Hello
The topic in this session is about startup team and your leadership
In the previous video clip
You listened to the special lecture by Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI
We understand how important having great team is
Throughout this session, we are going to talk about this topic in more detail
Are you ready?
The first topic is the startup team, which is part one
Before we go into the main topic
Let's look at this simple quiz
Can you guess the differences between two groups?
The group one, do you know who is she?
She is Sarah Blackley
She is a founder of Spanx
You know the Spanx?
Her net worth? 1.2 billion dollars
She is rich
And second person? Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is founder of Amazon.com
He's very famous
Probably he is number one or number two richest man in the world right now
The third one? He is Piero Mediar, the founder of eBay.com
Now you know everybody
And what about group two?
Look at him, Steve Jobs
Although he passed away, but he is very famous, everybody knows who he is
And, Bill Gates is still alive and also very famous
And the last one, do you know who he is?
Yes, he is Sergey Rivkin, founder of Google
You use Google right now
He founded Google
Is there any differences between these two groups?
What it is?
Just name anything
What it is?
Yeah. Both are riches
Everybody is founders, what is the differences?
My answer is group one is the solo founders
And group two?
Yes of course, the team founders, you know that
Is there any big difference between solo founders and team founders?
Which group is better in terms of the performance?
What do you think?
Solo founders better or team founders better?
Both groups are very successful. Think about it
Jeff Bezos, he is a solo founder, but he made a fortune
Bill Gates is a kind of team founders
but he became the world record number one, entrepreneur
What is big differences?
But clearly, there is a big difference in characteristics
between solo founders and team founders
Let's compare each groups
Let's look at the table
This is a competition chart between solo founder and co-founders
What is the differences between them?
In terms of speed?
According to the research, solo founders are less likely to grow than co-founders
On average, co-founders grow much faster than solo founders
How much? By 35%
Which is big differences though
And what about problem solving?
Think about it
Solo founder has just only one brain in the company
On the other hand, co-founders
Co-founders will have two or more brains in the team
Which teams are better?
Yes of course, co-founders are better in terms of problem solving
The solo founders has a limited perspective
on the other hand, the co-founders double the effectiveness
of the problem solving because they have more brains
And what about the risk?
If you are solo founder
you took this risk by yourself alone
On the other hand, the co-founders can spread out this risk
which means to reduce the kind of risk factors
What about capital waste?
Solo founders don't have much network
and they don't have much abilities
because they are alone
Probably, it is a little bit hard to attract venture capital companies
On the other hand, co-founders have many different person in a team
and they have many different and diverse network
I think it's a little bit easier to attract
VC capital money compared to the solo founder
This is a kind of a difference between solo founder and co-founders
Which one is better?
I cannot say which one is better from this table
because this table just compares the solo founder and co-founders
This table cannot tell us which group is better
Let's look at the current trend
Current trend in terms of a solo founder or co-founders
The first one, surprisingly
Solo-founded startups are more common than ever
Wow, it means that
the people are more likely to start their business alone
Previously
they are starting their company with others together
But these days, just they start alone
According to the statistics in 2024
35% of the all new startups had a single founder
Wow, it is up from 17% in 2017
Seven years later, what happened?
Solo founding companies increased by 17%
which is a big growth
The proportion of the companies with three or more founders has dropped
Big teams drops, but only one man company is increasing
And new technology, why is this happening?
Because of the new technology
Right now we can use AI technology or
mobile technology or the other cloud computing technology
We can reduce the cost of the infrastructure, reduce the cost of the technology
or AI can cover many man's work
new technology make it easier for one man
to launch the startup without any co-founders
That's why, one man company is increasing these days
Thanks to the development of technology
Now you understand the trend
Let's look at another trend
83% of VC-backed startups in 2024 had co-founders
Oh my God, this is a kind of different story
Although one man company is increasing
But VCs, the investors
the investors still prefer co-founded companies
How much? 83%
The majority of the VC-backed companies are co-founded companies
It's a bad news for the single, the solo founded company
I'm sorry about that
Investors still prefer teams
Investors believe that teams can better handle startup challenges
Startup can be associated with the risk
The solo founded companies is vulnerable
Solo founded companies are vulnerable
when they faced some challenges or external risk
On the other hand, if you have co-founders, then you can spread out the risk
the risk management
The investors really care for the risk management
that's why they prefer teams
There's another trend, mong teams
Among the teams, equal split
Equal split of the equity
Equal split of the equity are increasingly common
What do you mean by that?
