Working Capital – A major asset for a start-up company is having the right people on board.

Ramping up a new start-up company can be a nightmare for first-time entrepreneurs or even experienced ones. The business operations alone can consume most of the business founders’ time and effort. Managing day-to-day operations of a start-up company can prove overwhelming even for experienced managers, so it is crucial to take a back seat during the initial start-up phase of a new business.

On the surface, it seems reasonable enough to put this issue on the back burner, given that most start-ups are put together by acquaintances. As a result, human resources policies are frequently reduced to verbal agreements in an early stage of business most of the time. But, this is often a crucial mistake because they neglect the prudent option of hiring a core team of smart people that share the start-up company’s vision and are willing to take the risk with them. Friends and relatives often do not fit the bill.

The biggest challenge for the founders & CEO of a start-up company is to have a helicopter view from the beginning on key positions and to focus on involving the right people in the right positions at the right time.
The real working capital in a start-up company is the dream team, which needs to be in place at the right time in order to deliver expected targets with the ability to develop a vision and a working plan and execute it with a sense of urgency.

The only way to implement a strong culture, from the start, is to explain how the success will be shared and how important each position is for a successful development of the company. The incentive has to be the same for all key guys who are willing to act as entrepreneurs and to share the risk. There is no place for ego or prestige in the dream team. Clearly, without a reliable team, the investors take a risk they cannot control and it will be too late when it is discovered.

ValleyRoad Capital recommends the following profile for the start-up team and any other position:

• To have leadership skills necessary for driving the growth and development of each department of the company.
• To be a decisive, customer-driven, and results-oriented achiever.
• To be inventive, flexible, open-minded, and used to working in a small team.
• To have a dynamic and committed personality with the desire for responsibility and eagerness to meet new challenges.
• To be entrepreneurial and business minded.
• To have the ability to search adequate, pragmatic, and creative solutions.

If the founders and CEO have the capacity and can invest time and efforts to put in place the right people for the expected challenge, and to implement a real culture, then, they will beat any strategy on the paper.

The right team is unstoppable.