Not The Right Team - Reason #3 for StartUp Failure

I posted previously about the reasons that startups fail (#1 - No Market Need), and followed that up with a post about the second reason (running out of cash). Today, we explore reason #3, not having the right team. This is really reason #1, from my perspective. We pointed out that reason #2 (running out of cash) is really a reflection of reason #1 (no market need), because if there was a market need you would be able to raise the cash. But these both spring, to some extent, from reason #3, not having the right team (or not being the right team, or being insufficiently skilled in putting together a team). This is a really key element of a successful startup; there's a lot of evidence bandied about in the community, and I am not going to rehash it here (but if you can't find it, drop me a line and i'll dig it up for you).

So, what constitutes the "right" team? Ask 10 VC's, get 11 answers...although they will commonly agree that the one thing that they most invest in is "the team". Some thoughts...a passionate founder (or two, even better! - one technically oriented, the other business oriented), some folks who have made the startup journey before (unless you intend to use a lean startup, and stick to the Business Model Canvas methodology, and the prior experience was all waterfall development and traditional business development, in which case the experience (in reality) becomes a negative (although it can still look like a positive on paper)).

When you assemble this team, it needs to function as a team. In the Clifton StrengthsFinder world, they like to say, "people are sharp, but teams are round". The idea is that each person on the team needs (beyond the business competence that they bring to their assigned role on the team), an understanding of their own personal strengths and workstyles, and they need to be able to communicate that information to others on the team as the team is forming. We need analytics, and we need futurists, and we need relationship builders, and we need ... You get the idea; your team needs a lot of different skills, and attitudes, and personality strengths, witht e idea being that each person is using their strengths, and when combined, they make an awesome team.

The reason the team matters is because the reality is that most startups don't bring to market the thing that originally brought them together - they bring some variation of it, or a piece of it that they put into a completely different context, or they keep trying to find a thing that clicks for them until they find it. So, the right team keeps working together to make sure that the thing (whatever it is - product or service) is a thing that the market DOES need, and that they can make others understand, and that investors will want to support. So, it really comes down to the team.

Thoughts? Let me know.