Thinking about recruiting

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on August 18, 2005

Bernard Moon is thinking about recruiting in general while facing the task for GoingOn in particular:

"Find out what motivates people. What drives your prospective partners? If the sole factors are money and personal glory, I'd think hard about working with that person. Money can cloud judgment and create conflict: For that reason, money can and should be a primary goal, but it shouldn't be the only goal. Things like changing the world and providing a great product must be equally important.

Check egos at the door. A dynamic leader is great; an egomaniacal one is not. Since your goal is to create an environment in which the best ideas boil to the top, it's important that all members of the founding team have an equal voice. People need to feel that they're contributing to the growth of the company---even as the team builds out. Outside of hard executive decisions, I don't believe founders should pull rank in open discussions."

I agree with Bernard that recruiting can produce real headaches when starting a company. But don't overdo it either. Only recruit the best talent but make sure you have a compelling and competitive package to offer. Don't oversell the opportunity and make sure you have people with enough potential and less inflated CVs in your team.