New business in 50 days
Fast Lane Ventures is an atypical investor. Unlike most business angels and portfolio investors, the principle of the company lies in deep interaction with managed projects and participation in their operational management. Most of the current start-ups of the company were initiated by it and, in fact, are “daughters” of Fast Lane Ventures. At first, they, like in an incubator, even grow together - in the business center on Savyolovskaya. Of course, such a large team should live by its own rules and laws.
How to launch a business project in 50 days, how the Fast Lane Ventures team lives according to what principles and laws are in place and what requirements are placed on managers and managers - an interview with the company's Olga Director.
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Fast Lane Ventures - is it a business incubator or not? How would you describe the organizational structure of the company?
The classic business incubator provides a place and a certain level of expertise to ready-made projects. We carry out operational functions, fully sharing responsibility with projects and at the same time assuming a significant part of managerial tasks.
Tell us about the principles of management in your company.
Fast Lane Ventures has a truly unique team of high-level professionals with the most diverse expertise and knowledge in management, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, marketing and PR, web development, investment attraction, financial management and HR. Each team member is directly involved in the business and plays an important role. Each of us has three key tasks:
It is often said that the essence of the corporate culture of Fast Lane Ventures is the philosophy of checkpoint. We hold regular meetings of the project team with the company’s management, usually once every two weeks or less often in more developed projects. In fact, this is a great time for making decisions, getting expertise, exchanging opinions and getting support on key business issues.
Do you work for the result?
The main mission of Fast Lane Ventures is to turn an idea into a fast-growing, successful business. Therefore, in the success formula of Fast Lane Ventures I would include speed — the ability to quickly move from idea to business, entrepreneurial skill — the ability to innovate and create, responsibility — based on operational discipline and demanding to achieve results, interaction — based on trust and cooperation of all participants teams.
You are a fairly large company. Can you say that you are just like all big corporations?
The values ​​of a young business venture are very different from the well-established corporate management. Large companies are characterized by a long study and decision-making, work on the process, narrow specialization of employees and a long multi-stage career path. Our principles are often diametrically opposite: we work for results, we make quick decisions and the principles of our teamwork imply more initiative, responsibility, participation in making common decisions, and the dynamics of development allows us to grow from junior to leader in six months.
What does this look like? Where do you find employees, how do you choose and how does their training take place?
The growing system of future leaders of Internet companies Junior Project Manager is our very successful find, which solves two problems at once: talented and ambitious young managers learn how to practice managerial entrepreneurship in order to lead one of the new projects Fast Lane Ventures after a while, and the company receives operational support for projects at a very early stage of development.
Last December, together with HeadHunter, we made a joint project aimed at finding young professionals - future managers of Internet projects, received feedback from more than 500 candidates, selected the top 50 resumes, conducted interviews and tests, then the business game revealed the top 10 promising candidates who joined our operational team Fast Lane Ventures. For several months, they performed various operational roles, moving from project to project, thereby gaining diverse management experience.
As a result, in the short six months, two of them have already taken the helm as project leaders. In my opinion, this is a very good result, and we will continue to search and grow talented young managers. Moreover, our initiative has received a great response, and every day we receive dozens of resumes of specialists who would like to work at Fast Lane Ventures.
How do you imagine the career path of the employee Fast Lane Ventures? Given the specifics of the company, is it even possible to talk about career advancement within Fast Lane Ventures?
Of course, in such a dynamically developing company, it is more likely to make a career takeoff than in a stable one, where all positions are distributed. Over the past six months, we have actively recruited people from the external market, because we built projects from scratch, and there were practically no internal resources. Thus, in less than a year, we have attracted more than 500 employees to Fast Lane Ventures and projects.
Our employee is usually 25 - 35 years old, he has a higher education, experience in Internet companies or FMCG companies. Many employees came to us from Western companies - they are closer to us in corporate culture and business processes, and we welcome employees who have worked in both Russian and Western companies, preferably abroad, because such people have a wider outlook, which is not limited by any framework. They understand Western culture, speak English, knowledge of which is also a prerequisite for us.