For example, if you start with two people
then you can split your equity 50-50
But previously, there is some complicated calculation
For example, I put more money on this company
I took 70% of the share, 60% of the share
Or I developed most of an important program
most important services product of our company
That's why I should have 80% of the share
You are contributing little
or less than me
That's why you took 20%, I took 80%, something like that
Or I am the CEO, you are the CFO, or the COO
In the traditional company, CEO received much better than COO or CFO
That's why I should take 60% and you will take 40%
But recently teams split, equal based of the equity
Let's say if you start three people, you can split just one third
33%, roughly 33%, 33%, 33%
and evenly distributed
Wow, it's a kind of a new trend
It's good to know that
It's a good thing is
if you do that equally split
it is easy to calculate and implement, your equity calculation
And also it allow teams to avoid some kind of conflict
and also complex negotiations
I think it's a there's a good thing
And it helps avoid the conflicts
I already mentioned that among the teams
I've heard many very similar story that
one of the co-founders left the company
not because of his or her performance
but because of the conflict between the co-founders in terms of the equity split
Anyway, so if we adopt equal split, then we can avoid, conflict
Let me summarize the current trend
Solo founders, do you remember that?
35% of the new startup in 2024
solo founded companies up from 17%
And co-founders, the VC-backed companies are mostly co-founders
And VC fundings
VCs are less likely to fund solo founders
or more likely to fund, the co-founded companies
And equity, solo founders doesn't have to worry about the equity split
because you are alone and you have just 100% of the share
but co-founded startup
Equal split is becoming common these days
You already knew that this is kind of a trend
You understand the differences between solo founding company and co-founded startup
but think about this although it is increasing
although solo founding companies are increasing these days
Co-founded company still exist and
account for the majority portion of the entire startups
Do you remember those numbers?
Still 65% of the entire startups are co-founded startup
From this statistics, we can understand there is a clear benefit
or clear strengths of the teams
When you started the businesses
Why team matters in the startup?
Why we care for the founding team?
When you decided to start your businesses? Why?
Probably, there is some reason
Let's look at the reasons
The first reason is strong teams
Strong teams work better, do better
and pivot faster and preserve your longer
Preserve your longer mean, you stay long
You are consistent, perseverance
And second, no single founder can master all domains
We are human being
You cannot master all the thing
We need to divide our labor work, our labor
And a strong team brings diversity and the role, clarity
Diversity is a key
If we have a good team and strong team
then you are able to attract, better investors, more investors
Higher amount of the money
You can attract talented employees
These are all the strengths of the team
Let's do another one
A strong team provide emotional support
Wow, it's a great emotional support and encouragement, motivation
Think about if you do your homework alone
your motivation is to decrease
and nobody encourages, you to do
That's why you lose your interest as well
But if you do your assignment together with your friends
Your friend can support you emotionally
They encourage you not to give up
and you can increase your motivation to work hard
It's very similar to the startup area
Now you understand the strengths of the team
It's kind of obvious, it's pretty obvious
Now let's define the team
What is team? It's pretty simple
Team is two or more individuals who pursue new business idea together
Of course, the teams involved in kind of management
and also they can share the ownership together
These are teams, it's pretty easy
Look at the triangle, look at the picture
According to Wasserman, Professor Wasserman
who is a very famous, scholar in the area of the startup teams
Argued that there are three important Rs
Three important Rs in the startup, foundings
I mean co-founding startup team
The first R is relationship
Relationship concern for whom should we work together
And second R is roles, your role
And your division of the labor
Your position inside the company
This is the second R, roles
And third R is reward
Reward is about kind of equity or compensation
Let's look at the relationship in more detail
Relationship is about whom should we work together
The critical question of the relationship section is
where to find our co-founders
Where to find our co-founders
I have many questions from my students
Majority questions are where to find co-founders
They ask me
My answer is I don't know
Maybe, you just look for your friends
where to find your co-founders
First area is existing network
You just look for your friends first
Your friends, your colleague or your classmate, your what?
Your parents, or your kind of partners
Your husband and wife or the father and son
You need to use your existing network for the first time
When you try to find out your co-founders
It's obvious, it's so natural
According to the research, a significant portion of the startups are co-founded
by friends or close, acquaintances
Such as family members or relatives, or husband and wife
I will give you an example
Although there are tons of many examples, but this example is kind of a classic example
about the company founded by existing network
And do you know who they are?
