Chad has a post that got me thinking about adding people to entrepreneurial endeavors. Of course, since I spend a portion of my time as a hired gun for start-ups, I naturally tend to agree that people should to be added to a team to get a venture moving forward. Adding people to a team can create friction though, e.g., with founders, other managers & employees. How to balance things out? No quick answers here. That said, there was one soft principle that an angel investor once mentioned to me. It is a litmus test of sorts. You can try to analyze things all you want, but regardless of what it may cost to add a specific person to a team (and setting financial and management control structures aside for a moment), the real question is whether the person you are going to add to the team will measureably help move the company forward. As risk of diminishing the importance of hiring stellar people for a venture, one should also consider the marginal benefit of adding people, spending more dollars to move faster, etc. What does your subconscious tell you about hiring a particular person for a venture?
Of course, this type of thinking has to balanced against hiring only A-players, matching the team to the financial trajectory and aspirations of the venture, and making sure that chemistry is right with the rest of the team. Wrong fit can kill a venture. But sometimes the answers are quite grey. Not all ventures have the luxury of centuries to wait for the Perfect fit.
