Human Resources - How to Build a Startup

Summary

The video script emphasizes the importance of human resources in startups, distinguishing between finding qualified employees and securing mentors, teachers, coaches, and advisers. It highlights the roles of each: teachers for specific subjects, coaches for honing skills, mentors for personal career growth through a two-way relationship, and advisers for company success. The script advises startups to expand their circle of accumulated wisdom beyond just investors, offering equity for valuable advice to ensure a diverse range of expertise.

Takeaways

• 🧑‍💼 People are a key resource in startups, categorized into employees and mentors/teachers/coaches/advisers for personal growth and company success.
• 🔎 Finding qualified employees is crucial for the operational aspect of a startup.
• 🤔 Identifying mentors, teachers, coaches, and advisers is essential for personal and professional development.
• 👨‍🏫 Teachers are for learning specific subjects, while coaches are for honing specific skills or achieving set goals.
• 🏅 Coaches can help with skills such as creating presentations or managing people, unlike teachers who focus on subjects.
• 📚 Mentors provide a two-way relationship, advancing personal careers and offering guidance based on mutual learning and affection.
• 💡 Mentors are different from teachers and coaches in that they contribute to personal success and are not just focused on teaching or coaching.
• 🤝 Building a relationship with mentors involves giving and receiving, reflecting on the types of people encountered in one's career.
• 🛠 Advisers are critical for company success, offering advice that may not be personalized but is essential for business decisions.
• 🔮 Advisers can help determine if a founder's vision is realistic and provide experienced insights to the company's leadership and staff.
• 📈 An 'advisory board' can be formed early on, expanding the circle of accumulated wisdom beyond just investors, often involving equity for their time.

Q & A

What are the two categories of people important in a startup according to the transcript?

The two categories are finding qualified employees and finding mentors, teachers, coaches, or advisers for personal development and guidance.

What is the primary role of a mentor as described in the script?

A mentor's role is to advance one's personal career through a two-way relationship where they care enough about the mentee to provide guidance and also potentially learn from them.

How does the script differentiate between a teacher and a coach?

A teacher is someone you find to learn a specific subject, while a coach is hired to help hone specific skills or reach an exact goal.

What is the purpose of hiring a coach according to the transcript?

The purpose of hiring a coach is to improve specific skills or achieve a particular goal, such as creating great presentations or managing people effectively.

What is the difference between mentors and advisers as per the transcript?

Mentors focus on personal success and growth, while advisers are more about helping advance the company's success and provide generic advice that can be useful to various members of the company.

Why should founders be careful about limiting their advisers to just investors?

Founders should be careful because investors, while they can be advisers, are also their bosses, and may not have the specific domain expertise needed for every aspect of the business.

What is an advise report as mentioned in the script?

An advise report is a concept that refers to expanding one's circle of accumulated wisdom, similar to an investment, by gathering advice from a diverse set of advisers.

What mistake do first-time founders often make regarding advisers, according to the transcript?

First-time founders often make the mistake of thinking that investors are their only advisers, which can limit the range of advice and expertise they receive.

How can a startup typically secure the services of advisers?

Typically, a startup can secure the services of advisers by offering them a small percentage of equity in exchange for their time and advice.

What is the importance of expanding the series of advisers available to a company as per the script?

Expanding the series of advisers is important to ensure a diverse range of perspectives and expertise, which can help the company avoid relying solely on the advice of investors who may not have specific domain knowledge.

Why should a founder also consider becoming a mentor themselves?

A founder should consider becoming a mentor because it is part of the reciprocal nature of mentorship where they can also learn from their mentees, contributing to their own growth and development.

Outlines

00:00

🤝 The Role of People in Startups

This paragraph discusses the importance of human resources in a startup, distinguishing between the two main categories of people: qualified employees and mentors or advisors. It emphasizes the difference between mentors, teachers, and coaches, with mentors focusing on personal career growth, teachers on specific subjects, and coaches on honing specific skills. The speaker also highlights the importance of finding advisers to help advance the company's success, rather than relying solely on investors who may not have the required domain expertise. The paragraph concludes with the suggestion to expand the circle of advisers by offering equity in exchange for their time and advice.

Keywords

💡Human Resources (HR)

Human Resources, often abbreviated as HR, refers to the department or function within an organization that is responsible for managing employees and their development. In the context of the video, HR is highlighted as a key resource for startups, emphasizing the importance of finding qualified employees and also personal mentorship for the founder.

💡Qualified Employees

Qualified employees are individuals who possess the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications required for a specific job role. The video emphasizes the importance of finding such individuals for a startup, as they are crucial for the company's growth and success.

💡Mentors

A mentor is someone who offers guidance, advice, and support to help another person grow personally and professionally. In the video, mentors are distinguished from teachers and coaches by their role in advancing personal career growth and their two-way relationship, where both parties learn from each other.

💡Teachers

A teacher is a person who imparts knowledge or instructs in a particular subject. The script mentions teachers in the context of learning specific subjects, as opposed to coaches who focus on honing specific skills.

