20140917 Founder Institute Team and Advisors Talk v3

8/11/2019 20140917 Founder Institute Team and Advisors Talk v3

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Teams & AdvisorsLessons learned from common mistakes

Christian Wolf @

Founder Institute Berlin Autumn 2014



vertraulich |November 10 2

Christian Wolf / photography by http://christinefiedler.de/

Involved in 3 startups since 2007 from Berlin to Helsinki

Founded WIRKAUFENS / asgoodasnew in 2008

> 100 employees, in Germany, Austria, Spain, Poland

8-figure revenues

Capital raised to date > 10 m EUR



Once your‘re successful people tend to look at your journey as if had been a walk in the park...



But you will know that parts of that journey felt more

like a death march...

Horizon Pictures/ Columbia Pictures



http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=207782cc by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterfuchs/

Especially in tough times, remember 2 things:



Agenda

Lessons learned from common mistakes

Choosing a co-founder

Choosing key advisors



If you are 5 business graduates don‘t start a business together

Lessons learned

•

„Two co-founders are perfect. One founder companies can work, against the

odds. So can three founder companies. [...] Four is an extremely unstable

configuration and five is right out. When 4-5 founder companies work, it’sbecause two founders dominate.“ – venturehacks.com

•

Always have a builder and a seller on the team• Pick „nice“ people

Contributed by Waldemar Zeiler, Gamegoods.de, Universum Film



Try to switch to hiring experts early on, always hire people whoare smarter than you

cc by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/

Lessons learned

•

„Hire ambition over experience“! „Hire only junior people“•

Smarter = can perform the desired tasks better than you



Running the company together with my spouse (best friend)can be a bad idea

cc by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/lel4nd/

Lessons learned

• Always talk to your co-founders in great detail & with great care

about their motivation, willingness to put in work, to „hang inthere“ & what happens if things go wrong.

•

Align motives 100% and don‘t settle for the guy/gal who justhappened to be there.

• Do it before starting the company.

• Break-ups are hard, enough having to go solo in business.



Summary: Tips for choosing a co-founder... and early employees...

• Never walk alone. Have at least somebody to lift you up when

you are down.• Try to be 2 founders... If you are 5 make an effort to agree that

2 are leading the pack. Not everybody can be CxO.

• Have a builder and a seller on the (leading) team.

• There can be only 1 CEO! He has the last word. Always.

• Pick „nice“ people = good values, chemistry

• Very early on, make an effort to...

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/+#6



Because this is so important...

• Aligning motives:

•

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• B(#*+ " 65(9#+'

•

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• Setting rules for team play means:

•

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• E/( 4(+, /(- '30/ :)'+=

• E/( $&*+,., /(- '30/ :'(&+71$&=

• E/( %+., /(- '30/ :'(&+71(3.; ,/"5+,=



Outsourcing isn‘t always more efficient or cheaper

cc by-nd/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/machotels/

Lessons learned• Never outsource core activities where quality is key. Quality

can also mean fast, reliable, friendly service, not only productquality.

• Learn all you need to know or hire experts in all relevant fields

to fulfill your core services at high quality & low cost• Any service provider will do what he is paid for, but neither he

nor his employees will really burn to provide exceptionalservice and go the extra mile. Your people will.



Don‘t leave the contracts to the lawyers

cc by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/buddawiggi/

Lessons learned

NEVER EVER LET LAWYERS DO SOMETHING WITHOUT

SUPERVISION. PERIOD.

REPEAT: NEVER!

Instead:

•

Always aim at detailed term sheets• Take time for briefings

•

Have somebody mentor you who has been through this before

• Try to learn the legalese



Choosing key advisors

• Advisors vs. Mentors vs. Consultants

• Consultants you will definitely need:

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• @((4 0(56(5".+ #"-7+5 -$./ +L6+5$+&0+ $& ,."5.136, J MK

•

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• Consultants you explicitly do not need (in early stage):

•

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P+"5 97 FJP=

•

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Working with advisors

• Have a clear goal (introduction and help in negotiating a deal withCEO of ABC, Inc., raising a seed round of 500K+, etc.). Otherwise

the person is a mentor...

• Try before you buy – ask questions, could he teach the subject, does

he really know XY since kindergarten, ...

• Don‘t pay advisors, let them pay you (opportunity to invest)

• If necessary, options or shares in the range of 0.1%-0.5% of post-

Series A stock (VCs in Europe don‘t particularly like this, though)

• Reset if something isn‘t working (honor agreements and pay what is

fair but have vesting, etc.)



Thanks for listening – hope it will serve you well

More words of wisdom...

Blog: http://www.nu-technologies.de

Twitter: @nu_technologies

cc by sa2 0/ http://www flickr com/photos/kalidoskopika/

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20140917 Founder Institute Team and Advisors Talk v3

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