The Grey Cells India’s Post

Hiring too fast can hurt your startup more than help it. 🚫 Take Scale.ai for example—they switched to a lean model by using freelancers and automating processes. The result? They cut their onboarding time by 50%, saved 18 hours per month on admin work, and doubled their project completion speed. 🚀 So, if managing a large team is slowing you down, maybe it's time to rethink your approach. Curious to learn more about scaling smart? Let's talk. Book your consultation here: https://lnkd.in/g7yYkei3

Ever wondered what a CEO does at a startup? A common question I get is, "What exactly do you do all day?" My answer usually throws people off: "I do whatever no one else wants or can do." In the early days, it was all about the lab. Then I found myself writing software for our prototypes (sorry to our current software engineers for the legacy code nightmares...). It was also a crash course in recruitment, HR, accounting...basically, everything you do initially before you can bring in experts. Even now, a new task always lands on my desk. My approach? Tackle it head-on, then figure out how to delegate it. This cycle is the constant heartbeat of startup life. So, when someone asks what I do all day, my honest answer is: "Whatever comes up." My latest challenge? Photography (still working on the details though...)

Building a startup no longer requires massive in-house teams. Many startups I recently met proved that it’s now possible to ship products and build multimillion-dollar companies with small teams. How?👇 1️⃣ AI can handle a wide range of tasks, from interviewing candidates and automating customer support to providing real-time analytics for decision-making. The consequence? Many of these new startups won’t even consider humans for tasks that AI can perform better, faster, and 24/7.🦾 2️⃣ Global freelance talent enables startups to access specialized skills on demand. The result? These startups can remain agile, working with top talent worldwide without the costs and commitments of full-time hires.🌎 But it raises an important question: Are we ready for the impact on an already tough job market? P.S. Yes, she drew the Burj Khalifa with the pen in her hand and even signed her masterpiece.

In 2024 how are you building your start up teams & what comes first - team or tech? 9 years ago when we started - I was surely lost and had no roadmap for this. So sharing here, 9 years hence, our learnings that we are using to still set up our latest start up in 2024. To begin with, in my experience these two levers - teach and team, come consecutively & concurrently, but most importantly, coherently! 👉When the founder(s) is/are the only person(s) in the company - use technology. Don’t over commit to hiring team or tech. Once you start growing, the landscape changes rapidly, so will these two levers. You have to upskill constantly but doing things that need your personal attention in the beginning makes most sense to prioritize till you move to step 2.👇 👉Hiring for the first team / person - it should typically be only 1 or 2 VA / assistant or EA. Definitely one with advanced tech experience to optimize tasks. TIP: before you hire this first person - have a playbook for that scope of work with as much detail as you can which includes goals, metrics, review mechanics, etc. 👉 Hiring for next level (for a D2C product team)- should be someone with responsibility of sales and revenue targets. Moves the needle. Is not a cost center. The revenue multiple is a factor and function of many things so if u need more clarity you can reach out below. 👉 The next level would be experts. Experts in growth tactics, performance marketing, 360 marketing etc., also definitely optimizing latest tech / #ai tools. 👉Next / Last would be C suite execs - all the above role up into these persons. They should be masters at creating updated playbooks and delegating for independent performance. Should be thinks and planners, and not doers! Hope this helps #aspiringfounders! More coming up on our weekly break up for the new brand launch. #startupfounders #team #technology #ai #revenuehire #costhire #startups #buidlingteams

Transitioning from founder-led anything in startups is a pretty thrown-in-the-deep-end thing for any operator. There are a lot of super relevant points that I'm sure you've already come across. But one of the things that struck me recently, while I was speaking to a founder friend of mine over dinner, was that being the first-anything hire in a startup is a major pain in the neck. They're typically: 1. Getting tagged in by a founder, who knows everything that's going on across everything in the company Imagine the sheer context transfer required to pick up where they left off. Founders, including me, are notorious for low/no documentation. It's always, "Remember the screenshot of the email I shared with you on Slack about that article by the product guy from that thing? Yeah, use that in the outreach email sequence in that new tool we just got." 2. Having people go around them all the time "It's just that we were already working on this together before you came in and it's really soooo critical." "Oh, of course, let me close this quickly. Will loop you in on the next one." 3. Smiling cautiously in random meetings with third-party folks because the founder pulled them in last minute with a 'you'll need to take this up soon anyway'. That's a one-hour struggle to figure out what's going on followed by a "Oh, you can get back to Smith, they're going to be handling this from now on" ...you get where I'm going. I don't have a lot of tips for how to solve for this. Especially at the early stages where 'onboarding' is giving someone a laptop. But spending about 45 minutes more than whatever you budgeted for every day in the first few days is usually enough to get on that track automatically. Along with a healthy dose of empathy. :) Applies to Chiefs of Staff too. Or is it Chief of Staffs?

