In my experience, Vision, Capital and Team are the three critical ingredients to create a world-class company from scratch. Of these three, I would pick Team as the secret sauce for creating that winning company. While people tend to be important for any organization, it becomes super critical in start-ups, given the challenging rollercoaster ride it is! And the 5Cs listed below are the traits I have constantly sought while forming my teams both at ShopClues.com and Droom.in and I have been validated that these matter more than anything else.
1. Commitment: Startups require nothing less than 100% commitment. I have pushed myself to commit it all to my startups and have expected similar commitment from my core team members too. I lived in Silicon Valley when I founded ShopClues and when I took that big leap to move back to India for it, my core team members – who were also living in the US then, joined me in it. While I gave up my lucrative wall street career to take this leap, other team members – who were among the best professionals across industries – were also willing to incur high opportunity costs by joining in at low salaries (of course with the possibility of big upsides through stocks). I have been truly fortunate to have created teams that have been totally committed to the startup’s vision and to each other.
2. Character: Company culture and fate of a startup hinges on the character of every single team member. One hack I used was to answer to myself if I would let my sibling date and marry the person in front of me – which required me to take a close look at what the person stood for and if they would stand by through thick or thin.
3. Craving: Fire in the bellies of team members fuel startup’s chances at success. And what I have seen is that indigestion kills more often than hunger. Find team members who are hungry and passionate to create an impact. With that hunger, even simple interactions – be it over a meal or at a pub – presents an opportunity to come up with that magical idea!
4. Capacity: Startups present challenges and opportunities at various levels. In order to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities, one needs to learn and unlearn multiple things at a breakneck speed. Team members’ headroom for learning and growth become critical for ensuring the startup does not flounder in the wake of existential challenges or sudden traction.
5. Capability: While the above 4Cs pertain to the values of an individual, capability pertains to the hard skills and experience the person brings to the table. I have found time and again that being uncompromising on the core values while offering some leeway on the capability front still works out well, given capability can be developed over time or compensated for.
What are you waiting for? Go out, look for people with these 5Cs and create that winner startup!
Sandeep Aggarwal is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, internet visionary and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as the father of marketplaces in the Indian Internet ecosystem – having founded ShopClues (2011) – India’s first managed marketplace, which became 5th Unicorn in Consumer Internet in India & Droom (2014) – India’s first marketplace for automobiles. Sandeep is passionate about Digitizing India through mentoring startups, especially on entrepreneurship traits and skills.
Twitter: sandeepagg
