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From knowing who to hire next, to ethical and legal concerns, to how to interview the best candidates, to how to evaluate them once they're hired - startups have their work cut out for them when it comes to hiring. If you can afford to hire a trained professional, someone who's skilled in evaluative testing, do so. But if not, you need to learn as much as you can about how to hire the right people. Here's our contribution to your endeavor. Sponsor How Does a Startup Know Who to Hire Next? First it must be said that each startup has different needs. But in general, a startup that's still in pursuit of funding requires a sales-oriented team, whereas a startup with funding sources that have begun to stabilize can focus its team on more specific objectives. In general, Anthony Cerminaro of AllBusiness says that the classic hiring stage starts with hiring someone to build a prototype. Then a manger is hired to turn the prototype into a product. Then a business manager is hired to coordinate business opportunities for the product. Then a lawyer is hired. Finally, someone is hired to focus on overall business development. What Kind of People Are You Looking For? To find the answer to that question, you need to understand the work ethic of each generation. Yesterday Ypulse interviewed the president of LifeCourse, Neil Howe. With a background in history, demographics and economics, Howe offer this advice: "If you want visionary leadership, if you need to redefine your corporate culture, go to your Boomers. If you need to apply incentives in a creative out-of-the-box way, if you need that cost-cutting, reality shock therapy done to your department, get your X'ers to do it. But if you want a group of people to come together in a team and to design a system and a protocol to get everything working effectively in an organized fashion, if you want to improve the morale of the group, get your Millennials to do it." Ethical and Legal Requirements Laws protect us from discrimination based on age, race, gender, religious and political beliefs. These laws are not as easy to follow as you might think. But some of the most common hiring advice given to startups is to treat your job candidates with respect. As blogger Rands in Repose says : "...a team built on trust and respect is vastly more productive and efficient than the one where managers are distant supervisors and co-workers are 9-to-5 people you occasionally see in meetings. You're not striving to be everyone's pal; that's not the goal. The goal is a set of relationships where there is a mutual belief in each other's reliability, truth, ability, and strengths." Finding this on a resume and from references, and from face-to-face meetings is not easy. The atmosphere around you is critical. Essential Ingredients of a Successful Interview TechStartups suggests that the ultimate disrespect is to interview someone in public. A quiet office or home is an essential atmosphere to put your potential new star employee at ease. If you are using a computer during the interview don't peer out at them from behind it. Set the interview space up so you can easily look at the screen together. Don't surprise them with a room full of partners staring them down. If they'll be meeting other partners let them know ahead of time who these people are and how they can learn more about them prior to the interview. Do your homework on how to interview. This means no generalized questions, no storytelling or memorized presentations about what your company does. Get detailed and specific right away. Demonstrate to them the type of professional rapport you'll be expecting in the workplace. Who's Best and How Do You Get Them Started? Have you ever been told by someone that they don't like the business side but they love the work they do? Don't hire those people! People who are enthusiastic about the business side are far more cognizant of how teamwork and problem solving affects the bottom line. An additional quality is someone called a "Driver." Online product marketing guru Eben Pagan explains how a Driver doesn't slack off on their work if their boss is too busy to give them a crucial answer. The Driver keeps pursuing the boss rather than using the lack of response as an excuse to slack off. As Pagan explains in the video below, if you want to know if you hired a Driver give them their first task, tell them who to work with and then let them get the work done with as little supervision as possible. At the end of each day ask them to take five minutes to send you a very brief email describing how their day went. And again, don't supervise them or send them in-depth guidance in a reply - just take a step back and see how they respond to the real world. Pagan explains that shifting from high expectations to neutral will reveal if you have a real Driver. In the long run, no one is served by keeping an employee around who can't relate to the drive for success that you are putting into your startup. Do you have more hiring tips. Or do you have horror stories about hiring or being hired by a startup? Let us know in the comments. Image from Wiki Commons . Discuss
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5 Hiring Tips for Startups
