Search for people for a startup. Acquaintance in two clicks: where to find a good team for a startup — Firrma

Nikolay Volchkov. CEO of Russia's first online video resume service VCV.RU.

You have a million-dollar idea, funds to implement it, energy and time… but what about the team? Every startup faces this problem at the beginning of their business journey.

And who are these fearless people who are ready to take responsibility for development young business, how to select them and where to look - that's what you should first think about at the stage of project formation.

And absolutely all factors are important here, starting from the age of a potential employee and ending with his character.

A study by CBInsights (2011), based on the experience of Western startups, showed that the top management of newly operating successful projects, as a rule, consists of professionals aged 35 to 44 years.

Thus, the myth was dispelled that only young and inexperienced, but promising students can stand at the helm.

To a large extent, I agree with the results of this study. Managers should be professionals in their field, who have worked in the sector enough to acquire the necessary connections and access to the “right” people, be able to correctly present and defend their product, and generally be the engines of the process.

It is important that the lead project managers manage to inspire the entire team and be always ready for the most unexpected turns.

In general, it is important to recruit people who understand the market in which this or that startup is located. Mobile, fascinated by the idea of ​​employees in our work are indispensable.

And if during an interview the question is: "Are you ready to work on an idea, to exist in a stressful mode, not to be afraid that your business may collapse tomorrow, etc.?" the applicant with horror in his eyes shakes his head uncertainly, you can immediately invite the next candidate.

Who can't do without?

So, the ideologist of the project bears main idea, this is the engine and the core of the team, which means that you cannot do without a strong player here. Not less than important people in a startup, this is a marketer, technical director / programmer, copywriter, with the help of which you can inform the whole world about the service.

A startup is always something new, and therefore not always understandable to the consumer, so a marketer is exactly the person who is able to evaluate the product from the consumer's point of view.

At the same time, the technical director becomes the main "implementer" of ideas. Experienced and progressive, he will bring ideas to life. The copywriter will convey the essence of the project to the consumer and make it as simple and beautiful as possible to understand why their product is the most convenient to use.

Ideal employee

Let's draw a portrait of the ideal startup employee. What qualities should he have?

• Autonomy and responsibility: a startup is constantly in development, especially at the SEED stage, this is a business model that has no clear boundaries. It is important to find people who do not ask for work, but find it themselves, offer solutions on their own, look for new ways of development, are able to launch business processes, and are responsible for their every step. For such people, participation in a startup is a test of strength and patience, as well as an opportunity to raise their professional level, "pump".
• Mentoring and support: everyone wants to feel supported and cared for, to know that the team needs him. If your employees are able to maintain such an atmosphere, do not let them go!
• Experience and Expertise: of course, young and gambling guys should try their hand at participating in start-ups. Of course, they can devote more time to work, and, undoubtedly, their excitement can help in many ways to promote the business, but no one has canceled the experience. Still, people with deep knowledge and expertise in a particular area are of great value. Naturally, such employees are more expensive, but here the employer chooses depending on the goals of the business - to quickly pay back the project and sell it or work on the idea for a long time, growing the business.
• Nerves of steel: new business- it is always something unknown, so the startup team should consist of people who are not subject to fear, who do not take everything to heart, are emotionally stable and confidently go towards their goal, realizing that their every step can be decisive.

Where to look for footage?

The study I mentioned above says that people who come to a startup by referral are more likely to be 2.5 times more qualified than those who are just taken from the market.

Therefore, social networks cannot be dispensed with here: search for acquaintances on Facebook, view the list of your friends on LinkedIn, generally use word of mouth, "transmitting" that you have a wonderful vacancy - what if it will spread to "your" person?

When looking for employees on social networks, pay attention to the presence of mutual friends with the person you were recommended / whom you found yourself. The more mutual friends you have, the greater the chance that a person will meet your requirements and the spirit of your company.

And, of course, if the personal resource is exhausted, and there were no employees, don’t be afraid to resort to both traditional means (recruiting agencies, job sites) and new ones. An example of this is VCV.RU, which I represent.

After reviewing customer survey results, the CEO remarked that he would be in demand New Product for car owners and car washes. This product is a powder that collects dirt from the car body and covers with a layer that repels dust and moisture. Commercial Director suggested starting the production of such a powder and opening dry car washes. The idea was accepted. The HR service was instructed to find personnel who could successfully bring this idea to life.