90% of startups die because they run out of money, and most run out of money because they hire too many people too quickly. Here's why having a big team isn't a flex at all and how to think about startup hiring differently: At Chezie, we run lean: - 2 full-time employees - 6 PT contractors - Combined workload equivalent of ~5 people We've grown to $750k ARR with this team, and we’ve set up processes to maintain this team size as we scale to $1-1.5M. Yet I constantly see early-stage startups with 15 people and Series A companies with 25+ employees 🤦🏾♂️ Having a massive team has become a badge of honor, similar to announcing a new round of funding. But the only badges that actually matter are 1. happy customers and 2. making money. Here's the truth about when to hire: Do it when it absolutely hurts. This means that: - Your personal bandwidth is critically low - Team burnout is obvious - Customer experience is starting to dip Until then, explore alternatives: - Hire flexible contractors (I always use Upwork) - Find software solutions ($200/month beats $100k/year) - Use AI/automation to take work off your current team’s plate The #1 job of an early-stage startup is to stay alive. The easiest way to do that? Minimize burn. And the easiest way to minimize burn is to hire slowly (or not at all). So stop celebrating headcount growth. Start celebrating survival. What headcount advice do you have? Share in the comments! 👇🏾

‘What does a generalist actually do in a startup’ ⁉ This is one of the most common questions I get asked at Jumpstart. Clichés like ‘no two days are the same’ or ‘you work in a spiky, cross functional way’ aren't v helpful - so thought I would break down the most common types of generalist roles we tend to see in startups - with the strong caveat that there is still a lot of ambiguity/crossover between them👇! 1️⃣ Founder Associate Best suited to seed stage startups with ~2-20 employees when clear ‘departments’ aren’t needed. FAs tend to be most effective with ~1-2 years of experience behind them, either in startups/scaleups or a high performance corporate environment. Typically, they will report into the founder and work across 2-3 different functions on specific projects. Examples include: 💹 Fundraising - building pitch decks, financial models, helping with investor outreach ⚙ Ops - for e.g. creating a proper funnel + CRM system for sales outreach 🎨 Marketing - working with an agency to build the brand/website 📦 Product/customer - running customer interviews/working with the devs to build/prioritise features 2️⃣ Commercial Associate An FA with a very commercial focus. The best CA’s tend to either have been founders themselves, or from a consulting/banking environment where they have had a lot of exposure to clients. Best suited to seed stage startups, their main role is to build out the basic building blocks of a sales function e.g. a CRM, refining the ‘ideal customer’, A/B test and iterate lots of outreach strategies, define the sales funnel/playbook, as well as running customer calls and demos. As the startup grows, they might transition into a more traditional Account Exec role. 3️⃣ Ops analyst/associate Best suited to fresh grads who are highly proactive, these roles are most common in series A+ startups with 30+ people. The role has two parts:  🏃♀️ Executing: getting customers from point A-B-C, chasing invoices, often involves working with google sheets, notion, and using automation tools like Make or Zapier 💡 Project work: defined pieces of work like choosing a new office location and project managing it, setting up dashboards/data analysis systems If any of these sounds like a perfect fit, check out Jumpstart's generalist programme in the comments below! #Startups #Generalist #Jumpstart

As a new startup owner, you’ve probably noticed how important is to create a stable and reliable team. Yet, you need to be capable of switching certain technologies, specific employees, and sometimes even entire departments faster and faster. 💪 For example, according to Capterra, in 2023, up to 98% of 300 surveyed HRs are willing to replace their current employees with AI-based software and algorithms. Still, it might be hard to do if you make a long-term agreement with your employees. So, here where is the moment for outstaffing teams to shine. 💡 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆, outstaffing teams usually already know how to work together very well, and you won’t need to sacrifice much of your precious time to build up a working process. Instead, you can start maintaining and growing other parts of your startup while they will perfectly do their job with minor attention from the owner. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗹𝘆, you can easily dismiss the whole outstaff team at once if you prefer an AI-based algorithm. Just imagine how much you can save on paperwork, resolutions, and other necessary actions! 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱𝗹𝘆, you can learn much from a well-organized, independent outstaff team. You can slowly build up your team, working culture, and technical strategies by simply observing their work. If you’re about to launch your startup and looking for outstaffing services, you should check Qualified Consulting. The company will help you with technical support and engineering and augment any of your teams. #qualifiedconsulting #outsoursing #softwaredevelopment #outstaffing

CONQUER CHAOS, FUEL GROWTH: A STARTUP’S GUIDE TO EFFICIENCY Feeling overwhelmed in your fast-paced startup environment? ️ As an administrative consultant, I've seen my fair share of early-stage companies struggling with organization. But fear not, founders! Here's a battle-tested tip I've used with clients like All4one Services to achieve peak efficiency: DEFINING ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES In the early days, everyone wears multiple hats. But as your team grows, clear role definitions become crucial. My first area of focus when working with startups is to establish ownership for tasks, ensuring everyone knew their area of expertise and accountability. This streamlined communication, minimized redundancy, and boosted overall productivity within these organizations. Here's how you can implement the system in your startup: CRAFT A TEAM ROSTER: List each team member and their core skills. MAP RESPONSIBILITIES: Identify essential tasks for each role. Clearly outline what each team member is accountable for, eliminating overlap and ensuring everyone is focused on their strengths. DOCUMENT & COMMUNICATE: Create a shared document outlining roles and responsibilities. Establish a central system for storing essential information like contact details, skills, and past performance. This makes it easy to find what you need, fast. This simple step creates a foundation for a well-oiled machine. Watch your team work smarter, not harder! This approach not only streamlined operations but also fostered a healthier work-life balance for the team, enabling them to focus more on impactful work. If this is something you are struggling with, I have good and bad news. Bad news: if you don't do something about it, it won't get better. Good news, I might be able to help you with that. Visit my LinkedIn profile to see what I mean 😢 #startuplife #organization #efficiency #administrativeconsulting #admin

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