Part 4 Your team: Building it, sizing it, aligning it
I am co-opting Gloria Steinem’s quote about self-esteem when I say “It’s not that team is everything; it’s just that there is nothing without it.” That makes this part of the book very important to make sure you are attracting and retaining the best possible team. The anecdotes in this part are as follows:
- Hire slowly—and correctly
- Beyond foosball: Crafting a positive culture that retains your team
- Does a startup need both a CEO and a COO?
- Marketing: Too often a startup’s afterthought
- The right character for your sales leader—and when to hire them
The first anecdote in this part is about hiring. As I like to say, “Hire slowly, fire quickly.” This anecdote is also about how to hire correctly. The next anecdote, on culture, is about attracting and retaining the best people you can for what you are trying to accomplish. A key point is that the CEO must create and maintain the culture and that it needs to start on day one—it can’t wait.
I then offer a series of three anecdotes that dive into specific roles (or titles) in the ranks of senior staff that create common challenges for the CEO. These three anecdotes cover, respectively, the chief operations officer (COO), chief marketing officer (CMO), and VP sales or chief revenue officer (CRO).