COFOUNDERS, HIRING AND FIRINGJAKARTA FOUNDER INSTITUTE 2013 – SANNY GADDAFI

COFOUNDERS

JAKARTA FOUNDER INSTITUTE 2013 – SANNY GADDAFI

DO YOU NEED COFOUNDERS?

How many?

How do you create story together?

What skill do you need on the founding team?

LONG TERM COMMITMENT

Background check

Verbal agreement

Try it

Execute it

Lawyers are expensive

COFOUNDER CALCULATOR*Which founders are coding most of the site/app?

Who had the original idea and told the others?

Which founders are working part-time and will join full-time once you get funding

If this founder left, it would severely impact your chances of raising funding

If this founder left, your development schedule would be severely impacted

If this founder left, it would probably prevent us from generating revenue quickly

Who comes up with most of the features?

Who has a spreadsheet with budget estimates or simulations

So far, who pays for basic business expenses like printing business cards, web hosting?

Who pitches investors?

Who is well connected with your target industry, providing introductions to potential customers, journalists and influencers?

* From http://foundrs.com

THE INCENTIVE (EQUITY)

Not everybody understand and appreciate it

Don’t give it away easily

It should be earned, not given

Most precious asset

Is more expensive than cash

Don’t give it to a part-timer contributors

COMMON MISTAKES

Jumping too fast

Issuing too much equity

Not imposing vesting restrictions

Not requiring the execution of employment document

HIRING AND FIRING

JAKARTA FOUNDER INSTITUTE 2013 – SANNY GADDAFI

ALWAYS HIRING

Desperate of talent

Never, ever stop

Give time to learn

Do not hire someone nobody knows

Startup is hard, look for passionate and smart people

You don’t need managers, you need contributors

CHALLENGES

Great talent are rare and in high demand

You can’t pay well and can’t offer any security

Freelancer earn more than you do

WHAT YOU CAN OFFER

Sell your dream

Give them status (cheap)

Equity (is earned, not given)

Respect

Show them how they can make impact on the business

Bonus pool

WHERE CAN I FIND TALENT?

Linkedin (doh!)

Twitter (reference mode)

Facebook groups (community of developers/marketers/etc)

Student association

Job fair

Build relationship with universities that have internship program

FIRING FAST

3 months trial, check if the CV is true :p

Create a KPI

Ask the employee to create a timeline

Always do a performance review