Since the task, to put it mildly, is not an everyday task, most likely you will have to closely monitor the work of recruitment managers and, if necessary, give advice. And if you need to look for a startup leader, then, perhaps, personally conduct an interview.

The best option is to find so-called startup enthusiasts. These employees are turned on by the "adrenaline of the unknown", they can work effectively even at night. But they also have a minus: as soon as the company gets on its feet and begins to develop, they lose interest in the project and leave. All the same, it is already valuable that fans of startups are able to work selflessly and get results. True, not all experts believe that this is the most valuable thing for a new project.

Some experts FOR professionalism, others - AGAINST

Experts who recommend not attaching much importance to the personal qualities of a startup candidate, but relying solely on his professionalism, argue their position as follows: when launching a new project, there is neither time nor money to teach someone the tricks of the profession. A startup must grasp everything on the fly. He just needs to be told what to do. And how, he will decide for himself. Otherwise, success will not be achieved.

Example Two young but already experienced business consultants opened their own recruitment agency. Following the rule " Top Startups created by non-professionals”, decided to hire five specialists for recruitment without much work experience. It's cheaper, and there is hope that specialists will become impeccable performers. After some time, however, they noticed that there were very few orders for personnel search. Employees call the company, but the number of orders has not increased. Six months later, the agency had to close. The reason was the lack of professionalism of employees who did not know how to communicate with potential customers and scared them away with their inept speeches, as well as because of the unwillingness of the founders of the agency to actively participate in its work at the launch stage.

But a professional is different for a professional. Not everyone is able to persistently achieve goals and, if necessary, work almost for days. In addition, professionals have a minus: experience develops certain stereotypes in a person, prevents them from thinking in an original way and making non-trivial decisions. The professional is less risk averse. So, for example, Laurent GILLE, president and CEO of Viewdle, which was once also a startup, argues that lack of professional experience is not only acceptable, but often even desirable. The main thing, according to GILE, is to select such employees who love novelty, have a special passion for creating a new product, and are motivated for results.

The same opinion is shared by Olesya BATOG, the head of the IRR.ru Site project in the regions. She argues that one of the main success factors is the desire of employees to achieve this success. If a person is not ready to take responsibility, to develop an idea to a victorious end, he will not succeed, no matter how favorable the situation is. It is thanks to the personal qualities of the founders of Microsoft, Skype, Google and Starbucks that these companies, once startups with five to ten people, have grown into real giants. Indeed, there are examples successful startups started by non-professionals.

Example A scientist from the state of Illinois (USA), biologist Kurt JONES could not have imagined that he would ever produce ice cream. But now he is considered the inventor of the ice cream of the future and is a big businessman. The idea came by chance: one day Kurt decided to cook this cold treat for his guests. It was necessary to freeze the product very quickly, and the scientist used a liquid nitrogen(education allowed experimentation). Made delicious ice cream unusual shape- it consisted of many small balls that melted in your mouth. The guests were delighted. Then he patented ice cream under the Dippin' Dots brand. To understand whether it is worth opening the production of such a product, JONES sought advice from the financial director of the institute where he worked. Subsequently, the financial director became a partner of the inventor of ice cream. Now annual turnover their firms amount to millions of dollars; franchise firms are opened in America and Europe.

The conclusion is like this: everything is important - both professionalism and personal qualities. True, a specialist in his field must also be easy-going, enthusiastic, energetic, purposeful, ready to work hard for the sake of achieving results, professional self-expression and satisfying his own business ambitions.

The specific list of qualities that a startup employee should have depends on the vacancy. If you need a financial director, you should not expect enthusiasm and creativity from the applicant. At financial director other tasks, he must understand his business and have analytical skills. A candidate for the position of sales manager is expected to be active, open, talkative and energetic. Programmers should not be expected to be able to multitask - they usually solve one big problem and then move on to the next. But the focus on multitasking and multifunctionality, on the contrary, is important for a manager who runs an IT startup. In short, the requirements for different specialists are different.

It also matters that the project is initiated by a large sustainable company(this is the case we are considering in the article), and not a group of like-minded people without any support. The company is initially ready to support the project financially. This means that the degree of employee enthusiasm may not be as high as in startups launched by a group of students.