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MindTouch has developed a top 20 list of the most powerful voices in open-source, compiled using Twitter and other sources. It's a good example of how a research project can be transparent and in the process, help garner thought leadership for both the individual and the company. MindTouch Vice President of Sales Mark Fidelman wrote a blog post yesterday, discussing the project and how they came to their findings. Sponsor Our interest is in much the process as the results. This is the kind of approach that has a number of uses. It answers questions for the organization. It creates a center of intelligence for the open source community. And it serves as a useful resource for sales and marketing. It also helps show that real research can be done using a few simple tools. Most of the people on the list will be of no surprise to veterans of the open-source world. Notables include Tim O'Reilly, Chris Messina and Jonathan Schwartz. The results show the degree of amplification than the average active user. This is where you have to consider the "nuance" factor by defining what it means to be classified in such a manner. Fidelman explained the process in this way: "We first set out to determine reach by examining the number of followers and buzz an individual has on sites like Twitter and Google. We then needed to determine how much impact an individual had with their followers and subscribers. We asked questions like: How often were they retweeted? How much buzz is created around their blog posts, tweets, and other messages? How often is the individual referenced in the blogosphere? Were they cited by influential people?" To create the list, Fidelman used Twitalyzer , Klout Twittercounter , ReTweetRank and Twitter . They also used Google, Google Blog Search, and Google Trends. That's a take on the process but what about the larger meaning for MindTouch. Fidelman had this to say in response to our questions: Question: How does this project fit into your approach for building a company? Answer: "We actually view it as building an industry. The Open source industry has a lot of innovative, influential leaders but until now decision makers haven't had a guide to know where to tune in. Question: How is the process of doing the research useful? Answer: It helps mindtouch and the industry learn where to find the open source broadcasters. If the industry needs to get the word out, these individuals should be targeted first. Question: Can you provide 3 tips for people in the enterprise looking to develop information that positions the company as a thought leader? Answer: It's about building a community around your personal brand. Matt Asay excels at this. He provides useful, relevant content that's actionable. If I were to characterize it Into three dimensions: 1. Actively participate in the open source dialogue on Twitter, Google Buzz and niche open source networks. 2. Build a community around your personal brand by reaching out and networking with other bloggers, industry analysts and consumers of open source software and hardware. 3 Develop and create useful content on a personal blog or third party blog. The more actionable and useful the better. This is a big area to cover and I'm probably not doing it justice in two sentences. He adds...Perhaps a guest post on this topic will help? 
Out of the information, Fidelman looked at the larger group and created a Twitter list . MindTouch, also did a little inclusive marketing by adding a badge that people can put on their site if they are on the list. Thought leadership provides a host of important dimensions. Enterprise companies that approach the market with intelligence are usually the smartest of the group. Luckily, the tools have never been easier to use in helping filter out the information that matters most. Discuss
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Why MindTouch Posted a Top 20 List of Open-Source Leaders
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Last week the New York Historical Society opened the first large-scale exhibit of material from the Grateful Dead Archive. The archive will be managed by the University of Santa Cruz with special access to four decades worth of videotapes, recordings, fan letters and even a note from President Obama. What is surprising about the archives and the band itself, is that this classic group of rock icons is being touted as one of the first businesses to take an active role in viral marketing and brand influence building. Sponsor Beyond the iconic imagery of the Uncle Sam skull, the dancing bears and the jester, the Grateful Dead are so well known for their viral influence on fans that entire academic careers have been spent studying the band as a sociological phenomenon. In a recent article entitled, Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead , writer Joshua Green outlines how the band's willingness to allow its music to spread via taped concert recordings is similar to that of many of today's startups. Said band lyricist John Perry Barlow, "What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then--the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it becomes...The Internet doesn't behave that way...If I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced." The freemium model was implemented with the assumption that merchandise and concert sales would follow. Although the band sought legal action for commercial bootlegging, the group knew that attempting to hold back regular fans from making personal recordings would not only be foolish, but it would be impossible. Instead, an open recording policy for concerts not only pleased Deadheads, but it paved the way for some of the band's best advocates to recruit others. It's estimated that recordings for 2,200 of the 2,350 Grateful Dead concerts exist and many of them are available online. Given the fact that all of these recordings required no overhead from the band, it was a great way to crowdsource distribution and increase influence. The group even went so far as to reserve an on-site spot for tapers in a special section behind the soundboard. This reserved space can be likened to a consumer-facing startup community's willingness to offer viral tools such as blogging buttons, bookmarking widgets, Facebook fan pages and Twitter integration. The idea here is that a company reserves a space for free distribution in order to gain mindshare and find a conversion funnel for paying customers. In the startup world, the point of conversion has always been up for debate. Said investor and entrepreneur Dave McClure, "There is a role for freemium, but unless you missed the TPS report the FREE part is only a loss-leader for the MEE-YUM part -- it's a test-drive before you buy something. If your users are just kicking the tires then you need to kick them to the curb eventually." That being said, as proven by the Grateful Dead, freemium content and permission to redistribute can trigger a mechanism for broad influence. Because influence generates perceived value, startups may find it easier to overcome barriers for customer acquisition by offering limited teaser content. After all, if the Grateful Dead can overcome wallet friction from more than 40 years of psychedelic drug users, surely a groundbreaking experience can rally loyal (and paying) fans. Photo Credit: Jim Marshall from the Grateful Dead Archives Discuss
