Wednesday, September 16, 2015

STARTUP SPECIAL................HOW I BUILT MY TEAM

STARTUP SPECIAL
HOW I BUILT MY TEAM


Corporate Dossier quizzes startup founders on lessons learnt and
 mistakes made while putting together their A-Team


VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA Founder, One 97 and Paytm
“In 2011, I decided to do some thing in the smartphone space because the
 payments business was taking off. I was in New York and I had a friend there
 -a classmate with whom I had started my first company.He was working with
 Blackberry (formerly Research In Motion) in Canada and had come to
me in New York. We were roaming around a park in New York and I was
talking to him about the rising mobile phone penetration in India and the
 prospects of starting a payments business.
Both of us had studied in Delhi and he always had a problem with people
 asking for change (smaller denominations of money). He had a complaint
 that people in India don't usually return the money due to you because of lack
 of change with them. He asked me if I can do something about it. I told him
 that there are two issues we need to solve. One is that the app developers
 and game developers don't get small amounts because there are no payment
 options at present. The other is, the transactions that happen daily with a
 rickshaw driver or in kirana shop.How do we make all this digital?
He bought into it and that is how I made my first hire--Harinder Takhar
(now CEO of Paytm Labs).He came to India towards the end of 2011 and
 I told him to meet investors then. That was the formal beginning of Paytm.
Then there was Renu Satti, who was from a human resources background.
She used to be my teammate. She wanted to do something different and
I wanted someone who was fully involved and ready to do new things.
 I asked her if she wanted to really get into business (operations), because
 I knew there will be tough times ahead. I told her we are going to start
a new segment in ecommerce and I want her on my side. These two team
mates made my core team.
We also had a technology guy, who left us in due course -our first product
 manager, Abhishek Rajan. He was my junior at the Delhi School
of Engineering and I had known him for a long time. All this happened
between September 2011 and December 2011.
It worked out fine for me. They were super capable in their verticals,
even though they hadn't previously worked in a startup environment.
In fact, Rajan was the one who coined the name Paytm (pay through mobile)
.Satti, who was an HR person was heading online marketing and social
media for us. The work four of us did in the first five months made a
strong foundation for the company.“

REVANT BHATE Co-founder, Faasos
“None of us founders were from the food in dustry. The only thing we knew
 about food was to taste how it is. So, we were looking for someone
who was from the food industry. We hired a couple of people for that
but it didn't work out well for us. They came in with preconceived notions
 of how a food business should be run and scaled up. We wanted to do
 things differently. The only food players who had scale were a McDonald's
 or a Domino's--western cuisine which was not really palatble for the Indian
 consumer. After the initial couple of hires, we realised that we wanted to
change the game. Both these hires were from MNC food giants. One was
working on operations and the other on supply chain. Most of the bigger
players have a standardised way of operating the supply chain. That limited
the food options that one can provide.We wanted to supply fresh Indian
 food which consumers can have every day. That is when we realised we
wanted to do things our own way.
The senior management and the second tier at Faasos are not people from
 the food industry but mostly entrepreneurs who wanted to build something
 different on their own and are willing to take a risk. Jaydeep (Barman),
my cofounder had put out an interesting emailer (for hiring) which got
more than 2000 responses. It said we neither wanted anyone from the
food industry nor who makes presentations before us. It clearly said that
 the candidates should not send CVs to us, but just a couple of lines on why
 they want to join Faasos. But 50% of the applicants still sent their CVs and
we rejected all of them.
In a startup environment, there is no clear structure or process. You are given
 real life problems and you solve it. Jaydeep and I recruited six people. In the
 last one year those six have recruited their own teams and they have also
gone about the same way, where experience in a particular function was
not so important as the willingness to do things differently.
Most of the top management have ESOPs in the business. We are introducing
 ESOP schemes for the second line as well. That is the draw. Nobody is
going to put in that much blood and sweat otherwise. They should have
 a feeling that it is their own business.“ “Outside of Pankaj (Chaddah)
and I, Gunjan Patidar (CTO) was the first person to come work full time
on Zomato. We were referred to Gunjan by an intern who knew him
through college. When he came in to meet us, he was wearing a T-shirt
 that said `will code for food'. We knew we had the right guy.
I guess back then we were looking for someone who was passionate
about tech and wanted to write good code. We reached out to our old
teammates, classmates, friends and alumni networks. We were very
fortunate to get the right set of people on board in the early days.
We grew the team very slowly up until 2011, which is when we started
 picking a slight pace in hiring and for the last two years have been
consistently doubling in size. There are over 3000 of us across 22 countries
 and it feels like such a short time ago when we were in just eight cities
 in India.
When we started out our first mission was to build the most exhaustive
database of restaurants in the Delhi NCR region. I think in the early days
raising funds was one of the bigger challenges and as we grow and scale up,
 attracting and retaining the right people is an ongoing challenge.
We have, however, been very lucky to have the right kind of investors
on board. We have also built a fantastic team of over 3000 people across
 22 countries and are really looking forward to what the rest of the year
 has in store for us.
Every country has its own culture and it is difficult to replicate similar
cultures across several countries. However, we have realised that if we
 look hard and invest enough time to find folks who are passionate about
the product, we will find them. It does take time but we always find the
right fit for the organisation. If you walk into any of the Zomato offices
across 22 countries, you will find a similar passion and vibe in the office.
Till about a year ago, I was fairly hands-on in the hiring process.
Over the last 9 12 months we have built a healthy layer of business owners
 and recruiters who are just as passionate about Zomato and are helping
Zomato grow at a much faster pace.“
“When I started out in 2001, no one wanted to join an internet company,
 especially after the dot com bust. An internet startup wanted people like
product managers and designers, but there was very little talent available
in the country.There was very little to choose from and whoever was left
 wanted a safe job after 2001. So, until 2006, our hiring policy was `if you
 are willing to join us we will hire you.' I didn't have much of a choice.
Once we raised external funding we were mostly relying on referrals and
 a little help from head hunters from around 2007 to 2010. Many of our
top guys have joined us in different roles and moved to other roles and
grown with the company.
A journalist had come to interview me, I turned it around into a job offer.
He turned out to be a good product manager for us. And I turned a business
 development guy to be my PR person. We have taken a consultant and
 turned him into an online marketing head, we have taken a CFO and made
 him into a CEO, turned an HR person into a market development head.
We do this quite a bit. We don't box people. If someone wants to try
something different, we are for it. There were three office attendants with us
 and two of them are web engineers now. So, we are always challenging
people to expand their horizons. But you wouldn't want to make a finance
guy your CTO.
We didn't have much money to pay our employees initially. I was trying
to sell a dream to them. There were some people who you could connect
 with. Those days nobody knew what an ESOP is. Everyone wanted cash.
When you are hiring someone, they should basically understand the culture
 of your organisation. That doesn't mean that they should have the same
views. You want people with different opinions than yours, or sure.
Two major things that one should look at are attitude and learn ng agility.
 Sometimes, when people have too much experience, it can be dangerous.
And when it comes to letting go of people, generally in India, professionals
 struggle with it but entrepreneurs don't as much. I see professionals in my
 company hold on to it, when they have to take tough decisions, for months.
It damages everything ­ not only the company but that individual's performance
 too. It may not be his fault. May be your environment is not suitable for him.
 Sometimes, it is good for him if you let go.“
By Dearton Thomas Hector

CDET 11SEP15

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