I recently read a couple of items on startup teams and stock ownership (People and Ownership was one of them). I understand all the angst about equity percentages (after all, it makes it easier to justify working 100 hour weeks with a shoestring budget), but before I can worry about the ownership, I have to find the people, and, to change the song just a tad, it's hard out there for startups.
So, in the ideal startup, the founder will have one or two awesomely qualified buddies with complementary skills, they'd all have worked together before (in perfect harmony of course), and they'd happily work out ownership, roles (somehow only one of them would even think of being the CEO) and bootstrap their new venture with no worries. Every entrepreneur's dream.
In the not-so-perfect world, the founder's best buddies can't dream of bootstrapping as they need fat corporate paychecks (and oooh! health care benefits!) to cushion their family, or they'd really, really love the idea but have just taken a great job in a funded company with great options and can they get back to you next year, or they've upped and moved to another country to experience the globalization first hand.
It's not a matter of being able to attract people to your idea - it's a matter of finding them.
Its partly due to the economy of course. Things are better than they were in 2003. Some of it may be the skill level you're looking for. Early stage teams need those who bring in more savvy than the grads fresh out of school, and there are fewer of the savvy types available.
Conventional wisdom has it that one should only hire through referrals. I see the point. It's better to have a friend of a friend of a friend than a total stranger - the credo of all social networks. Onto emailing, calling, buying lunches and lattes, spreading the word as much as possible.
Email blasts to social/professional clubs? Craigslist? Alumni lists? Hmmm...Blogs and MySpace? Not your usual fishing ponds. Why not blast it to the whole wide world? After all connecting the dots through friends and acquaintances is a slow process, though fun (good excuse to catch up with your networks), and the net is not as wide. I guess if you don't mind sifting through loads of straight-to-trash responses to find the one worth a reply, it could be an option.
What I've learned (and am re-experiencing) is that you need patience, a stick-with-it-ness. Entrepreneurs would rather be building the company than searching for people, but as the very valid cliche goes, people are the company. The formula is nothing exotic, just patience, along with the hard work of searching. You have to put in the effort of contant networking even if it's a drag. (It's a little more bearable if you can also put in some work on your business too - you feel better if you're making progress somewhere, and add some polish to your venture.)
For every ten people who connect with, you may find one prospect, and if you keep it up, sooner or later you'll find the one you're looking for. As this is the same advice given to job seekers, there's a chance the one you're seeking is seeking you too. And keep talking to those old buddies you've worked with before, maybe one of them will decide that those other stock options are not worth as much as yours - now you can prep for the ownership percentage talk.
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