In his must-read article “The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit”, Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley investor and co-founder or Netscape, argued that getting the fit right between great products and market needs is more important than anything else, even more important than building a great quality team.

Although I respect Marc’s well-argued opinions, I disagree with his conclusions. Here’s why:

Firstly, in defining a “high calibre team”, Marc only considers the experience and ability of the team, not their perseverance, motivation and agility. There are numerous examples of founders and teams like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg that failed several times before finding the best product-market fit. Without their gritty determination and adaptation, it is unlikely Facebook or SpaceX would have ever succeeded.

Second, without an appropriate and diverse mix of skills, strengths and experience, it is unlikely a startup team will be able to effectively explore and accurately read the market effectively spot and exploit the best opportunities in the first place. So talented teams with the right mix of motivated people is your trump card in our opinion although great products and the right market fit are of course hugely important as well. The key is to ensure alignment between the 3 key elements, see diagram below.

So how can you invest in your talent and build a committed workforce that is productive and highly motivated to succeed?

Let’s focus on the four vital talent principles every Tech venture should adopt:

Help everyone connect with the company’s purpose

Passion, or strong, positive feelings towards the company, is important if you want people to work hard, be highly motivated and persevere in the face of setbacks. But passion doesn’t just happen. It occurs when people believe strongly in the purpose of the company and find it meaningful and personally relevant. Meaning connects people at an emotional level with the company and is arguably even more important than money in motivating people in the 21^st century organization. Therefore, it is important for the top team to explain why the company’s vision is important and how it’s products will benefit the lives of customers. An opportunity should ideally be given to everyone to help shape the vision and plans to deliver it. This will ensure they feel a stronger sense of ownership and are more energized to work hard to deliver it.

Hire for mindset and culture fit as well as skill

Many Tech startups and scaleups hire people into the organization purely based on their skills, knowledge and experience. However, this is short-sighted and rarely leads to success. The really smart and successful ones use a different model. As well as looking for so-called “smarts” with the right abilities and skills for the roles they want to fill, they invest in identifying people with a positive, agile mindset – people who possess qualities like determination, a solutions-mindset, curiosity and agility. They also measure team and culture fit to ensure new hires have values and personal strengths that match the needs and evolving culture of the company. This doesn’t mean they hire clones, they actively encourage diversity within teams by recruiting people from different backgrounds who bring diverse and complementary perspectives and experiences to the company.

Invest in people and let them shine

Too many management systems are designed to control and direct people and end up straightjacketing their ideas, opinions and energy.

Bright people need clear direction on what they are expected to deliver, not how they should think and act every second of the working day. Therefore, managers need to avoid the urge to over-manage and over-control. Employees generally respond best by being given trust and freedom over the way they achieve their results. The best leaders and managers allow others to shine by delegating challenging tasks and enabling their success by providing coaching, support and encouragement.

Build a culture that gives people a natural energy high everyday

There is a great deal of truth in the now popular saying “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. However, few companies invest much effort in building a strong, positive culture. Successful and fast-growing companies like Netflix, Innocent and online boutique fashion retailer, Farfetch, understand the importance of culture and shared values in uniting people and enabling them to achieve levels of effort and excellence they didn’t think possible.

Work cultures vary considerably, however, all great work cultures reinforce a strong “one team” identify and sense of belonging. They create this by building strong teams and promoting the free flow of ideas and opinions through open, honest dialogue and a spirit of inclusivity where all ideas and opinions are valued and listened to.

Leadership has a key role to play, as they need to be talent energizers, inspiring people to higher levels of performance, as well as encouraging freedom to express diverse views and opinions, even if these are controversial and unpopular. This helps remove fears and inhibitions about speaking up and frees up people to challenge management and the status quo, enabling faster adaption to the complex challenges faced by today’s Tech firms.

By investing in a motivated and productive workforce, as well as great products and market penetration, Tech leaders will create a strong foundation for growth, innovation and success. But if they ignore or underinvest in talent, their success is likely to be short-lived, as their people will become demotivated and the best talent will end up exiting the company first.

 Further Reading:

Marc Andreessen (2007). The only thing that matters. Download from https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

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