Attract a Great Team to Rocket Your Ready-to-Launch Startup

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Your Team - Founders, CxOs, Directors, Advisors and Others
Towson Univ (MD) Student Launch Pad Startup Weekend*

Continuing our Startup 2.0™ Steps to “Rocket your Ready-to-Launch Startup,” from the Preliminaries and “Creating Superior Business Documentation” now to attracting additional Team members paid on future income. 

A strong Team will not only help your business become more successful, it will impress financial organizations and the other sources of capital.

 You have your core Management Team, generally Founders who are or will become CxOs, and perhaps some Advisors and candidates for a Board of Directors.   Additional Team Members are:

• CxOs – CEO, COO, CTO, CIO, CMO, CSO (Chief Sales/Science/Security Officer), CCO (Chief Capital/Creative Officer), CFO and CLO.  Some Founders have grown to realize that being CEO is not the best use of their time or talent – CTO, CIO or CMO could be better “positions.”  Finding and attracting the additional CxOs to round out the Management Team is not easy, but will create a stronger Team in the long run.
• Board of Directors, if wanted or required for your corporate structure, have fiduciary responsibility as do the CxOs. Don’t overwork your non-Founder and non-CxO Directors with meetings and other engagements. Ask only 2-4 hours per month to review, make constructive suggestions, encourage and promote to company, until opportunities demand more time.
• Advisors – as a Board or independent – typically do not have fiduciary exposure. Ask only 1-4 hours monthly.  These people are powerful additions to your Team.
• Others – Professionals (Attorney, Accountant, Bookkeeper), Partners, Coaches, Suppliers and Interns.
• Many of these Team Members are excellent CxO and Manager candidates.
• Show off names, pictures, summaries and online profile links of all your CxO-level Team in your Overview and Pitch Deck to show your powerful and deep “bench.”  Also add names and short summaries of your Manager-level and other Team members in your Business Plans – they’ll feel appreciated, and it further increases the size of your Team “bench.”

 There are many Creative Compensation Plans:

• CxOs – ramp up from stipend, to a bill-paying salary plus profit sharing via small ownership equivalent to $200K-$500K in 5th year – more if bring Capital, Intellectual Property or key/voluminous customers to the table.
• Non-employee Directors and Advisors – tiny ownership equivalent to $30K-$100K in 5th year.
• Others – reasonable fees or salaries, reduced by equity or profit sharing which could be more in the long run to off-set the waiting and risk.
• Overpaying, especially early on, is frowned upon by financial sources expecting their principal returned with a reasonable ROI or interest.
• All earn their stake as they participate over a period of time – six months to two years, depending on the ramp up of the company product or service.

 Where do you find excellent people?

• Networking: friends, family and associates; professional groups; social media – good way to let your social media friends know your expanding;  Meetup, such as Founders Lab;  LinkedIn – groups and individuals – see what they are saying in posts and comments (via their activity logs);  Google+, Twitter, etc – check groups/lists, activity logs, comments, likes and shares;  especially notice those looking for opportunities or asking to be on boards.
• Advertise on Craigslist, other free outlets and trade publications, all of which can give very good exposure.
• Recruiters may be necessary for critical positions.

More to come on the Startup 2.0™ Steps. 

Feedback and suggestions are always appreciated here, by message or email.

Thank you very much, Kenton, USA 302KentonJ
LinkedIn • BRIEF • TEAM & Aggregate Resume • Startups 2.0™ Meetup
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*Picture via LinkedIn article by Zachary Jones