A look at startup friendly workers

I have had frequent conversations related to resources for early stage startups this year.  Recruiting for a startup that is still being bootstrapped and surviving on a shoestring budget, can be a bit precarious.  Similar to go with the right kind of angel investor, it requires finding the right kind of motivated person.  My team has helped our business for a variety of reasons, but all of them really believe in our business idea and the competency of our founders. Here are three groups of workers that have been really startup friendly.

In looking for non-salary resources for Bimotics, the first place most founders look have been for student interns.  This is a great place to start, in that college students have the time for part-time jobs.  There are also win-win conditions in that interns can get exposure and experience to real-life work.  If you are lucky enough to get real go-getter then the business impact is definitely positive.  The obvious risk, is that often young adults need a lot of supervision and detailed explanation.

In the Femgineer session this week, Poornima mentioned that the retired and semi-retired can be a demographic with both time and experience.  Often because they have been able to retire, they don’t need to financial compensation that you can’t provide anyway.  I have friends that have had much success with getting sweat equity out of their parents.  At Bimotics, we have engaged with the semi-retired mostly in for business advice.  With our location in Florida, there is plenty supply of ex-executives and small business owners that will readily give you their two cents.  Most of the advice has been helpful but keep in mind some advice may be a little dated.

The final group of individuals that has proven to be startup friendly are stay at home moms.  With more and more women in the workforce and getting advanced degrees, I have found that there is a wealth of expertise and desire to “stay relevant” while they take time out to raise their kids. I have met many women who say they miss the intellectual stimulation when they leave work to stay home. So being able to do small properly scoped projects for a startup from home, can be a good thing.  As a founder, I don’t always have time to learn everything, nor actively manage a resource.  Working moms that have a wealth of relevant skill and can run with a project with little supervision has proved to be a plus.   

Delegation for startups

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending my first mentoring session with Femgineer lead by Poornima Vijayashanker.  This particular session addressed the topic of delegation for entrepreneurs with early stage startups.  The discussion could not have come at a more timely, as this week it became increasingly clear that I needed to manage my team more effectively.  

Since my startup is still developing our first sellable product by bootstrapping, the “employees” on my operational team consists of three four part-time professionals that can donate only a few hours of their expertise a week. Because at this time I can’t pay them I have not felt comfortable pushing nor aggressively enforcing deadlines.  This has sometimes set us back or otherwise burned me out as I tried to pick up the slack.  

The mentoring session started out with the fundamental question to ask every perspective person that your work with: “Are you interested in my business idea?”.  In my case, most would find the B2B software space compelling as there is a lot of potential.  The next excellent points included:

1. Always be clear on what they will be working on whether it is a project or a specific task.
2. Start by asking if they can commit to 5-10 hour a week on a non-paid basis? Because if they can’t they may not be interested enough. And, they may not have resources to give 20 hour resources on a paid basis.
3. Make the first task very basic and see if the person takes charge. Note founders  don’t have time to check in with everyone everyday.  
4. Layout the expectation that you will only be checking in only once a week- unless of course if they are stuck them more frequent dialogue is fine.
5. Always attach deadlines to tasks. Ask the person to first give you an estimate.  Let them set the deadline.  Assess whether you think they are giving you an aggressive deadline or a doable one.  Ask what part of the task will be most at risk of not meeting the deadline. Then hold the person accountable for meeting the deadline.

Overall, the discussion was helpful.  In many ways I have already known these management skills, however, hearing them from another entrepreneur brought me back to basics.  

As for the shyness of being a good leader because I’m not able to pay for help at this time, I need to remember that we are really building a good thing that takes time and dedication.  All the pieces of my business plan make a very compelling argument for success.   And those that are there at the beginning and working because they believe in the vision and business idea need me to be a strong leader that demands delivery.  Those that stick it out also know that they will reap the reward as we grow together.