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DeadHeads and Retweeters: Crowdsourcing Influence
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The Guidewire Group just launched its Innovate!100 competition to highlight the most promising companies of the year. Early-stage startups are encouraged to submit applications and compete in one of 22 pitch slam events across Europe and North America. The winners will receive more than $2 million dollars in development services and consulting. In addition to being an international competition, one of the things that makes this contest different from other events is the fact that shortlisted companies' assessments will be made public. ReadWriteWeb caught up with former DEMO producer and Guidewire Group President Mike Sigal to find out why he's sharing his company's secret sauce through something called the G/Score . Sponsor Contrary to popular belief, the G/Score is not a rating of your startup's street smarts. The score is the Guidewire Group's attempt to rate your company across a variety of categories and help you improve your prospects. The company's assessors include VCs, journalists, economic development strategists and executives from companies like Microsoft, Motorola and Research in Motion. Scores are assigned to demystify what investors, media and partners yearn to discover - namely, are you a fit? Says Sigal, "Investors have a fiduciary duty and it's not our place to give investment advice. What we're doing is creating a resource to highlight companies and make them accessible to the greater community... The response from entrepreneurs is that fundamentally, if it means that we'll save them time by connecting them with the right people, they're all for it." While the top company scores will be made public for the Innovate!100 Program, entrepreneurs who choose to work with Guidewire on subsequent G/Scores have the option to keep their scores private and apply for re-scoring after correcting their weaknesses. Because all pitch slam finalists will be judged using the scorecard, those applying should consider the following questions as they pertain to the Guidewire methodology: Business This part of the G/Score is all about the nature of your business idea. 1. Concept: Is there a need for your product? Is it a large enough lead to warrant action? Can you prove this need? 2. Market: How many people does your product impact? Do you have a chance to be potentially disruptive to market leaders? 3. Competition: Who else is competing for your market's attention? (Your market can't be everyone in the entire world, but Sigal explains that online banking software providers might see cheque books as a competitor.) Execution This section is all about reality, not projections. Here you are expected to give a picture of your everyday business. 1. Business: How many users, partners and major stakeholders do you currently have? What is your adoption rate amongst them? 2. Product: Does your product exist or is it just an idea? If it does exist, do you have user traction? If you were to stop providing a service today, would your customers have noticeably worse lives? Team Having a team of famous second-time entrepreneurs is great, but not if you've only got engineers. Have you got a well-rounded team of individuals who can fulfill the responsibilities of running a successful business? Business Model A revenue stream is not a business model unless it has been proven through a repeatable process. In his own words, Sigal says, "This section is all about the Benjamins. Are you making money and can you continue to make money over time?" Funding Are you self-funded, seed funded and/or VC funded from $2.5 million to more than $25 million dollars? To apply for one of the Innovate!100 Pitch Slam events go to Innovate100.com/program . Registration for the program is $75 dollars USD and includes 2 pitch slam registrations, access to online pitch training and inclusion in the program promotions. European entrepreneurs should start applying now as the first event kicks off in Barcelona on March 1st. Discuss
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Innovate100: Enter to Be The World's Most Promising Startup
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Lifehacker's founding editor Gina Trapani has just announced that she's joining Expert Labs , the government-oriented independent think tank led by Anil Dash and funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her first project: deploying her Twitter-based decision making software called ThinkTank for the White House. The Obama administration announced the joint project with Expert Labs in a blog post earlier this month . As Trapani described it today: "The President has identified a series of scientific and technical challenges that are as important to the future as the moon landing was. And we want to help drive feedback on that list, and even suggest what other items should be on there that haven't been included." Sponsor Trapani explained today that the fundamental qualities of ThinkTank are that it leverages existing social connections (today on Twitter, soon on Facebook and later beyond), that it stores the data on your own server just like WordPress does and that it's open source and community developed. The software sounds like "the WordPress of Twitter data harvesting." Trapani has been one of the foremost voices in tracking the ways the web can improve everyday life and work. She focuses on making new developments accessible and is also a respected software developer. Discuss
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Lifehacker Gina Trapani to Aid White House in Goal Setting
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