Example To find enthusiasts, let company employees nominate themselves for a startup Proactive employees capable of creating innovative products and services are the dream of every business owner. How to find such people? It is necessary to analyze the requirements for participants in startups launched by the company, and clearly formulate them, develop a good selection tool. For example, if you announce a competition in a company and invite employees to nominate themselves for a startup, you can immediately get people who are proactive, ready to take risks and compete. It is clear that we still need to check whether self-nominated candidates have necessary qualities and skills. But there is no doubt about the presence of a motivational component. However, it is not enough just to select people, you need to create and maintain a special entrepreneurial environment, empower people, train and develop them.

Before recruiting, determine what product you plan to offer

Then you can avoid mistakes in the selection of employees for a startup. You need to figure out what product should appear as a result and how it will have to be distributed - in an already established market for such products, or whether a sales market has to be formed, since a fundamentally new development is being produced that has no analogues.

If a startup creates a product/service for an existing market focus on professionalism. Look for qualified production people who can launch a product and high-quality marketers who are able to promote it. Some of the employees should be just good performers who can be given instructions and be sure that they will be executed. This is exactly what it takes to get the job done consistently if a startup is on a relatively well-trodden path and has financial support. Of course, for all employees the project should be interesting, they demonstrate a desire to engage in it.

If, after the launch of the project, it is planned to release a fundamentally new product (service), for which the market has not been formed, then it is not enough if the employees are just professionals. Identify whether they have such personal qualities as ambition, passion for the project, willingness to work in unknown areas, to act as a pioneer. Without these qualities, nothing new can be created.

Example The launch of the American project Groupon in 2008 was successful only thanks to the perseverance, determination and enthusiasm of its creators - American students and university graduates. It was new sphere Internet services - providing discounts. The meaning of the project: the user prints out a coupon and presents it to the seller of goods or services, making a purchase at a low price. The students not only created the site, but also convinced the administration of shops, cafes, restaurants that it would be beneficial for them to participate in such a program. In a word, they worked for days. Once, one of the clothing manufacturers, having agreed to provide a 50% discount, received $ 11 million in revenue per day. This was written in the press, the startup's business went uphill. In the summer of 2009, only 39 people worked in the project, in 2011 - already 10,000. Profit increased from 3.3 to 900 million dollars. The Russian analogue of such a service - Darberry - was bought by an American company and is now called Groupon Russia.

Example Follow three conditions to make a startup successful Our bank has been living in the mode of unique startups for more than a year. In these projects, first-class specialists from key banks - players in the retail segment come to us. Moreover, some even with a decrease, but work in an irregular mode, constantly generating ideas. First, we clearly formulate the goal to be achieved. Secondly, we build effective communications. If team members act together, administrative chaos, bureaucracy, delays, and inconsistency of actions are excluded. They kill undertakings and extinguish the creative spirit of the "stars". Thirdly, we support the emotional climate, which is very important - effective startup staff lives by emotions. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said: “Always believe that you are doing a great job. And love what you do." If the startup team is formed correctly, it lives by this principle.

How to understand if a candidate is suitable for a job in a startup

There are five criteria. Apply them in combination.

Criterion 1. Whether the specialist experiences a sense of internal security. This feeling can also be described as the absence of fear of possible failure. It is available only to those who really consider themselves a high-class specialist in demand and are not afraid of the failure of the project, as they are sure that they will find a job. How to check it? Very simple. Ask the candidate questions: “Are you ready for difficulties and for possible failure?”, “How will you feel if you realize that you did not achieve the goals and the project failed?” Observe the candidate's reaction and the substance of the answers.

Criterion 2. Is it really a professional in front of you, does he have experience. Describe briefly what kind of product you want to create. And then ask questions to find out if the person understood the concept of the project: what product is being made and for whom, what tasks are intended to be performed. Based on the answers, you will understand how much the candidate understands the subject.

Use practical tasks. Model a business situation or problem from the work life of employees and ask the applicant to suggest solutions. Based on them, you will get an idea of ​​what the candidate can and can do.

Most often, it is enough to invite one experienced person to the team, the rest of the employees can be neophytes (as newcomers who do not have special education or professional training are called), but they are well integrated into the process, energetic, ready to adapt and learn, to learn a new area. An experienced person will be able to bring structure to the work, and young active like-minded people will generate new ideas and charge with enthusiasm.

