Modern approaches to building your early-stage startup team
You need more resources to accomplish your startup’s goals. Who do you hire and how?
As you start to consider the people you need to get to your next stage of growth, traditional early-stage team building often sounds something like – “I’m dedicating the funds from my initial round to go to a few sales hires and engineers. We’ll use a marketing agency and a few consulting contractors to help us with what we can’t do as a founding team.” In the early days when you’re resource-light, most founders take on the role of the generalist (even if they’re not great generalists themselves), and build around them with key specialist full-time hires and agencies to fill in the rest.
However, as the world of work continues to change rapidly, many options outside the traditional model are often better suited to the early days than the current suite considered by most founders, VCs, and advisors. Many of these models were built off of the pain points of traditional models.
How DO you build a superstar team that will help you get to the next stage of growth?
Add your team members based on output, not hours.
Why This Works
Most hiring strategies leveraging traditional models of team-building follow a bottom-up model, starting with missing inputs that will lead to a key output. “We’re focused on founder-led sales, and we need to increase sales to grow, so let’s hire a salesperson.” Consider approaching this with a top-down mentality, starting with your desired output and being open to the variety of inputs that can lead you to that output. You can then match output to resources more effectively. “We need sales to increase 22% MoM to keep our burn rate consistent enough to get to our next round. What are all the ways we can get to that sales increase, and which gives us the best ROI? We could consider a FTE sales hire, a sales agency, an AI BDR tool with a great sales & customer success generalist, etc.”
After you assess your team's skill gaps, consider what you need to reach your goals. This will lead you to a clear understanding of the output you’re looking to achieve, instead of instinctually saying "Well, we can’t hire for this gap full-time, so we could use a customer success contractor for 10 hours a week to work on this.” Thinking in this way turns away from a scarcity model, and towards one of abundance. It’ll open you up to modern ways of working and building teams, allowing you to be open to optionality in a way that gives you a new sense of control.
Why Do This Now
As we’re all now well aware, the pandemic has reframed how we work, opening doors to new models and opportunities for building teams. To that end, the freelancer revolution is just getting started, with McKinsey estimating that there will be 500 million freelancers working through platforms before 2030. The suite of resources available to founders goes far beyond hiring a full-timer, an agency, or a contractor off of a traditional freelance platform like Upwork or Fiverr, and it’s only going to grow from here.
Consider that these new models are growing in scale and impact because existing models aren’t right-sized for the modern startup.
Full-time hires require resources far beyond an annual salary. Time off and healthcare benefits, coaching and mentoring by the founder and founding leaders, as well as learning and development, are all the responsibility of your startup. These hidden costs can be a lot for early founders to manage and build into the early days.
Agencies bring experienced specialists driving key output, but their often consultative approach can make their team members feel out-of-touch with the day-to-day operations, and often managing these resources is as much work – and as expensive – as a full-timer.
Freelance contractors provide a resource-light way to gap-fill where needed. But filling an early-stage team with all contractors from referrals or platforms can make your team feel loosely strung together. Most freelancers don’t have a professional infrastructure, so you may not be certain they have the support and resources to be successful when you give them feedback on areas they need to improve.
Beyond the fact that the pool of resources for building your early teams is larger than ever before, bringing an innovative approach to your early hiring puts you in control of how you build your operations. In the early days, you can intentionally design your internal product. Modern operations are the art and science of considering your tools, processes, and people that make up a system for how things get done and the outputs will be as unique as the inputs. Remember: there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
how We Do: how to build your team with modern methodologies.
Here are key ways that founders can build outside of traditional models. We’ll break down each model like an expert generalist. As not only doers, but builders, generalists leverage the tools, rules, and people needed to create effective systems.
Team-based Hiring
Introduction to Team-based Hiring (Huddle)
Somewhere along the way, being a founder and finding a team became challenging. Bloated agencies, endless LinkedIn searches, stodgy job boards, freelancer marketplaces for lower-skill tasks, and finding the perfect mix of people — all while needing to move fast.
Tools: 🛠️ - this is an example of a company in this model
You've heard of pop-up shops, but did you know there are pop-up teams? Huddle is a network that helps startups build a team in < 1 week. Huddle makes it easier to scale through community, tapping the kind of teammates you'd meet through friends. A vetted community of builders, designers, and marketers from Square, Airbnb, Red Antler, etc.
Rules (Process): 📝 - this is how they work
How: A founder/startup comes to Huddle with goals they are trying to achieve and/or the project they need to complete. Simply tell Huddle what you need and within 5 days or less Huddle will match you with a team or expert. Proposal sent, approved, voila! You’re ready to roll.
Types of projects: Spin up an Agency Team to deliver a brand kit, design a new feature, launch a campaign, or hire fractional, flexible talent to plug into your existing team. Need someone to advise and dream with? Advisors are available too.
Huddle makes it easy:
One simple monthly invoice, no matter how many teammates you reserve.
Pay members in cash, equity, or tokens.
If the scope changes along the way, Huddle brings on new team members as needed.
After 3 months with a Huddler, you can hire them full-time if the feeling is mutual.
Easy peasy.
People: 🫶 - this is who works in them
Huddle has helped 100+ Startups, with a focus on pre-seed to Series B companies, who have at least a $10K budget, or $5k/month over three months.
