When you begin the process of recruiting for your startup, chances are it's for a role where you've either identified that you have a clear skills gap or simply because particular tasks are becoming too time-consuming and you need extra support.
And whilst it's important to recruit for those niche and general support roles, it's becoming increasingly evident that hiring a Founders Associate can be one of the best ways to really develop your business further and ultimately make your startup vision a reality.
The role first came to the attention of many, back in the early days of Twitter, when co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone recruited for a Founders Associate with the simple goal of saving them time. Now, however, it’s a role that is becoming more and more prevalent across all sorts of startups.
What IS a Founders Associate?
A Founders Associate is someone who will work closely with you, the founder, to properly develop and build the startup. They'll help you execute your plans and ideas and get involved in all aspects of the business - both at a strategic level and a practical level.
They'll work alongside you in developing all the essential elements of the business in those early days - from supporting the product development to creating the marketing strategy, from sourcing those first customers to building key strategic partnerships.
They'll be a sounding board for your ideas and won’t be afraid to push back or challenge when they see the need. However, most importantly, they'll have a clear drive and inherent passion to work in tandem with you to help to shape and build a successful startup.
Why should you hire a Founders Associate?
Since the early days of a startup are some of the most important in a startup's lifecycle, having the right people around can make a huge difference and hiring a Founders Associate has the potential to create the biggest positive impact. After all, they can undertake many vital and essential tasks. They can support you in developing your overall business mission and strategy. They can help refine and develop your product or service and can engage directly with potential clients and customers to ensure the solution you're creating is the right one. And if you're planning to raise investment, they can help with that too - whether that's by researching and identifying the best VC firms, preparing pitch materials or helping create and hone your fundraising strategy.
They can also help with the practical operational side of things - from developing your day to day business processes to creating company policies. In essence, their role is to take ownership of key tasks and projects, implement the required processes, ensure that things run more smoothly for the founder and ultimately take whatever actions are necessary to help bring your ideas to fruition.
What type of people make great Founders Associates?
In those early days, problems and challenges will arise frequently, and a good Founders Associate won’t fear them at all - in fact they’ll instead want to tackle them head on. They'll devise innovative solutions, overcome barriers and positively relish the opportunity to figure out new or improved ways to do things. In essence, they’re the type of people that don’t even see problems at all, they simply see things to solve.
They'll be excellent communicators too and will be able to communicate effectively and adapt their communication style with anyone they need to - whether that’s a potential client or an investor, they’ll simply tailor their approach accordingly. And whilst they’ll work closely with you, they won’t need constant direction; they’re self starters, are wholly proactive and have a natural can-do attitude.
A great Founders Associate will possess excellent organisational and analytical skills and be entirely detail-oriented in any task or project that they undertake. They will also be multi-talented, will thrive on the varied nature of their role and be genuinely excited about what they are helping to create. They'll also be innately ambitious, entrepreneurial in nature and be driven to succeed.
Where can you find a Founders Associate?
First and foremost, it’s important to realise that a Founders Associate can operate at either a junior or more senior level, so you could potentially hire a recent graduate or a much more experienced candidate - it all depends on what your startup needs.
At either level though, a Founders Associate is likely to be a high achiever and will most probably have excelled in their academic achievements. At a junior level, you may find they have been working away on a side hustle whilst studying and honing those all-important entrepreneurial skills. Or, they might have started out studying for a profession such as medicine or law and then realising it wasn’t a good fit, made the move to another discipline that they found a lot more stimulating or challenging.
At a more senior level, potential Founders Associates are also likely to be high achievers from an academic perspective and will typically have acquired an MBA at a leading or world-renowned institution. Mediocrity is not what they’re about! They’ll not have had a run-of-the-mill background from a work perspective either - they’ll have gained experience at high levels.
They may perhaps work in investment banking or have been previously employed as a top-tier strategy consultant. They may even have been involved in the startup world themselves - most probably in a venture-backed startup or scaleup. And if they don’t have the personal experience of being a tech founder, they’ll most certainly have proven experience of working at a senior level, directly with a founder or founding team. Or they might even have become disillusioned by the dull corporate world that they’ve been in and are actively seeking an escape into the much more interesting world of a startup.
You’ll find them in fast-paced, dynamic and demanding environments that have a growth-oriented mindset and culture and they’ll have thrived there. Great Founders Associates do exist - it’s simply knowing where to look!
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Who we are
Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK and Europe.
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