Criterion 3. Whether the candidate is psychologically compatible with other employees or with the project manager. In a startup, there is no time to grind employees. You need to work well together as a team. And this is possible if you select people who understand each other well, live in the same rhythm, and have common values. Psychological compatibility is not desirable, but necessary condition for a successful startup.

Everything is important: employees should have the highest activity at the same time of day, perhaps similar outlooks on life, close musical tastes. Check if employees tend to constantly communicate and act in a coordinated way, and not quietly alone. To find out, ask any questions. What matters is how the candidate responds. Any question makes a person think and speak. For example, ask to describe the daily routine in the office at the previous place of work, the rules of behavior, communication and interaction between employees. According to the answers, it will immediately become clear to you what is close to a person and what is alien.

Example The creators of the online store hired developers. The initiators of the startup carefully checked how professional these developers were. You can be 99.9% sure that you have chosen the most experienced and creative guys who are simply out of competition in their segment. We gave them the terms of reference, held several joint meetings, and discussed the details. Everyone understood what was required of them. But after four months the site was not half ready, and it was not ready even after three months. It turned out that the team did not work out. Each developer worked at their own discretion, schedule and style, without consulting with others and without considering what stage of work their colleagues were at. They constantly argued with each other, ignored the daily routine. I had to replace the notorious individual farmers and introduce a new unit into the staff - the project curator, who was sociable himself and forced IT specialists to communicate and work in a team. The process has moved off the dead center.

Criterion 4. Is the applicant ready to work a lot, perform a variety of functions. The startup is not yet making money, the number of employees is severely limited. Therefore, each employee must be ready to perform several functions, to become a multi-machine operator at first. For example, perform both secretarial functions, and the duties of a marketer, and a sales manager, or deal with logistics, place orders in production, and contact suppliers and customers. If applicants are ignited by the very possibility of starting a business from scratch, then the need to be a multi-machine operator will not stop them.

Criterion 5. Whether he is able to give up his existing privileges for the sake of the prospect of growth and development. It is important here to establish not only how the applicant endures the difficulties and deprivations of work in a startup, but also his willingness to work for the future. Perhaps for the sake of a more attractive financial position. But for this you have to sacrifice what you have.

Example Nineteen-year-old French student Raymond Lei denied himself all the pleasures for almost a year - he did not go to the cinema and nightclubs with friends, he saved on food. He was saving money for his own business, which he planned to open on the Internet. And the idea was realized: the student made a website that hosts an online designer, and using it, anyone can create a T-shirt according to their own design. This design is automatically sent to the manufacturer. After some time, the author of the design will receive his T-shirt by mail cash on delivery. Raymond was saving money ($2,500) to pay an Indian programmer to create a website builder and website (ooShirts.com). When the required amount was collected, the site appeared. After that, the French student essentially did nothing, only counted the profit. In the first six months, it amounted to $ 60,000, and a year later, $ 700,000. The student hired the only employee only recently - to open telephone line help.

Example If you can’t find enthusiastic enthusiasts, attract narrow specialists to different parts of the project A startup can be conditionally divided into two stages: preparation and launch. Without belittling the importance of the professional knowledge and experience of employees, I will say that at the preparation stage, their motivation is more important: enthusiasm, the ability to work for an idea and achieve results. People who are accustomed to work from now to now can be involved as experts in certain directions works on a temporary basis. At the launch stage, the project is filled with performers. It is good if the project budget allows during this period to train employees, organize internships for them at other facilities and even in other companies. On the key positions at the launch stage, still leave people motivated to achieve the goal, passionate about the idea of ​​​​the project and broadcasting their passion to the team.

Where to look for suitable candidates?

There are five search paths. We offer them to you, and how to use, decide for yourself. And how to lure startup candidates, see the table.

Table. How to attract employees to a startup

Argument	Explanation
Employees of the new project receive a stake	This is called delayed financial motivation: when things go uphill, then the owners of shares (shares) will be able to receive large dividends. Employees feel like owners of the enterprise and sincerely try to make it successful.
There is access to the leader, the opportunity to play a key role	In a startup, every employee is key. Thanks to access to the first person, decisions are made quickly, information immediately passes from the bottom up and vice versa.
Can make a good career	For example, being at first the only seller in an opening enterprise, later, when things go uphill, a person can become the head of the sales department, and then the head of the branch. A secretary or translator gets a chance to eventually turn into a manager or sales representative.
The contract is concluded without a probationary period	Best for urgent labor contract. Immediately announce to applicants that the employment relationship is legal, employees receive a credit of trust from the company and confirmation of the seriousness of the investors' intentions.
Bonus paid for good performance	This is very important when it is not possible to immediately offer high salaries, as well as issue a block of shares in the company being created.
A detailed business plan has been developed	If it is not there or it is superficial, an experienced applicant will not consider the proposal. Specify in the business plan specific goals and objectives, describe the methods of work, as well as options for solving problems at each of the five stages: seed stage, start-up, growth stage, expansion stage, and exit stage.