💡Coaches

Coaches are professionals who help individuals improve specific skills or achieve particular goals. The video script uses the example of hiring a coach to learn how to create great presentations or manage people, highlighting their role in skill development.

💡Personal Career

Personal career refers to an individual's professional journey, including their growth, achievements, and development over time. The video discusses the role of mentors, teachers, and coaches in advancing one's personal career, indicating the importance of continuous learning and improvement.

💡Advisers

Advisers in the context of the video are individuals who provide guidance to help advance the success of a company. Unlike mentors, teachers, and coaches who focus on personal success, advisers offer generic advice that can benefit the entire organization, including the founder, VPs, and staff.

💡Vision

Vision in a business context refers to the long-term goals or aspirations of a company or individual. The video mentions the importance of advisers to help determine whether a founder's vision is realistic or a hallucination, underlining the need for experienced advice to validate and shape the company's direction.

💡Investors

Investors are individuals or entities that provide capital for a business in exchange for equity or other forms of return. The script cautions founders against relying solely on investors for advice, as they may not possess the specific domain expertise required and also have a dual role as 'bosses'.

💡Equity

Equity in a business sense refers to ownership interest in a company. The video suggests offering a small percentage of equity to advisers as a way to expand the circle of accumulated wisdom for the company, indicating a common practice in startups to compensate for advice and guidance.

💡Accumulated Wisdom

Accumulated wisdom refers to the collective knowledge and experience gained over time. The video emphasizes the idea of expanding one's circle of accumulated wisdom through advisers as a form of investment in the company's success, beyond just financial investment.

Highlights

Key resource in startups is people, categorized into two: qualified employees and mentors/teachers/coaches/advisers for personal growth.

Mentors, teachers, and coaches are for advancing personal career with teachers for subjects, coaches for skills, and mentors for overall guidance.

Mentors are a two-way street, helping you while learning from you, unlike teachers and coaches focused on specific areas.

Mentors are chosen based on personal connection and mutual learning, not just because they are experts.

Advisers are for company success, providing generic advice to founders, VPs, and staff, unlike mentors focused on personal success.

Advisers help validate the founder's vision and provide experienced advice, expanding the company's accumulated wisdom.

Founders often make the mistake of limiting their advisers to investors, who may lack specific domain expertise needed.

It's important to expand the circle of advisers beyond just investors for diverse perspectives and expertise.

Advisers are typically offered a small equity stake in exchange for their time and advice to the company.

The transcript emphasizes the importance of mentors, teachers, coaches, and advisers in the success of startups.

Differentiating between these roles is crucial for founders to leverage them effectively for personal and company growth.

Finding the right mentors and advisers is key to accelerating learning and avoiding costly mistakes in startups.

The transcript suggests that mentors and advisers play a critical role in the personal and professional development of founders.

Building a strong network of mentors, teachers, coaches, and advisers can significantly contribute to startup success.

The transcript provides insights into how to effectively identify and utilize different types of human resources in a startup.

Startup founders are advised to be cautious about relying solely on investors for advice, as they may not have all the necessary expertise.

Expanding the circle of accumulated wisdom through a diverse set of advisers is likened to making an investment in the company's future success.

Transcripts

Another key resource are people.

We sometimes use the fancy word of human resources or HR

and I kind of think of people in a start up as two separate categories.

One is finding qualified employees. The other is for you to find them.

How do you find mentors or teachers or coaches or advisers for you.

What's the difference between all of these?

Well let me start with the last first.

Mentors, teachers, and coaches advance your personal career.

If you want to learn a specific subject you find a teacher

but if you want to hone specific skills or reach an exact goal, I suggest you hire a coach.

That is a specific subject as a teacher, specific skills as a coach.

So for example if you want to learn something more about ??? architectures,

You can bring in a teacher or take a class

but if you want to hone specific skills like how to create great presentation

or how to manage people, you hire a coach but the one that sometimes founders forget

is that you want to get smarter, better over your career.

You want to find someone who cares enough about you to be a mentor.

Mentors are very different from teachers and coaches.

Mentors are actually a two way street.

The only people who tend to want to help you are those who personally think

they could actually learn something from you and then they simply liking you.

So most of you in your career would have to go on to be mentors

but think about the type of people who you've encountered in your career.

Implicitly you have been giving something to them while they have been giving something to you.

The last category in mentors, coaches, teachers are advisers.

Now advisers are people you need to help advance your company success.

Mentors, teachers, and coaches know about your personal success as a founder

but advisers really kind of bring generic advise.

Sometimes to you but also to your VPs and your staff etc.

So what you want to have is experienced advise

to help you figure out whether your vision is a hallucination

but getting specific you want to put together as early as possible an advise report

and that's really the idea of expanding your circle of accumulated wisdom as just your investment.

A mistake that founders make the first time is thinking that ??? or ??? investors ???.

Yes they are your advisers but they are also your boss

and so you want to be very careful about limiting your advise to just that circle

and they may not have this specific domain expertise you need.

So make sure you're expanding your series of advisers available to your company

and typically that's done by offering them a small percentage of equity

in exchange for some of their time.