Among them there are many talented managers who came to leadership positions for the Fast Lane Ventures projects for the first time, because we saw in them the potential and huge motivation for professional growth in the Internet industry. There are a lot of such living examples in the company.
How do you select people for management positions in the company?
We have several stages of evaluation, including several interviews, often we give an additional test - work task, as well as check recommendations.
Regarding the ideal candidate - if you quote the full set of qualities that we are looking for in the right candidate, then this is professionalism (transparent career history), energy and initiative, focus on development and results, the ability to show restraint in difficult situations, the ability to adapt to changing conditions, stable experience without unmotivated work shifts and long breaks and, of course, the motivation to work in our company.
We are actively looking for people with international experience and training, since such people usually have a more diverse view, most often they are business-oriented, understand investors' expectations, know how to properly present information, and organize processes well.
The most successful startup Fast Lane Ventures: online shoe store Sapato.ru
In this process, the importance of the ability of recruitment managers to search for the right people, to know in what ways and where to find them cannot be diminished. And I am pleased with how and with what quality we were able to organize this work. In our case, the HR manager acts as a seller who knows how to intelligently build communication, correctly represent the company, and also identify the person’s motivation.
Are there any features in the corporate culture of the company that it is hard for new employees to get used to? Do you have an adaptation program for this?
Of course. It is often difficult for people to maintain a quality level of their own work at high speeds in the super-fast growth mode of a company.
We have high demands on work discipline and operational quality. Interviewing many candidates, I know for sure that we are more demanding than other companies in this regard.
We have a difficult combination, when, on the one hand, the company expects initiative and gives decision-making to teams, but at the same time there is investor control over the effectiveness of projects.
We openly discuss with candidates even at the interview stage the peculiarities of work in our company, then, when the candidate becomes an employee, we conduct adaptation training for newcomers and before the end of the standard probation period we always meet with everyone and discuss mutual motivation to work together.
What company is intolerable for, why do you fire people?
Dismissal is not easy and individual. Dismissal is most often associated with the incompatibility of the professional and personal qualities of an employee with the work for which he is accepted. And there are a lot of variations, including the rejection of the rules and style of the company. A person who is fired from one company may be ideally suited to another. Everyone has the right to make mistakes, but if he is not able to analyze the shortcomings and repeats the same mistakes, it is better to dismiss him. If an employee for subjective reasons regularly fails to meet the deadlines, fails to fulfill his duties, violates discipline, then obviously the contract with him must be terminated.
What is your attitude to the dress code and corporate events?
We have adopted a dress code - and we understand that this is not typical for an Internet company. But our main employees in the office are managers, and in the center of our corporate culture is business.
The dress code in our company is not the result of someone's whim. Our main office largely performs the presentation function - it is the face of the company, including for potential foreign investors. When projects move to a separate office, a freer style is possible. On Fridays, for example, we have announced a casual style for everyone. But everyone decides for himself.
As for corporate events, our company is still very young, in fact, we have only one more year and 100% of our time has been spent on active growth. So far there has really been no time for corporate events, but of course we are planning them. At the end of the year we want to spend a big corporate New Year party and celebrate our achievements.
And what do you think about the project Upladder.ru?
A very relevant project at the right time. Now the recruitment market is changing dramatically. He is very actively going online. If earlier, top managers were looking for work in most cases only through agencies or "their" headhunters, now, even the search for work for them is increasingly moving to the Internet. The task of Upladder is to attract people who are not looking for online work to the Internet search. I sincerely believe in the great success of Upladder in the online recruitment services market.
And yet, from your point of view, what attracts employees most to Fast Lane Ventures?
Our company is the right combination of emotional business and a pragmatic campaign. We all happen very quickly and clearly. We set a goal to make working projects for 50 days, and it may take less than a week from the idea to its launch. It is this kind of work that attracts, perhaps, not everyone, but just those people that we need.
How to launch a business project in 50 days, how the Fast Lane Ventures team lives according to what principles and laws are in place and what requirements are placed on managers and managers - an interview with the company's Olga Director.