Way 1. Through acquaintances. Ask top managers, the project ideologist or friends if they have in mind specialists who, by their qualities (both professional and personal), are capable of working in a startup. Talk to the directors of recruitment agencies you know to see if they can help. Fascinated by the idea, good friends will obsessively work on the project and for little money. But be careful: sometimes the relatives hired to work on the project brought everything to ruin.

Way 2. Recruit young people from business incubators. One of the most famous and authoritative business incubators was created at the National Research University high school economy in Moscow. Investors are not immediately ready to invest in all ideas, so their authors - creatively thinking young people - remain unclaimed. Invite promising young people to realize your startup. There will surely be those who want to.

Way 3. Turn to headhunters. This makes sense if you need to find project managers - headhunting services are expensive.

Way 4. Wander in social networks, visit forums on the Internet. Usually, on their pages posted on social networks, people talk about startup projects that they have successfully launched. Just don't forget to check the information!

Way 5. Take employees "on credit" in a recruitment agency. For example, KA "Chance" offers employers yesterday's graduates for "rent". The employer has the right to pay off the agency when he receives income from the startup. Gue tat, consecte

Mistake Some recruiters, when selecting staff for a startup, act as usual: they ask traditional questions, conduct lengthy interviews in several stages. It is not right. Regular questions are hardly effective in this case. Nothing will give and multi-stage interviews. The risk of choosing the wrong specialist with each new interview, unfortunately, does not decrease. Therefore, your subordinates involved in recruiting must make decisions quickly and develop clear criteria for evaluating candidates.

What is a startup

Startup (from English start up - run) - new firm(enterprise, company), which is created from scratch and starts its work, debugging all processes: production, distribution and marketing, positioning in the market. The ideologist and creator of the company is called a startuper.

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• The problem of the prodigal son

  Are you a company manager or HR director? An employee comes to you with a message that he has found another, more attractive, place of work. We will omit the further plot, the main thing is the finale. After 2-3 months, the “prodigal son” (or daughter) returns, tearfully asking to be taken back. Your actions?

• How to choose an IFRS specialist

  On the introduction of mandatory application international standard financial reporting have been spoken in Russia for many years. In accordance with the requirements of the law "On Consolidated Financial Statements", IFRS may become mandatory for Russian public companies from 2012.
  In connection with the adoption of new rules, public companies will either have to send their employees for training or plan to recruit the necessary staff. Olga Gofman, head of the Accounting and Finance department of the Recruitment Agency for Unique Specialists, tells how to select such specialists and what requirements to apply to them.

• Employees with personality traits: with whom to work?

  It is probably not entirely correct to start the article with a truism, but still it is necessary to remind once again that all people are "strongly different." In the hands of skilled leaders, this is a resource, and in the hands of inept leaders, it is a problem (remember the wonderful film "Police Academy" - it is almost about this). But "skillful hands" should also know how to distinguish a potential resource from a possible problem.

• What to expect from an applicant who writes in calligraphy

  Quite often one has to deal with the conviction of some managers and HRs that the owner of a beautiful calligraphic handwriting is a good employee. And what does a graphologist think about this?

• Learn how to say “NO!” correctly, or how to properly file a job denial

  In the practice of recruiters, there is a standard scheme for hiring employees. An announcement is placed (on websites, in newspapers, on television) - the candidate who responds is invited for an interview - based on the results of the interview, a decision is made whether to conclude an employment contract with the future employee or not. If a positive decision is made, everything is clear with the documents. And if the company is not going to hire a person? How can I communicate this - verbally or in writing? How to write a refusal letter so as not to leave the slightest opportunity to appeal it in court? Read on.

• Recruitment - on your own or through a recruitment agency?

