. On them, people gather to make a working prototype within 48 hours (usually).



People come, spend time, some pay for participation, this is already a lot and says a certain level of motivation. It would seem that a favorable alignment for personnel search. But not everything is so simple.


The search for people in a team on a hackathon resembles dating in clubs or companies. First you find that many are "busy." Talk to some "free", quickly find or not find mutual interest, spend an interesting evening (hakaton) and after all this building long-term relationships begins (work on the project after the hackathon), the successful outcome of which is not at all guaranteed.

A few words about free hackathons, conducted, as a rule, by corporations and institutions with state participation. In particular, they give good prizes and free food. This is good, but it attracts a lot of students. Their number sometimes reaches 80% of the participants, and often there are more undergraduate students among them. As full participants they will not suit every startup. However, the hackathons from JetBrains and Stepic , as well as HackDay, were a pleasant exception. By the way, we found one of the main participants on the state hackathon.


Way to success

At the moment, we are confident that success is just a matter of time. Something did not work out - not scary, got experience and best practices, the team switches to something else, tried again, and so it does not work out. After several failures, so much experience will accumulate that another attempt will simply be doomed to success. So the secret is simple - you just need to keep moving forward.



By the way, the obvious advice on the results of working with an international team - learn English. If you have enough ambitions and you want to make not just a Russian-speaking, but an international project, as it happened with us, English is needed.

The difference in time zones also complicates the work - it's great to have different points of view, and even from different countries, but it is unlikely that we will be able to do something quickly / discuss everything together.

What is interesting in a startup? We can say for myself. The atmosphere of freedom. There is no hierarchy, no deadlines, everyone is doing what he is interested in and what he understands. And when there is freedom, something really new and interesting can turn out. In addition, an online business is usually not tied to a specific place, which allows you to work not where you want, but where you want. Of course, there is a lot of routine, but when you work for yourself, you implement your own ideas, it is perceived quite differently.


Mentors



Finding a good mentor is as difficult as finding a good team member. A good mentor is a mentor who will save a lot of time, share practical (rather than theoretical) experience and shower you with useful materials and links. He will dispel your castles in the air and return from heaven to earth. Perhaps you have already come up with an idea that will bring you millions? The mentor will tell you that at the present time the idea costs almost nothing, and this idea has already been implemented by others several times. Welcome to reality.

We communicated at once with several mentors (to find a mentor is one of the tasks of the course from Stanford). Two of them turned out to be really good, we can advise them to you if you are thinking of taking a course. You can find them through the search, if they participate in the current version of the course, you can also try to contact directly.

The first is Vincenzo Pallotta - a page on NovoEd , a personal page .
The second - Paulo Machado (Paulo Machado) - page on NovoEd , personal page .

From both of us we received detailed answers on any questions, while a mentor with one advice can save you a lot of time, and another advice - set a task for which you will spend this mass of time.

We learned from mentors what lean startup was, got a bunch of tips (a bunch so big that it wasn’t raked yet), interviewed one of the mentors (see below) and found out from one picture about the wrong and correct hierarchy in the company, which they decided to stick with. By the way, some successful companies use a flat structure. [2]



The brief essence of the “lean startup” approach is that you don’t have to do a product or service completely, but you must do it step by step, testing the effectiveness of each step on a real audience. What is the advantage of this approach?

A common mistake is when a company develops a product for a long time and expensively, and when it launches a product on the market, it turns out that it is not popular. Or in general no one needs. At the same time, the product can be of high quality, and in the company itself everything is delighted with it. It turns out that the views of product creators are far from the desires of customers. What to do?

Check. Throughout the development. For example, at the very beginning make polls from which you will know the needs of clients. Then make a clear outline, presentation or video about what you are going to do, look at the reaction and again gather the opinion of the audience. Then build the first prototype, test it with the users and again take their opinion into account. And so on.

So you save time, money and create a product that you really need. Correct your product at every step. Perhaps, in general, change the direction in the right direction. Not to mention that during this process you are preparing an audience for the release of your product. That is, not yet making a product, you already get potential buyers. However, they are also participants in the creation of the product.




Interview with a mentor

In the next article we will talk about the business model , and now a short and useful interview with one of our mentors. We asked Vincenzo Pallotta 10 questions concerning the early stage of a startup, which we actually are at.



1. How did you become an entrepreneur? Is it an innate or acquired quality for you?

I became an entrepreneur when I realized that my research work does not have that value that I attached to it. In the technical sphere, innovations are often implemented with difficulty, and I wanted to apply my research in the field of artificial intelligence to solve real problems.