')
Fast Lane Ventures - is it a business incubator or not? How would you describe the organizational structure of the company?
The classic business incubator provides a place and a certain level of expertise to ready-made projects. We carry out operational functions, fully sharing responsibility with projects and at the same time assuming a significant part of managerial tasks.
The Basis of Management Culture Fast Lane Ventures - Checkpoint Philosophy
Tell us about the principles of management in your company.
Fast Lane Ventures has a truly unique team of high-level professionals with the most diverse expertise and knowledge in management, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, marketing and PR, web development, investment attraction, financial management and HR. Each team member is directly involved in the business and plays an important role. Each of us has three key tasks:
- start a business as soon as possible, when there is nothing but an idea;
- support projects with expertise and practical assistance at different stages of development, implement common operational approaches, greatly facilitating and accelerating the passage of the organizational stage;
- and, finally, to monitor project performance.
It is often said that the essence of the corporate culture of Fast Lane Ventures is the philosophy of checkpoint. We hold regular meetings of the project team with the company’s management, usually once every two weeks or less often in more developed projects. In fact, this is a great time for making decisions, getting expertise, exchanging opinions and getting support on key business issues.
Do you work for the result?
The main mission of Fast Lane Ventures is to turn an idea into a fast-growing, successful business. Therefore, in the success formula of Fast Lane Ventures I would include speed — the ability to quickly move from idea to business, entrepreneurial skill — the ability to innovate and create, responsibility — based on operational discipline and demanding to achieve results, interaction — based on trust and cooperation of all participants teams.
You are a fairly large company. Can you say that you are just like all big corporations?
The values ​​of a young business venture are very different from the well-established corporate management. Large companies are characterized by a long study and decision-making, work on the process, narrow specialization of employees and a long multi-stage career path. Our principles are often diametrically opposite: we work for results, we make quick decisions and the principles of our teamwork imply more initiative, responsibility, participation in making common decisions, and the dynamics of development allows us to grow from junior to leader in six months.
In less than a year, we have attracted more than 500 employees to Fast Lane Ventures and projects.
What does this look like? Where do you find employees, how do you choose and how does their training take place?The growing system of future leaders of Internet companies Junior Project Manager is our very successful find, which solves two problems at once: talented and ambitious young managers learn how to practice managerial entrepreneurship in order to lead one of the new projects Fast Lane Ventures after a while, and the company receives operational support for projects at a very early stage of development.
Last December, together with HeadHunter, we made a joint project aimed at finding young professionals - future managers of Internet projects, received feedback from more than 500 candidates, selected the top 50 resumes, conducted interviews and tests, then the business game revealed the top 10 promising candidates who joined our operational team Fast Lane Ventures. For several months, they performed various operational roles, moving from project to project, thereby gaining diverse management experience.
As a result, in the short six months, two of them have already taken the helm as project leaders. In my opinion, this is a very good result, and we will continue to search and grow talented young managers. Moreover, our initiative has received a great response, and every day we receive dozens of resumes of specialists who would like to work at Fast Lane Ventures.
How do you imagine the career path of the employee Fast Lane Ventures? Given the specifics of the company, is it even possible to talk about career advancement within Fast Lane Ventures?
Of course, in such a dynamically developing company, it is more likely to make a career takeoff than in a stable one, where all positions are distributed. Over the past six months, we have actively recruited people from the external market, because we built projects from scratch, and there were practically no internal resources. Thus, in less than a year, we have attracted more than 500 employees to Fast Lane Ventures and projects.
Our employee is usually 25 - 35 years old, he has a higher education, experience in Internet companies or FMCG companies. Many employees came to us from Western companies - they are closer to us in corporate culture and business processes, and we welcome employees who have worked in both Russian and Western companies, preferably abroad, because such people have a wider outlook, which is not limited by any framework. They understand Western culture, speak English, knowledge of which is also a prerequisite for us.
Among them there are many talented managers who came to leadership positions for the Fast Lane Ventures projects for the first time, because we saw in them the potential and huge motivation for professional growth in the Internet industry. There are a lot of such living examples in the company.
