How to hire a founding team for your NYC startup

As the founder of a NYC startup, there are a lot of different things to consider. However, few are as important as who you add to your founding team. You can’t run a successful business on your own and it’s critical that you surround yourself with the right people. The trouble is that finding the “right people” is exponentially more challenging than putting an ad online.

 

 

Whether it consists of two people or five people, your founding team will have an extremely influential impact on your company’s future. Each individual brings their own ideas, personalities, and talents to the table, which will guide the trajectory of the business and point it towards success or failure. 

 

Thankfully, NYC startups have advantages that many other startups around the country don’t have. When it comes to building your founding team, you have access to some of the world’s top talent – all within a few square miles. In many cities and regions of the country, entrepreneurs have to travel, relocate their businesses, or jump through hoops just to find a couple of like-minded people willing to work. That’s rarely the case in NYC. With some diligence, you can find your starting team close by.

 

 

Don’t be mistaken, though. Finding and hiring your founding team isn’t easy. Before diving into some techniques for finding talent, let’s quickly look at some of the skills and characteristics you should look for in these hires.

 

Complimentary skills. “Look for somebody who likes to do what you don’t and is really good at what you’re not,” entrepreneur Tim Jahn advises. “You want a co-founder who brings everything you’re missing to the table so as a team, you’re the complete package.” This is true of every member of the founding team. You want to find people who have the same goals and visions, but possess different skill sets and talents for getting there.

 

High character. Everything around you is going to change. The market shifts, customers come and go, the company will pivot, and employees will be hired and let go. The one thing that shouldn’t change is the character of your founding members. When everything else is altered, strong character remains true. Learn how to be a good judge of character and hire people who will stand strong in the midst of changing tides.

 

Leadership. While you may be the undeniable leader of your startup, everyone on the founding team is in some sort of leadership role. In the future, each individual could have dozens of people underneath them. That’s why Karen Milde, entrepreneur and CEO of Reframe Marketing Inc., calls the ability to lead “the bedrock of building a team.” If you want your startup to be built on a strong foundation, it’s critical that your founding team is able to lead.

 

There are a handful of other characteristics to look for – including passion, experience, and self-motivation – but these three are arguably the most important. Keep them in mind as you begin your talent search.

 

 

The question many startup founders have is “how and where do I find the members of my founding team?” With so much on the line, you can’t afford to mess up. While there’s no perfect mathematical equation to success, the following tips have helped countless startups in the NYC area. 

 

 

The first place to start is obviously within your own networking circles. You do, however, have to be cautious here. If you get too personal, you’ll end up looking to close friends and family members. While there’s nothing wrong with friends and family, it’s often best to avoid placing them on your founding team. If you want to hire or involve some of them in the future, that’s fine. But the founding team doesn’t need any bias, personal conflict, or drama.

 

One option is to join local entrepreneurship groups. There are dozens in NYC, with large ones having thousands of members and small ones consisting of just a handful of folks. By becoming an active member of these groups, you can get a feel for who the city’s “movers and shakers” are, what they’re doing, and where they’re going.

 

 

Some startups shy away from young talent, but don’t be too picky. Sometimes the best talent is that which is young and impressionable. One of the great things about NYC is the local college and university talent pool. While renowned schools include Columbia University, NYU, and St. John’s University, there are literally dozens of others scattered throughout New York. By aligning your startup with one of these local schools, you can hopefully develop a pipeline for new hires.

 

 

You have to be careful with this one – as you don’t want to create a bad name for yourself – but strategically targeting employees from other companies is a method many successful startups have used. The logic is that most talented and skilled people already have jobs. In many cases, they have no loyalty to their current jobs, though. If you hear about someone through a reference, don’t be afraid to take them out to lunch or chat with them. Just because they have a current job doesn’t mean they’ll refuse your offer.