The lady is a beautiful lady
It's Sandy Lerner and the handsome man is the Lambosa
They were both working at the Stanford University
As a kind of computer managers
Sandy Lerner was working at the business school
On the other hand, Lambosa was working at the engineering school
And they felt in love with each other
while they are working at the Stanford University
They got married together later
They became husband and wife, they became family
Then what happened?
They want to start the Cisco, which is a networking devices company
Why they started this company?
Because when they are working at the Stanford University
They work at the two different departments
There's no way to communicate on daytime
Because there's no email, there's no connection between two different buildings
That's why they commercialized networking devices to connect
network and network in a different building
From now on, if we don't have Cisco devices
we cannot access the internet
The Cisco became a really huge company right now
And Cisco is one of the fastest growing companies in human history
Anyway, this Cisco was founded by husband and wife
This is a clear example of existing network
Second, where to find your co-founders?
You participate in a startup event or accelerators
It's a program like Y Combinator, Techstars
and there are many networking events
Those networking events or accelerators can provide
kind of an opportunity for you to meet potential founders
Please go there and try to find out the potential co-founders for you
Today, Y Combinator provided some kind of
a very structured meeting for the potential
entrepreneurs, which is great
I will give you an example
The first guy is Travis and the second guy is Garret
Travis Kalanick and Garret Kemp
these two guys met at the tech conference in France in 2008
They discussed about kind of a traffic jam in France
how to catch the taxis on the street
Anyway, they discussed about this problem
Garret Kemp, after the conference, Garret Kemp came back to his places
Then he developed these ideas, a little bit more
Then they started this company
Do you know what company is? this company is Uber
They founded Uber in 2009 from two people who met at the conference
Please go to conference
You have a chance to meet your co-founders
I will give you another example
Look at these two guys
The left one is Drew Houston and the right one is Arash
Arash is also an MIT student
Drew Houston graduated from MIT University
Anyway, Drew Houston had an idea about the online storage
file company, which is Dropbox
He already had the idea and he made a film, short video clip
and posted this video clip online
Arash watched this video clip and he was impressed about the idea of Drew Houston
And they met together
in one of the conference, one of the Y Combinator conference
At that time, Drew Houston tried to apply the Y Combinator
but he didn't have any co-founders
But the Y Combinator
explicitly asked Drew Houston to find out co-founders
in order to enter the Y Combinator program
That's why, Drew Houston was looking for the co-founders
They met together in the conference
Arash is a son of Iran immigrant
He is very smart
He decided to join this company, then they started a company
They launched Dropbox in 2007, this is all story
Where to find out your co-founders?
Go to the conference
Just Google it and just search for any relevant conference
Then just participate in this conference
and discuss about your business ideas with others
You can find out, the potential co-founders
These days, so many startups started by this way
I will give you another one
The last area where to find co-founders is online platform
We live in online these days
Today platforms like Y Combinator is a co-founder matching
I already mentioned that, this is online matching program
This online matching program make this connection much easier and much accessible
There are another online platform exists like Indie Hackers
and Starthawk and LinkedIn
These online platforms are increasingly effective way to meet co-founders
Like a dating ad like a dating website
I will give you a real example of online platform
These two guys met at the Starthawk
The left guy is Santiago and the right guy is D'Amelio
D'Amelio came from Nigeria
And he had an idea about some kind of food delivery service
for this kind of specific needs
He wanted to find out the co-founders
That's why he explained his idea through this website
this online platform
Suddenly, Santiago sent a direct mail to him
Then they met together, they started the FoodLama
Then they started this company
This is a real example of the place where to find the co-founders
Remember that there are three major places
The first one, you use your existing network
Second one, you need to participate
in this relevant conference or accelerating program
And third one, you can meet your co-founders, in online platform
I will give you another important issue about the related to the relationship
Look at this picture
Do you know who they are?
First one is Steve Jobs,
second one is Steve Wozniak, third one, who is he?
You know him?
These three people are co-founders of early Apple
You know that?
Probably, you know that Apple was started by only two people
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but it's not true
Apple started by three people, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne
His name is Ron Wayne at the time he was 40 years old
He had a job experience and he had a family
Anyways, they got together, so they started these businesses
Look at this logo
Up here, this is the first logo of the Apple
Under the Apple tree, there is a Newton read the book
This is a very complicated logo of the early Apple
Anyways, who drew this logo?
