The Jeff Pulver Blog: When Building a Startup…Remember that Chemistry Matters:

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June 06, 2007

When Building a Startup…Remember that Chemistry Matters:

One of the things that sometimes gets overlooked when building a startup is the chemistry between the people who represent the “starting team” of a startup.

One of the things that I look for in early stage ventures beyond the vision of the company and the size of the marketplace which is about to become disrupted evolves around the person or people who are responsible for the vision and the way the proposed team appear to be in person rather than just on paper. And as much as the vision matters, so do the people who the investor then needs to make a decision about with regard to whether or not they believe that these are the right people to implement the vision and take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.

In many cases the people who are responsible for starting a company together will end up spending more time with each other in the early years of the company than with members of their own family. And unlike in life where you are not in control of the family you are born into, one of the characteristics of a successful startup is the bringing together of a group of people who get along and really like each other. People who will watch each other’s back and be there for each other. Many times when a serial entrepreneur is starting a new company, it can feel a lot like the “bringing the band back together”

Since 1995, I have watched a number of people “do their thing” and successfully work together time after time and change the world a little bit each time in the process. I have also seen some people try again and again to try to make something happen and just fail. While persistence is a great trait to have, there is something to be said about being able to find the right people to be with you and whose collective abilities as a team offer something much stronger than any of the individual abilities of any one of the people who are part of the starting team.

So yes, when building a startup, the chemistry of the team really does matter.

Tags: Startups, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff on June 6, 2007 12:09 AM | Permalink

Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos

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Posted by: شات الخليج at September 2, 2010 12:34 PM

I couldn't agree with you more. The early investors invest in me, the entrepreneur. They don't look at numbers or details, they look at me and my vision. That's about good enough for raising the first couple of hundred k. When it comes it the larger investments it's all about the team. I am blessed with an absolutely amazing team. There are 4 of us and even though they may have come on board more then a year since I started, I still consider them my partners and we are all treated the same.

Posted by: Richard Kligman at June 7, 2007 03:59 AM

commentary: jeff pulver blog - When Building a Startup…Remember that Chemistry Matters:
posted on diarRHETORICS.com

as a serial inventor, recovering artist and patent holder of a textile process for softening denim stone washing like process among too many other things - i am always challenging myself to see what i am missing what more is there that is obvious that i don't see - so one of the things i learned from going through the gymnastics and trying to climb the ladder of invention and start ups and try to reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is you need to believe in your vision, passion and trusting your intuition and if you are lucky enough to be lucky - you can imagine the unimaginable and the unthinkable but to do something is something else - to go from where you are now to where you want to end up one needs to figure out all the steps in between but even before that what it is you want to walk away with when you have reached that point - and if the goal/point is money - i am sure there is an easier way to get there - money doesn't drive passion it drives mediocrity in the end - one thing i always ask myself before embarking on something is can i do it myself and if i can or can't do it myself is its worth the energy and who do i trust (chemistry) to do this - sometimes its better to do it in your head but if you "can not not" do something if you are compelled and can't stop thinking of it then and only then might you do something interesting - this is my litmus test - if i am haunted by the idea - to me a genius is simply somebody who is interested in what they are doing - but in the end its about the combination of chemistry and risk, and risk tolerance and being there to make a good mistakes and sometimes the thing you start out with leads you to something even more unimaginable so as an individual and as a team you have to be flexible - you might have chemistry but people have different reality checks and risk tolerance levels - and chemistry can change like in any marriage it is always evolving

my latest tag line is "if you think you are going in the wrong direction - go there you might discover something you didn't know" and if you think you are going in the right direction and know where you are going to wind up change directions - food for thought -

so in response to jeffs pulvers comment chemistry matters - i once asked the father of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot how he saw himself and he said "lucky" every time he was offered a security blanket job he refused - he then told me a story about Napoleon and how he chose his generals which is in my documentary in progress "conversation with Benoit Mandelbrot in a snow storm" Benoit said, Napoleon when he sent out his assistants to look for new generals they would come back and tell him what family and school and this and that when - and Napoleon would say - i don't care about that... don't tell me that... tell me are they lucky!! - food for thought - geo

Posted by: geo at June 6, 2007 02:32 PM

VC'S and startups, see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZwu2A4Ays8

Posted by: O.N at June 6, 2007 06:43 AM

June 06, 2007

When Building a Startup…Remember that Chemistry Matters:

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