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• Looking for a valuable employee: How to create a job profile

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• A resume full of lies. How to discover it?

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• Pitfalls and traps of the relationship between the employee and the company

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• Motivational Approach to Career Assessment

  The success of a career is determined by the internal satisfaction of a person with his work, a sense of the importance of his own professional achievements, the degree of realization of personal intellectual, creative potential and professional recognition.

• How to make a recruiting agency work better for you than for other clients?

  Is there such a recruitment agency that provides all its clients with the same level of service? You can ask the head of the recruiting agency the question of whether he has clients for whom the best is done, and clients who receive worse quality services.

  What is headhunting? How is a direct search performed? Methods for protecting personnel from "hunters"? What is a headhunter's code of conduct?

• How stars are chosen

Where to find a team? Where to go for a specialist with a good technical background, and where to go for a professional in business, marketing, sales? What is the optimal number of founders for a project?

Tip: 2-3 founders in a startup with different areas of responsibility is the optimal number. One founder should understand marketing, sales, business development (business development). The second - CTO (Chief Technical Officer) - must have a good technical background and profile work in the past. Experience joint work founders is a huge advantage.

About delegating tasks to a team

Each leader chooses his own management style, sometimes mixing them. At the same time, delegation is an important component of any of the chosen ways to achieve results. I like to take on a team of conscientious people with a high level intrinsic motivation who need to have their own area of ​​responsibility. Therefore, I delegate often - it is necessary for both them and me. In most cases, I will prefer to give the employee the opportunity to make a mistake so that he himself realizes the importance of his work, the possible consequences of not completing tasks and the extent of his responsibility.

In small teams, employees are often generalists and act as « and the Swiss, and the reaper, and the player on the pipe » , but nevertheless it is necessary to strive for the division of responsibility. The effectiveness of the chosen distribution in small companies is usually learned in practice, and one should not be afraid to change something. In this sense, small organizations have an undoubted advantage - flexibility.

When we talk about delegation of any tasks by the manager, you need to understand that employees may need help anyway. It is necessary to set specific deadlines, monitor the status of completion and discuss how easy or difficult it was to complete the task. There are a huge number of tools (task managers, CRM systems, etc.) that help to systematize operational activities. Within our company, we use several tools - Asana, Bitrix24, Trello, Pipedrive, Salesforce - to different tasks. Much is systematized in Google Docs and Dropbox. An important habit is to record the status, results and agreements in writing.

Services

Description: a service that brings together project managers who are looking for specialists to implement the most daring ideas, and people who dream of working in a startup.

Description: a site dedicated to startups, internet business and everything connected with it. The editors of the CPU regularly publish resumes of specialists who want to work in startups, as well as vacancies for projects that are looking for employees.

There was a positive experience of hiring a top manager at the Interweb Lab company through Zuckerberg Will Call: Job Exchange. This is very effective method subject to a good description of the vacancy and a photo of the office. We quickly received a lot of feedback from applicants and closed the vacancy.

– Pavel Pravdin, CEO Interweb Pro.

Description: the central online platform of the Russian venture market, which includes a media block (news, analytics and online education), services for startups and investors, as well as an up-to-date encyclopedia of Russian venture deals in IT. They publish digests of startup vacancies in their news feed.

Description: technology project hangout, a platform for sharing experience and posting vacancies. Russian technological projects gather here to tell about themselves, ask questions, find the first partners and investors. More than 2,000 projects have already been registered in the Spark database.

How to get into the startup community?

1. Attend specialized startup events: startup lynchings, meetups, harvests, hakdays, IT conferences and get-togethers. There you can meet interesting people, get advice from experts, find valuable employees, co-founders, mentors, occasionally investors, and sometimes your other half. At the main startup events, visit regularly, you can visit local ones 1-2 times. However, balance is important here - networking does not cancel hard work on your startup.

2. Participate in presentation days organized by accelerators. You can practice pitching on them and get feedback from managing partners and experts. If you're lucky, you can immediately get into the acceleration program.

3. Use Facebook: join profile groups about startups (startup networking, startup hub, etc.), write interesting content on your topic, add people you are interested in as friends, comment on thematic posts.

4. Read specialized media to be in trend: CPU, Rusbase, Firrrma, etc. Leave comments, write smart articles about your growth hacks.

5. Create a profile of your project in online databases for startups: Spark, Rusbase, etc. Through them you can get leads from potential investors. Remember to update the information regularly.

