A team is more than the sum of its parts. It’s not just a collection of clever, capable minds – it has to be a well-thought-out composition of people who work well together, are able to challenge each other, argue, and come to agreements. Who are able to make mistakes, correct them, and constantly shift perspective – while at the same time keeping their eyes on the prize.

In this article, I’ll look at how to build the team to commercialise your hard tech innovation. I’ll go into the timing, things to be aware of and look out for, typical pitfalls, and some of the key differences to consider between growing a hard tech team versus scaling a software startup.

Which roles do you have to consider as you approach market readiness?

In hard tech you often have one founder who is an innovator or tech person and one founder who covers the initial commercial and business aspects. As you approach commercialization, you’ll need to expand senior-level expertise. 

Key roles to consider are an operational expert able to build and operate factories, a COO, a professional finance expert, a CFO, and a sales lead. The exact seniority level of the sales lead will depend on the experience of the original founding team and how expensive and complex it is to sell the product. Sometimes one of the founders can still run the sales for quite some time with minimum support. But sometimes you need a senior sales lead and fast-growing sales team as soon as you reach market readiness.

For standard tasks such as bookkeeping, it may be useful to hire people on a consultant basis. But this is not a viable solution for the senior team members who need to share their vision and dedication. A consultant arrangement can’t cover business essential tasks like planning and organising HR topics and funding needs as a CFO could.

What to look out for when hiring key positions such as your COO and CFO

Other than the obvious skills of a role what kind of qualities should founders be looking for? And how can they recognize these? 

What’s always true is that you must have a clear picture of what your company needs. Look at the skills and qualities you already have within the team, consider how different personality types complement each other, think of the tasks ahead, and proactively build an image of the team members you need and what they need to bring to the table.

The number one characteristic needed for your early hires and any later-stage senior hires is resilience. You need people on your team who take the demands of the startup journey in their stride and embrace the challenging nature of commercialising a never-before-seen technology.

What if you’re not finding the right person, is it better to just fill the place or to keep searching?

Making big compromises is costly in the long run, especially when it comes to C-level positions which involve a share in the company. If you have a bad feeling when hiring someone, ask yourself why it’s so urgent to fill this position now. If it is because a specific business-critical task needs to be completed, for example, to sign a contract or start a pilot, or to comply with regulation or fulfil accounting obligations, then it may be worth hiring this person even despite your reservations and accept you may have to part ways and resume your search again soon. But if it’s a role that influences the long-term vision of the company, then it’s usually wiser to hold out and keep looking.

Who should be in charge of hiring?

It’s fine to delegate tasks such as setting up the processes, writing drafts of the role descriptions and even reviewing applications. 

But the planning, foresight and organisational vision need to come from the founding team. This may not take many hours, but it needs to be on the quarterly agenda and someone needs to own this topic. For crucial positions, you’ll have to review and agree on the job description. Everybody needs to be clear on the tasks the person will have to accomplish, on the hard skills. Additionally, the full job description, i.e. the internal version that you don’t publicise, should include the soft skills and core personality aspects introduced above. 

The hiring manager needs to be one of the founders or someone they can trust fully. In the first round(s) one founder will suffice, but for later-stage interviews, another or all founders should participate. 

How long does it take to hire key team members?

It’s wise to have a plan for the next 18 months. It’s a relatively long perspective for a startup horizon, but aligns with the typical period between funding rounds. Investors will want to see that you have a vision for your team’s growth and composition. This time frame also gives space for all the tasks that come up when finding and onboarding new employees, which typically takes several months.

What are the differences between hiring to commercialise hard tech vs. software?

In hard tech, two very important roles are the CFO and the COO, whereas in software it’s often the CTO who’s leading an expanding development team.

Hard tech founders often find themselves surrounded by software startups and investors who are most familiar with scaling such enterprises. Or maybe the team they’re hiring has a background in software startups. In hard tech ‘The Lean Startup’ way doesn’t usually work: You can’t just say that if there’s a big market and a big dream you can get started. It’s a misconception that it’s easy or that it follows a clear template. 

To commercialise hard tech you need industry experience

Scaling hard tech isn’t easy. The hardware involved means you’re talking about many physical processes, warranties, hardware and software combinations, ISO certifications, and health and safety regulations. Hard tech also usually means complex business models and funding structures. People with just a software background often underestimate the many different steps involved.

On the one hand, this leads to some founder teams not being fully aware of the risks and challenges ahead of them, on the other hand, it emboldens them and gives them the courage needed to embark on this transformative undertaking and to persist.

From an investor perspective, it’s a big risk when a company underestimates the commercialisation journey. It can mean that you either lose a lot of years or money, or both. It’s safer to invest when a founding team has developed the initial product and knows what it actually wants to do with it. Hard tech requires a lot of thinking, planning, engineering, operational development and implementation. That’s why hard tech startups often hire very experienced people with long years of industry knowledge when they reach the commercial stage.

When should you have a HR lead on the team?

Interestingly, one often sees an unfortunate inversion where people who are good at recognising talent and prioritising their team growth invest in a dedicated HR lead earlier than needed, while founders who actually struggle with this aspect of running their business don’t recognise the need and leave it for later than is ideal.

As a benchmark, it’s wise to consider hiring an HR lead when your company has grown to about 20 to 25 people, you’re ready to grow to 50 and you’re set on a continuous growth path.

To sum it up

My single most important piece of advice is to dedicate time to planning your company’s hiring journey. It’s not just about finding smart individuals. It’s a constantly growing puzzle requiring careful consideration and a sound understanding of how people (inter)act in demanding situations

• SEO Powered Content & PR Distribution. Get Amplified Today.
• PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. Empower Yourself. Access Here.
• PlatoAiStream. Web3 Intelligence. Knowledge Amplified. Access Here.
• PlatoESG. Carbon, CleanTech, Energy, Environment, Solar, Waste Management. Access Here.
• PlatoHealth. Biotech and Clinical Trials Intelligence. Access Here.
• Source: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/07/founder-know-how-building-the-team-to-commercialise-your-hard-tech-innovation/