The roadmap for startup hiring

When it comes to growing a startup’s workforce, Ravi stresses that hiring should be driven by top-down business objectives and identifying existing gaps in the team’s capabilities. The task of hiring is not just a step in scaling a startup, but a strategic leap towards success.

“It sounds obvious when I lay it out, but it’s really all about addressing the questions you need answered by bringing on people with the right skills,” he says. As companies navigate the volatility of the business world, he adds that having a dynamic group of individuals who embody the company’s vision, mission and culture is key.

Ravi outlines three inflexion points in a startup’s evolution. At 15 employees or fewer, everyone is involved in various tasks and there is a strong sense of commitment and versatility.

At 15 to 50 employees, people start to specialise in specific business functions.

When the startup is between 50 and 150 employees, noticeable specialisation and defined processes emerge. At this stage, potential silos and office politics can emerge if not managed properly.

Read more: Founderitis: The syndrome that can kill a startup

The types of people best suited for each stage differ. Early generalist embracers may feel sidelined or bored by increasing bureaucracy over time.

Ravi shares that with the B2B tech companies his firm invests in, growth is more linear and typically aligned with revenue and operational complexity, allowing time for adaptation. If leaders no longer fit the startup’s needs, they can transition out like employees.

Building a successful startup and board of directors

Ravi sees building a successful startup as similar to training to climb to the top of a mountain. Meticulous preparation, embracing the unexpected, maintaining reserves of stamina and other resources, and resolve are prerequisites—just as they were for his recent conquest of Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro.

“I both overestimated and underestimated the mountain,” he says. “I’ve been to high places like that before, I’ve done long bike rides—1000-mile bike rides. So I thought, ‘Look, I’ll be fine’. I knew my cardio and muscular strength would be fine. I just needed to keep it up and not slack before the actual flight. In that sense, I didn’t underestimate what was ahead of me. I was prepared.

“But I overestimated how cold it would be. It was the coldest I’ve ever been. Fortunately, we overprepared. It was -13°C or something, not including the chill from the wind. We stayed in tents; there were no lodges, nothing.”

What are the similarities to startup life? “It’s the obvious thing: Make sure you prepare, make sure your team is prepared,” says Ravi. “It’s not just about you as an individual. Be ready for the unexpected in other ways. In other words, seeing things differently would be to say, there are things you don’t know.”

The process of building an executive board can be more challenging, he says, especially for venture-backed companies where investors often claim board seats.

Regardless of the startup’s size, he cautions against having more than five board members. Ravi advocates for keeping boards lean and leveraging advisory boards to gain diverse expertise without ceding control. He recounts examples where companies struggled with boards bloated by investor observers, distracting founders from operating the business.

Read more: ‘You can lead from the back in many ways’: Christine Amour-Levar on what expeditions to the world’s most remote places have taught her

Solo founder versus multiple co-founders

When asked if he agrees if co-founded companies attract more investments than those run by a single founder, Ravi disagrees and says there’s no single formula.

“It’s a myth that you should never invest in single founders or ones related to each other. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The conclusion might be, if it was a founder issue that didn’t work out then avoid that situation in the future,” he says. “There’s no one answer for what makes good founders.”

In the end, he says he looks for resilient teams that are also customer-focused. Citing a travel-tech startup he invested in as an example, he shares that the company was able to endure the pandemic’s devasting effects on the industry because of its team’s judicious foresight and financial reserves.

Ravi adds that a company’s team and target market as more important than its product at the early stage. “If you have a good founding team and a good market, they’ll figure out what better product to make. A founder’s ability to adapt their company’s offerings is key.”

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