Assembling a startup team is harder than assembling 10 IKEA dressers, and the parts are much larger. Starting with the idea that 90% of startups will fail and the most successful ones take an average of six years to IPO, the founders must warn them and decide that they will be invited to join the core team. Will that star engineer be a great CTO? What should be the opinion of your product person or team player? Are you the best choice for CEO?
ThoughtSpot CEO Sudheesh Nair shared some of his thoughts on building a strong leadership team and created a thorough checklist for entrepreneurs who are keeping the crew together, his initial advice? “Investors like founder-CEOs, and founders are often fantastic candidates for this role. But not everyone can do it well, and more importantly, not everyone wants it.”
In a related article, Greg Adkin, VP and managing director of Dell Technologies Capital shares the structure he has created to help the founders form aboard. Choosing the right combination of people can affect everything from fundraising to hiring: “Investors often ask founders about their board [because] it says a lot about their character, their judgment, and their willingness to challenge,” he wrote.
Miranda Halpern spoke to Amsterdam-based coach Ward Van Gasteren for our latest Growth Marketing interview, which is free to read. In their discussion, Van Gasteren resolved the misconceptions about growth hacking, the mistakes that most startups are likely to make, and the differences he draws between growth hacking and growth marketing:
“Growth hacking is great for starting growth, exploring new opportunities, and seeing what strategies work,” he tells us. “Marketers should be where the growing hackers left off: create those strategies, maintain customer engagement, and keep the strategies fresh and relevant.” Thank you so much for reading Extra Crunch this week; I hope you have a great weekend.
In his first column since returning to TechCrunch, reporter Ryan Lawler considered that the purchase of a potential Ripples Square in Afterpay could now send across the buying pond, later paying startups. For comments and perspectives, he interviewed:
- TX Zhuo, partner, Fika Ventures
- Matthew Harris, partner, Bain Capital Ventures
- Dan Rosen, founder and general partner, Commerce Ventures
- Jake Gibson, founding partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures
The investors he spoke with agreed that payment delays help drive e-commerce, “but scale issues and long-term margins look thin for BNPL startups.”