6. Do not forget that all this is secondary, the main thing is to work well and saw your startup.

7. Well, of course, drink smoothies :)

After a few months of such activity, you yourself will not notice how you will become part of the startup ecosystem.

Description: recruiting agency specializing in the search for key and rare specialists in various professional fields. They fill the most difficult vacancies and look for candidates only through their own experts and the PRUFFI Friends crowdsourcing service, never using open sources. This allows you to find even those professionals whose resume is not available on the Internet.

About motivation

Startups are mostly small teams in which each team member performs a wide range of tasks. At the first stages of the company's development, work is carried out 24/7, while the result of the efforts is not always visible. In such a situation, it is important that co-founders, and even more so employees, do not lose motivation.
In the process of working on a project, it is important to sum up intermediate results and celebrate small victories in order to understand that efforts are not wasted, as well as to quickly correct the direction of movement. It is important to praise employees for Good work, hold joint brainstorms and informal events that strengthen the team spirit.

Events: Hackathons

A hackathon is a developer forum during which experts from different areas of development software(programmers, designers, managers) work together to solve a problem.

Description: an event whose goal is to develop a project in teams from an idea to a prototype in 48 hours. HackDay participants are programmers, entrepreneurs, designers, planners, marketers and PR specialists, as well as everyone who has an idea for an Internet project, but does not have a team to implement it.

Target audience: for IT projects.

Description: a series of hackathon trainings dedicated to exploring the capabilities of Intel Galileo and developing solutions based on it. It will be held on June 27-28 in St. Petersburg.

Target audience: for projects in the field of the Internet of things.

Description: Exactly one day, without a break for sleep, participants create mobile and web applications based on the Yandex.Money API.

Target audience: for projects that create mobile and web applications based on the Yandex.Money API.

Hackathons and teams

Team building, in my humble opinion, is the main task of a hackathon. In addition to it, there is also an accelerated development of the prototype and obtaining contacts. If the project is at the idea stage, then you can participate in the hackathon without having your own team. Actually, at the hackathon, participants talk about their idea and invite the necessary specialists to join. This is how about half of the teams on our HackDays gather.

Since the level of the project and the coherence of the team is almost zero, this team is very unstable, and the probability of its survival and the project is low. Another option is when we are talking about a stage project above the prototype, which has an urgent need for some kind of specialist. Then they come to the hackathon, declare it, find the right person and work on a specific feature for two days. New person is checked in combat conditions, and a decision is made on its acceptance into the project. There are no guarantees that the team will meet. There are no guarantees that the existing project will find the right specialist and then he will remain in the company. It all depends on the founder and his organizational skills, resourcefulness and just luck.

I recommend participating in hackathons to people who have an idea for a project, but do not have a team to implement it. Teams that have a need for some rare specialist. The event will be useful and getting feedback from the team, experts, organizers and other participants. This is necessary at least in order not to feel crazy, but as a maximum - to obtain the necessary knowledge and contacts in order to promote the project. There is always a shortage of designers and hardware programmers at hackathons, mobile applications. But, of course, everyone should try. This is a million contacts and experience.

Description: a major annual technology competition consisting of a series of hackathons sponsored by Microsoft since 2003. Graduate students and students from different countries world, in a team or alone. Participants need to come up with a bright idea and bring its prototype to life with the help of modern information technologies.

Target audience: for projects aimed at solving urgent social or business problems using modern technologies.

Description: within 24 hours, teams are working on new ideas, services and applications for the city. The best projects receive prizes and the opportunity to enter the catalog of recommended services for all local residents.

Target audience: for projects that help make life in the city more convenient and interesting.

A startup is when everyone does everything. And the wider the knowledge, the easier it will be to look for solutions. Therefore, it makes sense to ask the programmer about fundamental knowledge. You can start with a quadratic equation, run through basic data structures or algorithms, touch on the network stack or architecture operating system. Another important indicator is the ability to bring product development to the end. Making a prototype is always interesting - it's drive, novelty. And then inevitably comes the routine, thousands of little things that need to be “twisted”, and this requires patience. It is also useful to ask a specialist to evaluate the task and see how thoughtfully he approaches the assessment, how detailed it is, what conclusion he will give. Being too pessimistic or too optimistic is a sign of inexperience.