A person who is fired from one company may be ideally suited to another.
How do you select people for management positions in the company?
We have several stages of evaluation, including several interviews, often we give an additional test - work task, as well as check recommendations.
Regarding the ideal candidate - if you quote the full set of qualities that we are looking for in the right candidate, then this is professionalism (transparent career history), energy and initiative, focus on development and results, the ability to show restraint in difficult situations, the ability to adapt to changing conditions, stable experience without unmotivated work shifts and long breaks and, of course, the motivation to work in our company.
We are actively looking for people with international experience and training, since such people usually have a more diverse view, most often they are business-oriented, understand investors' expectations, know how to properly present information, and organize processes well.
Matthew Lannengrand, head of the largest online store Sapato.ru, had never headed a business before joining Fast Lane Ventures. Here he was entrusted with the management of the whole company, and in less than a year he made it the largest online shoe store in Russia with a turnover of $ 2.5 million!
The most successful startup Fast Lane Ventures: online shoe store Sapato.ru
In this process, the importance of the ability of recruitment managers to search for the right people, to know in what ways and where to find them cannot be diminished. And I am pleased with how and with what quality we were able to organize this work. In our case, the HR manager acts as a seller who knows how to intelligently build communication, correctly represent the company, and also identify the person’s motivation.
Are there any features in the corporate culture of the company that it is hard for new employees to get used to? Do you have an adaptation program for this?
Of course. It is often difficult for people to maintain a quality level of their own work at high speeds in the super-fast growth mode of a company.
We have high demands on work discipline and operational quality. Interviewing many candidates, I know for sure that we are more demanding than other companies in this regard.
We have a difficult combination, when, on the one hand, the company expects initiative and gives decision-making to teams, but at the same time there is investor control over the effectiveness of projects.
We openly discuss with candidates even at the interview stage the peculiarities of work in our company, then, when the candidate becomes an employee, we conduct adaptation training for newcomers and before the end of the standard probation period we always meet with everyone and discuss mutual motivation to work together.
We have adopted a dress code, although it is not typical for an Internet business.
What company is intolerable for, why do you fire people?
Dismissal is not easy and individual. Dismissal is most often associated with the incompatibility of the professional and personal qualities of an employee with the work for which he is accepted. And there are a lot of variations, including the rejection of the rules and style of the company. A person who is fired from one company may be ideally suited to another. Everyone has the right to make mistakes, but if he is not able to analyze the shortcomings and repeats the same mistakes, it is better to dismiss him. If an employee for subjective reasons regularly fails to meet the deadlines, fails to fulfill his duties, violates discipline, then obviously the contract with him must be terminated.
What is your attitude to the dress code and corporate events?
We have adopted a dress code - and we understand that this is not typical for an Internet company. But our main employees in the office are managers, and in the center of our corporate culture is business.
The dress code in our company is not the result of someone's whim. Our main office largely performs the presentation function - it is the face of the company, including for potential foreign investors. When projects move to a separate office, a freer style is possible. On Fridays, for example, we have announced a casual style for everyone. But everyone decides for himself.
As for corporate events, our company is still very young, in fact, we have only one more year and 100% of our time has been spent on active growth. So far there has really been no time for corporate events, but of course we are planning them. At the end of the year we want to spend a big corporate New Year party and celebrate our achievements.
And what do you think about the project Upladder.ru?A very relevant project at the right time. Now the recruitment market is changing dramatically. He is very actively going online. If earlier, top managers were looking for work in most cases only through agencies or "their" headhunters, now, even the search for work for them is increasingly moving to the Internet. The task of Upladder is to attract people who are not looking for online work to the Internet search. I sincerely believe in the great success of Upladder in the online recruitment services market.
And yet, from your point of view, what attracts employees most to Fast Lane Ventures?
Our company is the right combination of emotional business and a pragmatic campaign. We all happen very quickly and clearly. We set a goal to make working projects for 50 days, and it may take less than a week from the idea to its launch. It is this kind of work that attracts, perhaps, not everyone, but just those people that we need.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/71588/
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