I do not know whether entrepreneurship is an innate quality. An example from my life - when I was 16 years old, being one of the first to learn how to use a computer, I organized computer courses and I had a class of 6 people. I believe that entrepreneurship is not the ability to sell, but the ability to create something new and change the world for the better. For me, the end in itself has always been not money, but helping people.

At the same time, in order to increase the chances of success and minimize risks, an entrepreneur needs to develop certain qualities in himself and change his thinking. A lean startup methodology is a very good starting point for this.

2. What do you like most about entrepreneurship?

Two main things: helping people and being the center of attention. The second one sounds a little selfish, but I always wanted to be a musician. It is important that you be appreciated for what you are doing, because this is the measure of your achievements.

3. Where do you get business ideas from? Is there any universal recipe for a good idea?

Ideas usually come when I try to connect with different areas of activity. If there is any unsolved problem, most likely, the solution can be found in another area where similar problems have already been solved. The only question is to transfer the decision to this particular area. Also, to come up with an idea, I often ask myself: "What if ..."

Universal recipe? Stay kids in the shower. Children are the best innovators. They are always full of new ideas.

4. When have an idea what to do next?

The only way to test and improve an idea is to share it with others. Isolated ideas are fruitless. Ideas are good when linked to other ideas. Usually, entrepreneurs are afraid that someone will steal their ideas and implement them before them, having more resources. It's a delusion. If you publicly and extensively tell about your idea, everyone will know that this is your idea and no one will steal it.

Nevertheless, it is important to translate your idea into reality. If you wait too long, everyone will forget that this is your idea, and whoever implements it will take your place.



5. When you have a truly unique idea, should you tell others about it and get their opinion, or do you keep the idea a secret?

Of course, it is worth telling. I would share a general idea to see how and how many people will react to it. Of course, do not go into the details of the implementation. Including because people are not very interested. Tell us about WHAT you want to do, and not HOW you will do it.

6. It is well known that a good startup is a good team. But if you do not have initial capital, it is difficult to find people who are motivated only by an idea and who are ready to work for free. How to initially build a good team without capital?

Hard question. But, in my opinion, the answer is simple. Your team members should share your ideas and see the leader in you. In this case, they will follow you, even without payment. If you cannot convince people to join your startup, which will eventually grow into a business, you should ask yourself what the problem is: in your leadership skills, in your ideas or that you did not find people who agree with them?

7. What is the most important quality for a team member - motivation, professionalism or something else?

Motivation - yes, but most of all - reliability and common values. Professionalism is available. In order to make sure these qualities are available, it takes time. But it is their absence that usually causes failure and internal conflicts.

8. When creating a business model, you should proceed from your own opinion, as well as the opinions of team members, and try to implement this model, or do you need to focus on the opinions of clients and change the business model accordingly?

Of course, you need to start with customers. Invest in customers from the first minute. Customers - the only thing that you have.



9. It is known that Apple does not use focus groups and releases its products based on the opinion of its own leaders and experts. Should I use this model sometimes?

I think that Apple does not use focus groups, because they know their customers so well that they don’t need it. In fact, many Apple products are tested on workers. I think they use ethnographic methods to identify customer needs. Do not be surprised if Apple tracks user actions to figure out what else can be improved.

10. Do I need to stick to some kind of hierarchy in the team? Some companies use a flat structure, without superiors. What do you think of such a structure?

I do not advise to adhere to a strict structure in a startup. Participants must be able to switch to different things and play different roles if necessary. Leaders will emerge by themselves in the process. The same person can be a good leader in one thing and a bad leader in something else. In general, the leader must be determined naturally, without an appointment. For example, if you need to solve some problem, the team will quickly determine who can lead the rest. It is also important that the team be able to unite in case of problems.

And the last - all participants should have a sense of community, and not just be “workers”. It is difficult, but if you understand that someone is not too involved, it is better to leave this participant as soon as possible. Do not be afraid to be alone. If this happens, it means that you just had the wrong team.

Original interview in English
1. How did you become an entrepreneur? Was it inborn or acquired trait for you?

I become entrepreneur when I realized that my work as an academic researcher had not the impact I expected. Especially in technology, advances are hardly transferred to the industry and I wanted to leverage the research work I had done in the domain of Artificial Intelligence to build a solution for a real life problem.