A photo:

Think about the last time you were looking for an employee. Out of habit, we went to HH, looked through 50 resumes, did not meet a single adequate one, continued the search, another 25 profiles, but I don’t even want to talk with applicants. We decided to change the base, opened LinkedIn, and it is already blocked in Russia. We spent another week on My Circle, and as a result - lo and behold! - met with the developer. Not that you definitely liked it, but time is running out. You make an offer, but the candidate refuses it - he is not ready to work in a startup, he has a car loan and expensive rent.

Desperate, you start looking for an employee on Tinder (in all seriousness). Change the description in the bio and swipe to the right not those you like, but those who could potentially be a developer (nothing personal, but your account must be of the opposite sex in relation to potential candidates). Find a pair as a result of the search graphic designers(useful) and not a single developer. The conversion is about the same as HH, but at least the search process itself improves mood.

Meanwhile, the employee has not been found, and my experience of observing startups in the IIDF Accelerator says that it is important to close the vacancy in 3-4 weeks. If a specialist has not been found a month after the start of the search, then the startup is either declining, or its founders are trying to compensate for the shortage of personnel on their own and begin to engage in non-core business. Salespeople are retraining as marketers, marketers as UX designers, designers as iOS programmers. Nothing good comes out of this - and the startup, again, is declining.

To help startups, under the wing big company we made a small project - Cofoundit, a service for targeted search for employees in startups. While we were preparing the prototype, we formulated several important principles, which help to find an employee in a startup before it's too late.

Choose from verified candidates

There is a lot of rubbish in the usual database of vacancies; it will take several weeks of full-fledged work to sort through all non-professional specialists and find an employee of a suitable level. And then it turns out that the found specialist does not want to work in a startup.

Therefore, it is better to choose from a more suitable sample. Abandon the littered Headhunter in favor of thematic groups search on Facebook or at least "My Circle". Don't forget the power of networking.

At Cofoundit, we pre-select resumes - only those specialists who are ready to work in startups come to us. Only employees with high ratings get into the issue - those who received good ratings from other startups, even if they did not hire them.

Write an accurate description of the position and your project

The search process is mutual: not only will you evaluate the candidate, but the candidate will also evaluate your project. Therefore, decide on the criteria of the candidate and his work tasks. Make an accurate description of the project, its prospects, the position of the candidate and the tasks that lie ahead of him. This will help you narrow down the number of candidates and improve their quality even before the interview.

At Cofoundit, we use a rating system. At each stage of the search - skype call, personal meeting, test- we will collect feedback from the startup team and the candidate. A specialist evaluates a startup according to three criteria: idea, team, potential. Projects with a low rating are less likely to be shown in search results.

Discuss working conditions in advance

It's a shame to spend three rounds of an interview and be ready to make an offer in order to find out at the finish line that your specialist is not ready to work for options. Indicate all the details of the vacancy at once, and do not hope that an unsuitable candidate will change his conditions for you and suddenly become suitable.

At Cofoundit we find out right away technical questions- specialization (development, marketing, mentoring), employment rate (from 10 to 40 hours), payment option (salary or options), geographical location. Project managers receive selected questionnaires that correspond to the conditions of work in a startup.

Focus on the task

Startups have a lot of worries, and often they forget that finding an employee is one of the most important. Letters remain unanswered, the number of applications is growing, candidates are leaving for other projects, #everything is bad. Set aside daily hours that you will devote to finding employees, and do not skip them under the pretext of "there are more important tasks." Close a position in a startup - few things can now be a higher priority for your project.

At Cofoundit, we have built a search algorithm based on the principle of single-tasking. A project can have no more than three applications at the same time. You need to view them and make an appointment with candidates or refuse it - and only after a decision is made, the system will send other candidates.

If profiles remain unviewed, the service sends automatic notifications. If the project continues to remain silent, then its profile is blocked - until it gets in touch and sorts out the current tasks for the candidates.

The Cofoundit service launched at the end of September. In total, during this time we brought 40 candidates to the teams - despite the fact that the position is considered closed only after the employee has successfully worked with the team for the first month. The service base now has more than 1,000 employees, and all of them have a positive attitude towards working in a startup. If your project needs an employee, or you want to try your hand at a startup - register on Cofoundit, we will help you.

Tell us how you were looking for an employee or co-founder in a startup and what life hacks you can share.