Unlocking Startup Potential: Building Strong Teams from Day One

By Dr. Adiba Maignan

How a shared vision and strong teamwork can make all the difference. Discover how Adiba, Co-Founder & Managing Director of the HR Boutique Consultancy duple, helps Chemovator Venture Teams in transforming their ideas into great ventures. From the importance of shared values to strategic team building – this blog post shows you how to lay the groundwork for long-term success. Get inspired and uncover how your team and startup can reach the next level!

What drives individuals to join a founding team and start their own venture? In most cases, it's the sheer passion for a product or a particular subject matter. These aspiring entrepreneurs typically come armed with ideas on how to improve existing processes or solve problems they've encountered in their professional lives. Hence, it's safe to say that most founders unite around a shared idea or vision. But what keeps them together through the challenges?

When first-time founders decide to tackle a particular problem for society, they face the challenge of building a company from scratch. While many of them possess deep expertise in their respective fields, they often need to consider organizational structure for the first time. Establishing a company - and scaling it - requires identifying the best roles for the founding team and clearly defining each team member's responsibilities.

When it comes to founding teams, the presence of shared values often outweighs a common vision. Why is this the case? Values, unlike visions, are less prone to change. While a vision often evolves over time, values tend to remain steadfast. Therefore, it's crucial to conduct a values-based assessment early on to identify potential conflicts. While complete alignment in values may not be necessary, having similar values greatly facilitates communication and can help navigate early conflicts.

The very first step should be for the founding team to become aware of their individual values. Founders inherently bring these values into the team they are building, often unconsciously. When there are significantly different values (or motivations) within a founding team, it is beneficial to establish transparency from the beginning and initiate an open dialogue about them. Conflicts typically arise when there is no transparency among founders about how each person wants to work and what drives them to start the venture. As the organization scales and the first hires are made, it is advisable to pay attention to the individual values of candidates. Additionally, we recommend clearly defining the resulting company values early on.

Are you ensuring that your team’s values align?

Chemovator works closely with Entrepreneurs in Residence and Experts, who act as coaches and mentors, to support the Venture Teams from the submission of their application to market entry and beyond. Leveraging our extensive experience, we collaborate with our Venture Teams to shape a shared vision. Rather than dictating the vision, we emphasize facilitating discussions on how team members envision working together. This process involves working individually with team members and periodically evaluating and adjusting the collective vision. We provide guidance, moderate discussions and draw from our experience to anticipate potential challenges.

In our work with Venture Teams, we prioritize involving all stakeholders from the very beginning. Through a collaborative process, we identify the individual values of each team member. We assess potential risks in the collaboration and ensure that all stakeholders are included in the discussion. We determine which responsibilities are covered for the startup and where there might be gaps. Additionally, it is crucial to establish an organizational structure that everyone can work towards from the start. However, it is important for everyone to remain flexible in the early stages, as the product vision becomes more concrete and initial market tests often lead to changes.

One of the recurring challenges we encounter is communication breakdowns within teams, especially when stress levels rise. Conflict often arises during pivotal moments such as funding rounds or investor meetings. Addressing these communication issues is paramount, as unresolved conflicts can drain energy and divert focus away from critical tasks such as product development and team building.

During moments of stress tests, potential risks in collaboration become particularly evident. We advise founding teams to take time for reflection after especially stressful phases. It is important to analyze what worked well in the collaboration and what needs improvement. These discussions should take place in a psychologically safe environment. It is often beneficial to involve an external moderator to ensure openness and fairness.

Neglecting teamwork in the early stages can have detrimental long-term effects on a startup. Conflict consumes valuable time and resources that could otherwise be invested in essential tasks like product development and growth strategies. Building a strong connection within the founding team from the outset is essential for maintaining momentum and achieving long-term success.

It is never too late to invest in the foundation of collaboration. However, it is easier to navigate crises when a founding team has developed a routine of discussing their collaboration and has established a close connection from the beginning. The goal is not to always work in harmony but to create a safe environment for addressing and resolving conflicts.

Founding teams can take proactive steps to foster a positive team dynamic and culture. Prioritizing HR-related discussions, such as collaboration and team dynamics, alongside traditional business topics is essential from the outset. By making teamwork a priority, teams can lay a solid foundation for future success. During the hiring process, teams can gauge compatibility by asking behavior-based questions. These questions reveal how candidates handle challenges, conflicts and uncertainty. Assessing candidates' resilience and adaptability is crucial in a fast-paced startup environment.

It is also advisable to discuss the desired type of collaboration with potential employees, being transparent about individual and company values. Recruiting is another core focus of our consultancy. However, detailing this would go beyond the scope of this overview.

External support, such as that provided by our consultancy, offers invaluable insights and expertise. Our experience in both the operational and strategic aspects of business, along with our understanding of systemic processes, can guide founding teams through the challenges of building a successful startup. We tailor our collaboration with teams based on their development stage. While we primarily work with emerging Venture Teams at Chemovator, our consultancy also engages with more established teams facing specific challenges or transitions, such as growth or restructuring.

Here’s what two of Chemovator’s current Venture Teams have said about the progress they made working with us:

Martin Cirillo-Schmitt, CEO at Zepta: “The collaboration with duple has supported us in various ways, particularly in the areas of team building, team relationships and HR. Through targeted workshops and consultations, we were able to lay a strong foundation for our team. The shared values and strategic approach of duple have helped us develop a harmonious and productive team dynamic."

Dr. Mathias Bösl, Co-Founder at Spark e-Fuels: “We are immensely grateful to duple for their outstanding support. Their expertise helped us further detail our company culture and values, structure our HR processes, and develop a comprehensive hiring and onboarding process. Their guidance has been instrumental in setting a strong foundation for our growth and success.”

By prioritizing shared values, fostering open communication and seeking external support when needed, founding teams can lay a robust foundation for their startup's journey towards success. Are you ready to take your startup to the next level?