Amy Skinner | Learnings

Building teams for scale – 2 founder insights you need to know

#Sunrise18 was a bounty of knowledge and experience shared by founders and business leaders. We’ve taken away 2 key insights from the day to share with you.

Importance of vision

Vision

Laurie Yoler from Zoox reminds us that having a compelling business vision is at the epicentre of growth and success.  A truly compelling vision is purpose driven, it might make a difference to humanity or it may challenge social norms.  A business vision with gravitational pull inspires dreams and future potential in the minds of prospective employees.

The reality is, x-factor candidates are more likely to bet on a startup with a thrilling vision over a high paying comfortable opportunity with a poor vision.

Scale

To scale your startup effectively, Laurie has learnt that surrounding yourself with the smartest and kindest people across many disciplines is paramount to your success.  Hiring diverse thinkers leverages outside inspiration and ultimately gives your startup a competitive edge. Chris Iona, Founder of Future Pass also pushed this point home, advocating the benefits of building cross-functional teams to safeguard growth.

Attraction

Fitting in the box is old news. Instead, take opportunities to hire pros with an atypical career trajectory.  The right people for your business have taken risks, learnt from life experiences and own a colourful portfolio of projects.  These are the individuals who will help to push the boundaries of your startup.

Building for your blind spots

Deciding who to bring into your business at a given time can make or break your growth and culture.  To truly scale a business, you need capable leaders from diverse backgrounds to make significant impact.

Genevieve Gilmore, CPO at Prosper Education says knowing your blind spots (the skills and experience you don’t have) is critical. The most successful founders build teams around their blind spots allowing for fresh perspectives and holistic thinking.

Be critical about the gaps in your experience and hire for them!

If you’re seeking your next atypical recruit to make an impact like no other – get in touch with us at Onset.

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