30 Skills Every Start Up Founding Team Must Have

(not including ‘product market fit’)

Some years ago I was asked to help a large institution figure out how to hire more ‘entrepreneurs.’ They asked me to review some 30+ resumes to find someone. First, I narrowed down the 30 people to 3 and asked “are these your top picks?” “Yes,” they replied. Then I told them the mistake they are making is that, while these resumes were impressive in a stand alone capacity, NONE of these people had ever started a company it just looked like they had.  

Their first response was “how do we tell if these people have entrepreneurial chops?” I devised a very simple test.  “Ask the top candidates to write the 30 things every entrepreneurial team needs to know or have. Time limit to 5 min. Bullet point form. Spelling doesn’t count’

I also decided to do it myself.  Below is my list from 2016 when I first sat down. I’ve edited it since but I still come back to it regularly. I hope this helps people who are at home right now. 

1. Ability to pitch the idea;

2. Ability to Find, Analyze and present data;

3. Find & hire good employees;

4. Fire bad employees;

5. Put people in good positions;

6. Manage to strategic goals;

7. Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, difficulty, or annoyance without getting angry or upset

8. Think in terms of value creation;

9. Find good mentors/advice; 

10. Thick skin to ignore the ‘haters’, ‘detractors’, and ‘distractors';

11. Passion for product and obsession about company success;

12. Ability to grow personally and professionally based on company stage;

13. Can move the uncertainty matrix from “I think” to “the data shows”;

14. Can move from testing to ‘do more of that’ phases;

15. Application & Understanding of 1) accounting, 2) Finance, & 3) entrepreneurial finance;

16. Can envision a culture, and enact it’s values;

17. Timeframe-Shift and timelag-shift;

18. Bring in assets (capital, people, space …. );

19. See the hurdles and barriers for what they are;

20. Note and ride the J-Curve;

21. Negotiation expertise;

22. Create sustainable personal work/life balance;

23. Single Points of Failure - No Ostrich treatment;

24. Legal structures

25. Legal liabilities

26. Tax structure understanding

27. Investor relations (including yourself)

28. P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow statement knowledge

29. How to ‘extract’ value

30. Expertise in industry(s) they are in

31. How to go to market (tribes and platforms)