The Importance of a Diverse Founding Team: How a Hipster, Hacker, and Hustler Can Help Your Startup Scale
The founding team of UNSW Founders portfolio startup yellowbox
Starting a business is a challenging endeavor, but having a strong founding team is just as crucial and, in many ways, is the lifeline of any business. A founding team that includes a diverse set of skills and personalities can help a startup navigate the many obstacles that arise during the early stages of growth. One key aspect that investors look for in a founding team is the ability to solve a real market problem with a large addressable market, ideally with global scalability.
But it's not just about having a solid team, it's also about having the right mix of people. In order to build a startup that scales at pace, the team must be able to do many things well, often things that conflict and require different personality types. This is where the role of a co-founder comes in.
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A founding team with the right mix of hustle, industry knowledge, and swagger can be the “make or break” factor in determining long-term success. Many businesses fail not because the concept is not a good one or because it doesn’t have a place in the market. Businesses often do not enjoy longevity and make it past the first couple of years of operations, primarily because the founding team lacks the necessary business acumen, passion, or skills to execute efficiently and with real purpose.
Often, the secret to success comes in three very clear key and definable attributes: you look for a hustler, a hacker, and a hipster.
The Hipster is the creative visionary of the team (the one that makes the product look market ready, sleek and cool). They are the ones who come up with the big ideas and think outside the box and bring design and flair to the product that flows through to the overall business. Hipsters understand the latest trends and can identify new opportunities in the market.
The Hacker is the technical expert of the team. They are the ones who can turn the big ideas into reality. They are the ones who understand the technical aspects of the business and can build and scale the product.
The Hustler is the business expert of the team. They are the ones who can turn the product into a viable business. They are the ones who understand the market and can create and execute a go-to-market strategy.
When these three key attributes work together, and in harmony, the combination can often lead to incredible success. Having someone to drive the business forward; another with the capability to develop the tech; and a third to give the business a ‘wow’ factor – really is a combination that can turbocharge growth, scalability, profitability, and longevity.
In addition to these three key ingredients, having someone with "in-market" experience, whether it's the founder or an advisory member, or a board member, can be crucial as the business grows and scales and even more important when the leadership team begins to look for growth capital.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. Building a great founding team that includes a diverse set of skills and personalities is essential to the success of any startup.
2. Having a founding team that includes diverse skills and personalities, as well as in-market experience, is essential to the success of any startup. You'll have the vision, technical expertise, and business acumen to build a startup that scales at pace and attract the attention of potential investors.
Take the Quiz to see who you identify with: Hacker, Hipster, Hustler https://unswfounders.typeform.com/to/Qw14awUU