Let’s say you’re bootstrapping a business and you need to delegate tasks to be more productive. Who do you hire as your startup’s first employee? Do you hire someone in sales, finance, or admin?
Serial entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David answers the question using sports teams as an analogy. He asks:
- If your football team already has a star quarterback, are you going to get another quarterback?
- If your basketball team already has a dominant center, will you get another center?
The answer to both questions is no. When you’re running a startup, the first person you hire is your opposing strength.
Pat explains:
If you’re in sales, most salespeople who are very good in sales are not necessarily very good in operations. If you’re someone who’s very good with money, but you don’t have an idea [what to sell], maybe you meet up there [with product development].
Whatever your opposing strength is, that’s what you need to start off with.
The philosophy behind forming your team
Digging deeper, Pat also discusses the philosophy of how basketball teams form their roster:
- Some teams build around one player. For the Chicago Bulls, it was Michael Jordan. The team then formed a supporting cast to be around him.
- The San Antonio Spurs, on the other hand, builds around a system and not just one player. This enabled the team to remain competitive for over 20 years.
What does this have to do with business? Whoever you choose as your first employee will determine what you value the most.
As an exercise, Pat suggests taking a sheet of paper and answering the following questions:
- What is my strength?
- What are the opposing strengths that I need?
After you’ve answered these questions, hire the person for that role.
One of the main takeaways here is that we shouldn’t hire people like ourselves. While it’s fun to be around people similar to you, it’s not going to help you in business.
Here’s Patrick Bet-David’s complete video:
We’ll help you find the right people
Your first employee shouldn’t just be okay or merely good enough. Because you have limited funds, you need to find the best possible talent for your budding enterprise. Hiring top talent will help your business rise above the competition.
To find the right people for your startup, partner with Remote Workmate. Unlike job boards and freelancing sites where you do everything yourself, we handle all the heavy lifting for you, including recruitment and payroll.
You can actually choose from our pool of top candidates right away. Simply click the button below to browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page.
