About The Podcast

In this podcast, Harry Stebbings brings on Ravi Gupta, a partner at Sequoia, as a guest to discuss tips on team-building, from hiring the right team to effective delegation to building trust amongst employees. Through his experience at Instacart and subsequently at Sequoia, he has been on both sides of the cap table and shares insights that are valuable for both founders as well as VCs. Apart from sharing his advice on creating a conducive and collaborative environment within a startup, he also elucidates strategies VCs can employ to better support founders and build trust in the boardroom.

Key Takeaways

1. How founders can build the right teams - Hire people that you would be willing to work for; from time to time, take a step back to re-evaluate "would I enthusiastically re-hire this person?" Employees are key to achieving a company's mission and so never compromise on the quality of people you hire. During the interview process, really try to understand the person, their goals and priorities and see whether they truly believe in the company's mission because when the going gets tough, their alignment to the mission is what will keep them going.
2. How founders can be focused in their vision and achieve better outcomes - Even if you are enthusiastic about a lot of your employees' ideas, learn to say no if they deviate from the company's vision. It is important to maintain focus because if you spread yourself too thin, you won't achieve 100% in any of your outcomes. To keep employee morale high, align them with a shared goal (which will only happen if you hire people that truly believe in the start-up's mission) and explain how their idea might not presently lend itself to that goal but could perhaps be explored down the line (it's not no, it's not now). Prioritize ruthlessly!
3. How founders can build trust amongst their employees - Trust is a 2 way street - openly share your mistakes with your employees. They don't expect you to have all the answers but they do expect you to be honest. As a founder, set the vision, mission and goals for the company but trust your employees to execute (again this ties back to if you hire the right talent, you will automatically trust their work). Once you have delegated tasks, let employees drive the conversations regarding how they want to carry those out and then share your thoughts. As a founder, you desperately want your employees to succeed so remind them that you are not testing them but are rooting for them instead.
4. How VCs can provide maximum value to founders - When VCs make investment decisions unanimously (i.e. everyone supports each investment) then even though certain individuals may be assigned as board members to a start-up, everyone on the team supports the start-up as per their capabilities. For example, the founder would be directed to a different person from the VC fund depending on what advice they needed based on that person's expertise and experience. Thus, VCs should have the culture that the team ****wins or the team loses, rather than tag wins or losses to specific people that sit on the board of that company.
5. How VCs can build trust in the board room - Be demanding yet supportive i.e. while holding high expectations from the founder, remember to be there for them at the right time. Focus on what's important rather than what's urgent i.e. the long-term success of the company rather than just the impact every event has on the value of your investment. Empathize with the founder because while the company may be numbers on a deck for you, for them its their baby.

Notes

1. The ideal mindset for a founder is to have a vision but be fluid - For a founder, vision is important because it helps you tell the story of why your company matters but you cannot be locked to it. The initial vision should not be the only way the company can be built but needs to evolve as the environment and market changes. The way this impacts a VC's investment decision is that you should invest based on slope rather than intercept i.e. don't invest in a company based on where it is now but where it can be 10-15 years down the line.
2. Building strong teams should be key for founders early on - As a founder, it is crucial to think deeply about your team and seek out the very best when building your organization.
   • At the 6 or 12 months mark of your company, or if you feel like things aren't moving fast enough/going according to plan within your start-up, re-evaluate by asking yourself the simple question, "would I enthusiastically re-hire this person if given the chance?"
   • Hire people that in a different world you would be willing to work for. 'A's hire 'A's and 'B's hire 'C's.
   • "Short-term thinking towards team building doesn't scale." Do not hire people to fill seats or meet a target; hire people whose superpowers complement your organization's weaknesses and who you and the rest of the team can learn from.
3. Everyone wants the best talent for their start-up but how do you actually acquire them?
   • Try to understand what is important for them in the very first meeting. Remember that this career decision is extremely important for them and serve as a thought partner to them through making the decision of whether to join or not.
   • Make sure the company's mission speaks to them because when the going gets tough, and in a start-up at some point it inevitably will, their adherence and loyalty to the company's mission is what will keep them going.
4. As a leader, it is important to get your priorities straight.
   • Ravi's superpower as a leader, above all others, is his ability to prioritize ruthlessly. As a founder, while you could be tempted to say 'yes' to every idea your employees come up with, it's important to learn to say no because if you try to do too much, you spread yourself too thin. When Ravi was COO and CFO of Instacart, there was a period where they were not hitting any of their targets. At that point, he had a sitdown with the team and asked, "If we could only do one thing before the end of the quarter, what would that be?" Once the answer was clear, every single person dedicated their efforts to achieving that goal and it worked. Focus is dramatically underrated but helps achieve much better outcomes.
   • The right way to say 'no' without losing allegiance/grace - While saying 'no' to your team might risk demoralizing and demotivating them, it is important to emphasize what you want to accomplish in the long term and create alignment on a shared goal. As a leader, you must make the team realize which priorities will help achieve that goal faster. Remind your team, especially when their ideas are good but not top priority, that it's not a 'no' it's a 'not now'.
5. How do you figure out what to delegate vs what to control (do it yourself)?
   • A big mistake founders make is that they try to do everything. That is okay in the beginning when its just you and your co-founder but as the company starts to scale, the leader should focus primarily on goal-setting (and developing the company's vision, mission and values) but trust the team to actually execute the goals.
   • This ties back to the point of hiring the best talent; if you hire the right people, you will naturally trust them to get the job done.
6. How to balance employees' accountability for their work without constraining ambition?
   • This again ties back to hiring the right people. Ambitious people will naturally want to solve the hardest problems. As a leader, you should let them drive the interactions with you on the topic. Give them the freedom to pitch their ideas and approach and then guide them to the best of your ability.
   • Employees should not feel like you are testing them; you should make them realize that as a founder, you desperately want them to succeed. This will drive open communication.
7. Marriage counselors are right - Trust is the key to every relationship