I don't really know if being an entrepreneur is an innate talent. For my case, I remember that when I was 16, being one of the early adopters of microcomputers, I started a «Computer School» at my place and got a class of 6 people. I believe that entrepreneurship is not about selling, but about creating and impact. My goal has never been money, but to help people.

I also realize, that in order to maximize impact and minimize risk, one need to acquire certain skills and change mindset. Lean Startup methodology is a very good starting point.

2. What do you like most about being a entrepreneur?

There are essentially two things:
a) helping people
b) being at the center of the stage

I understand that the second might sound selfish, but I always wanted to be a musician. Being appreciated for what I do is important because it's the measure of the impact I have.

3. How did you get the ideas for your businesses? Is there any universal recipe to get a good idea?

Ideas usually come from my interest in creating bridges between different domains. If there is a problem that is unsolved, probably the solution can be found elsewhere, namely where other similar problems have already been solved. It's just a matter to adapting it to the different domain. I have also the sentence «What if… » in my mind.

The universal recipe? Keep the child spirit. Children are the best innovators. They always come up with new ideas.

4. When you have an idea what step should be done next?

I believe that the only way to validate and enrich ideas is to share them. Segregated ideas become sterile. Ideas are good if they can connect with other ideas. Usually entrepreneurs fear that their ideas can be stolen by others who might execute them with more resources. I believe that this is simply false. Once you start sharing your ideas (and you do at a large scale), everybody will recognize that it is your idea. Who will «steal» your idea will be publicly exposed for that. Nobody will do it.

However, it is important to be able to execute an idea and turn it into a project. If you wait too much, then people will forget that you are the owner of the idea and who will execute at your place has the merit of replacing you.

5. When you think that you have a really unique idea should you share it with everyone and get a feedback or keep it in secret?

Yes, share it definitely. I would share the general idea to see how and how many people react to the idea. Of course, you won't share the details of its implementation. Also because people don't really care. Share the problem you want solve, not how.

6. There is a common thought that good startup is a good team. But if you don't have initial capital it's difficult to find people who are motivated only by ideas and ready to work for free. How to find a good team without funding at the beginning?

This is a difficult question. But I believe that the answer is simple, anyway. Your team mate should share the same vision and recognize you as their leader. If this happens they will follow even without being paid. If you are not able to convince people to join your team with the perspective of developing a business, you should ask yourself where the problem is: is it your leadership, it is your vision, it is the fact that you did not approach people who share your vision?

7. What's the most important quality for a team mate — high motivation, skills or something else?

Motivation yes, but most of all trustworthiness and shared core values. Skills can be acquired. It takes time to validate those elements. But very often they are the major cause of internal conflicts and of failure.

8. When you have a business model should you rely on your opinion and opinions of your team and try to make it come true or rely on feedback of your customers and change the business model?

Definitely rely on customers. Invest in customers from the first minute of your business. Customers are the only asset that matter in a business.

9. We know that Apple doesn't use focus groups and releases products based on their own leaders' and experts' opinions. Should we use this model in some cases?

I think that Apple don't use focus group because they are so connected to their customers that they don't need to do it. Actually, many products at Apple have been tested by employees. Also, I believe that they use a more ethnographic approach to user requirement elicitation. I would not be surprised that Apple people hang around to see how the people do things in order to figure out how to improve their experience.

10. Should we use some hierarchy for a startup team? Some companies use a flat organization without bosses. What do you think about this type of structure?

In a startup I don't advise to have a rigid structure and rigid roles. Team members should be able to easily be reassigned to different roles when necessary. I also believe that leadership should emerge and be spontaneously recognized by the team members. Sometime, one could be a good leader for a given task and bad leader for another one. In general, there should be a natural sense of who is in charge without having to decide that beforehand. For instance, if a certain problem has to be solved, the team will immediately recognize who could take the lead. Also important is the fact that the team should be compact and capable to unite in cases of troubles.

Last thing, all team members should have a strong sense of belonging and never feel as «just employees». I know that it's difficult, but once you realize that someone does not have this level of commitment, it is better to separate as early as possible. Don't be afraid to remain alone. If this happens, this just means that your team mates were not right for you.


Links

[1] Startaper, enough to go to trainings
[2] Free radicals: 5 companies without managers

All articles of the series

  1. Startup step by step: the future of online education
  2. Startup step by step: team and mentors
  3. Startup step by step: first business model
  4. How we made the educational platform: first design, landing page and logo
  5. How we made the educational platform: the first application
  6. Making an HTML5 Quest: Using the MVC Pattern in Construct 2
  7. Making an HTML5 quest: creating a character and basic animation

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/219879/

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