Fundamentals for Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur: From Business Idea to Launch and Management

6. Finding Team Members and Building an Entrepreneurial Organization

6.0 Overview

When you’re in a start-up, the first ten people will determine whether the company succeeds or not. Each is 10 percent of the company. So why wouldn’t you take as much time as necessary to find all the A players? If three were not so great, why would you want a company where 30 percent of your people are not so great? A small company depends on great people much more than a big company does. —Steve Jobs

We know few quotes from famous technology entrepreneurs that capture the critical importance of the first hires of a new venture like this one from the co-founder of Apple. In this chapter we discuss some of the critical steps in finding the right people and building ...