The TEAM
Role of TEAM in a Tech Venture
What do you think goes into making a good
team??
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Essentially two things define a
good team
Diverse
Backgrounds
Multiplicity
of Skills
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Team
Competence
Number of founders
Usually technology entrepreneurs prefer to work alone
rather than a team
but
A study done by a professor from Stanford UniversityEd Roberts, shows that the ‘Likelihood of technology
driven start-ups succeeding, increases dramatically if
there 3 or 4 founders rather that one’.
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What should entrepreneurs and
investors consider in a founding team?
1. Mission, Aspirations and Propensity for Risk
2. Ability to execute on CSFs (Critical Success
Factors), Past demonstrated record
3. Connectedness- up, down and across the
value chain
Seven Domains Framework from The New Business Road Test by Prof. John W.
Mullins, London Business School
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Questions to ask – Evaluating your team
•
•
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What level of aspirations do you have for your
entrepreneurial dream?
What sorts of risk are you and are you not willing to take?
What are the Critical Success Factors required in this
Industry?
Does your team have it?
Who do you and your team know across the value-chain
among your customers, suppliers, competitors and
substitutes?
Seven Domains Framework from The New Business Road Test
by Prof. John W. Mullins, London Business School
Lets Team-Up!!
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Game
• The game is designed to use crowd sourcing of
knowledge to determine the right fit and team
members for the various roles/functions in the
startup
• In a close knit startup team, members might be
averse to share their judgment/opinion in an open
forum and this game works well in such situations
to effectively bring out preferences for team
composition
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What you need to do
Write down:
1. Who in your team is most effective and suitable for
a particular role
2. Who in your team is NOT suitable for that role
3. Who in your team can play the role with some
training
Please do this across all the roles listed and yes- You
can write your own name too 
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Desired Outcome:
• The entrepreneur/team leader should get a good
idea of who should be on what team
• The game can also give deep insights into who the
team feels is not a good fit for a particular role
Post Game:
• The facilitator or entrepreneur can analyze the
filled up worksheets and decide on the relevant
roles that each team member can be assigned
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Discussion Questions
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Considering the age of your students- do you think
they could make informed decisions on assigning
roles to other team members without a tool?
Why did we ‘crowd-source’ knowledge?
Don’t you think it is a very democratic way of
assigning roles?
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Video
Building a Winning team
National Entrepreneurship Network