“The model works for startups, and I continue to think of new things I could use Huddle for. The builders are experts, but the real value is in “The Huddle Way.” The managed process saved me time and made it easy to focus on fundraising and running Packsmith.” — CEO, Packsmith
“If you’re looking to get matched with an incredibly talented team that moves fast and understands startup speed, Huddle should be your only choice.” – Founder, Jameo
Huddle is still in beta and only taking on select startups. Use code "OAT" to beat the line when signing up.
Freelance Communities
Introduction to Freelance Communities (Freelance Founders)
Instead of hiring from a platform, consider hiring from a freelance community. By tapping into a diverse talent pool, startups gain access to specialized skills without the commitment of full-time employment. Freelancers offer cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and scalability, allowing businesses to adapt to changing demands. The faster hiring process, along with reduced administrative burdens, frees up valuable time for core team members to focus on strategic tasks. Additionally, freelancers bring fresh perspectives and innovation, drawing from their varied experiences across industries.
Tools: 🛠️ - this is an example of a company in this model
Freelance Founders is the home of the independent creative.
A private membership network connects top talent globally offering a digital space to connect, collaborate, and grow.
Top-tier talent is going freelance—Freelance Founders’ curated community is comprised of award-winning creatives and marketers behind brands like Apple, Hulu, Vogue, Instagram, Google, and more.
Rules (Process): 📝 - this is how they work
The Membership Advisory Board vets every single application and helps you find the right freelancers for your scope.
Get high-quality, on-demand talent without the mark-up or commission charge. Mid-to-senior freelancers are highly skilled and autonomous workers who can flex to fit your needs.
People: 🫶 - this is who works in them
Private membership gives top-tier talent access to exclusive job opportunities, professional development resources and templates, and a community of like-minded creatives to collaborate with.
Get connected with clients that value thoughtful creative.
Meet other freelancers from across the world for support and collaboration.
Learn from experts and get access to exclusive resources and templates.
Multi-functional Operating Partners
Introduction to Multi-functional Operating Partners (of All Trades)
While many models focus on accessing specialists, many startups need multi-functional operators to get them to their next stage. A multi-functional operator bringing cross-functional support to teams. Fueled by a collective of expert generalists, this model removes key individual dependency and decreases speed to hire while spreading resources across functions.
Tools: 🛠️ - this is an example of a company in this model
of All Trades (oAT) is generalists-as-a-service for startups who need multi-functional doers with cross-functional expertise.
oAT is a model built for the future of work, allowing startups to build and scale by leveraging output-based work from multi-functional generalist operators, which when coupled with a collective of peers, allows the team to collaborate, learn, and develop.
From solo founders to scaling YC-backed startups, this model provides founders with an integral resource that can produce the required output based on a startup’s stage-specific needs.
oAT is deliberately integral, not fractional - generalists are embedded within the culture of the organization to develop and enhance internal product management. This provides a framework to not only problem-solve and gap-fill but also execute such strategies.
Rules (Process): 📝 - this is how they work
The oAT team is proactive, strategic, and analytical. We co-create solutions, bring fresh perspectives, and require light oversight.
We join stand-ups, brainstorming, working sessions, 1:1s, and others as needed. We assimilate to working styles and systems as we drive important work forward.
This creates a model that leans on speed, efficiency, and flexibility while being woven into the fiber of the internal structures of your company.
oAT generalists drive impact by serving as a founder-proxy and extending a founder’s reach either by being “first in seat” or “filling a gap” while building structures and systems that work to support your business and scale alongside your growth.
We consider industry-leading best practices while helping to steer clear of the shiny object syndrome.
People: 🫶 - this is who works in them
As opposed to a fractional or consulting model, of All Trades generalists are embedded within the startups that they support.
Generalists maintain a broad, cross-functional skill set, to serve as a genuine operational thought partner, as opposed to simply an executional or strategic partner.
Generalists at oAT are most often M-shaped operators which allow us to drive cross-functional reach and impact.
Good generalists are doers, but great generalists are builders. We bring a builder mentality, automating and creating the foundational infrastructure of any startup.
Take It Up A Level
Using AI to Improve how You Do:
Before considering any type of hiring, leverage tools and AI to help your team make its resources go further by extending the reach of your team.
Mapping your output to your resources
Create a decision tree of different hiring resources mapping to one of the aforementioned options.
Consider how each approach would play into the larger structures that you have established within your organization and how they can unlock new opportunities.
Dive deeper into your goals and OKRs to determine the desired outputs. Align those outputs with your resources.
Actually Actionable
Nice article. Now what?
We’ve taken the ideas above and put them into a summary to take to your team, with key contact info for each of the resources provided within.
how We Do | Team Building for {Our Startup} Using Modern Models
Contemplate the gaps in both your operations and your team (45 minutes).
What works well?
What isn’t working?
Where do you need additional help?
Reverse engineer the outputs that you are solving for (45 minutes).
How do your resources align with these outputs?
How do they align with your OKRs?
What roadblocks do you foresee?
What growth channels could be unlocked?
Consider the various models of hiring and how they fit into your growth plans (30 minutes):
Traditional FTE
Team-based Hiring (Huddle)
Freelance Communities (Freelance Founders)
Multi-functional Operating Partners (of All Trades)
The future of work is championing alternative models such as team-based hiring, freelance communities, and multi-functional operating partners. We’ve explored modern approaches to building an early-stage startup team while highlighting the importance of focusing on output as opposed to hours when adding team members. But how do you best manage all of the different types of profiles of people on your team? More on that next week.
___
Writer: Britt