Ron Wayne drew this logo
And these three people started this company,
but suddenly Ron Wayne changed his mind
and then he wanted to leave the company
He tried to give up everything
At that time his equity was 10%
His equity 10%, Steve Jobs 45 and Steve Wozniak 45
He clearly gave up his 10% of the equity
How much is it? $800
$800 total payback and he gave up 10% of the equity
How much is 10% of the equity is the current Apple?
I don't know, I cannot calculate it
He gave up, anyway
Then later what happened?
I prepared for the video
Look at this video together
This is one of the movie clips
So what do you think?
In the movie clip, the main character was Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak
and the guy who wears the tie
his name was Michael McCullough
After Ron Wayne left the company
Michael McCullough visited this company
which is Steve Jobs' mom's garage
These three people started the company
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Michael McCullough in the middle
Michael McCullough joined Apple in 1977
with $250,000 because he was rich at the time
because he was a former, the Intel employee
he got stock options when Intel went to IPO, he made a lot of money
Anyway, so he invested this money into the Apple
then he got around the 33% of the share of the Apple
so he became the co-founders
Michael McCullough actually contributed a lot to the early Apple
Look at this picture as well
These guys are founders of Airbnb
The first guy is Nathan and second guy is Brian Chesky
third one is Joe Gebbia
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia are classmates
and they started the Air Bed and Breakfast concept in 2007
Then later what happened, Joe Gebbia invited Nathan in this team
Nathan majored in computer science in which university?
In Harvard University
He's a kind of genius and these two other two guys are designers
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, they met together at the design school in New York
Anyway, Joe Gebbia knew Nathan and he invited Nathan into the Airbnb
Nathan developed this platform because he's a computer guy
Let's look at this picture
There are tons of examples, I'm sorry about that
Do you know who they are?
First guy is Cameron and second guy is Cliff
and third lady is Melanie Perkins
What company?
Melanie Perkins and Cliff they met together in Australia
and they fell in love with each other
and then later they started a company about the Fusion Book
Fusion Book is an online tool for making yearbooks of the school
and the Fusion Book make it
make the yearbook, making process much easier
This is a kind of online design tool
and then later Cameron Adams joined this company
because Cameron Adams is a former, Google engineer
Anyway, then they started which company together?
They started the Canva
You know the Canva? They started Canva in 2013 together
I want to introduce relevant research in terms of the relationship
Look at this one
The researchers conducted three experiments
The first experiment is Kickstarter experiment
second one entrepreneurship competition experiment
third one is a university course experiment
Anyway, the researchers conducted three very careful, experiments
They identified that there are three types of the team formation
We talked about team formation
and we have to find out our co-founders
Again, there are three different types
The first type is we just rely on interpersonal relationship
just friends or just family members, something like that, your existing network
Second type is resources seeking
For example, I need some computer guy
You know who is good at computer?
You know who is good at programming? And just search for them
I need money
You know who has a big money?
Please search for them
We invited those, the co-founders
because of resources or capability or skills or knowledge
And third one, there is a kind of a dual strategy
For example,
some of my founders, some of my co-founders
came from my personal relationship
and some of my co-founders
came from kind of resources seeking area
We combined both
I gave many examples
and these examples, the previous examples
adopt what kind of strategy, what kind of types
Of course, kind of dual types
Think about Apple
Apple started Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, the Ron Wayne
And those three members came from interpersonal contract
interpersonal attraction because they knew each other
They live in the similar area
They knew each other
Anyway, after Ron Wayne left the company, then what happened?
Steve Jobs invited investors
Why he invited Michael McCullough as a third co-founders?
Because Steve Jobs needed money
This is a kind of a resource seeking
What about Canva case?
Canva started with two people
They are kind of partners
They are man and woman
And later, they got married, they become husband and wife
It's clearly that this co-founding team came from
interpersonal attraction
Then later, Cameron Adams joined this company
Why?
Because the original Canva team needed some technology
and network and know-how or experience
It's all about the resources
Anyways, the original Canva team just mixed it together
Combined the interpersonal attraction and resource seeking
Anyway, think about it, those three types
Which types perform better? That is the question
What do you think? Which types perform better?
You are right
Dual types
Dual types are more likely to be successful
Dual types
When you formulate your team,
please think about this research result
It will be very helpful for you