The Ultimate Start-Up Guide

6

Building the Team

OLD DETROIT SAYING

BUY A USED CAR FROM A FRIEND AND YOU’LL WIND UP WITH A USED FRIEND.

CROWDED OCEAN

SAME FOR STARTING A COMPANY WITH A FAMILY MEMBER OR CLOSE FRIEND.

JUHA CHRISTENSEN (SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR)

TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL START-UP, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CYNIC ON YOUR TEAM. OR MARRY ONE.

THERE IS A ROMANTIC IMAGE OF THE LONE WOLF start-up entrepreneur. They do exist (see for example, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson). But for every lone wolf, there are 10 start-ups that began with a core team. Steve Jobs had his Steve Wozniak; Larry Ellison had Bob Miner and Ed Oates; Mark Zuckerberg had his Harvard posse; and Google, YouTube, Palo Alto Networks, and WhatsApp were all led by teams of co-founders. You get the point. And ...