4. Team
4. Team
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Part 1: Founders
Flickr: zacharyparadis
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
How many?
1-4 “reasonable” size of founder team
1 founder: total control but expensive, lonely and slow
2 founders: the magic number. “one builds, one sells”
3-4 founders: can make a great dev team but leader needed
>4 founders: crazy unless some are “passive”
“Everyone obsesses with dilution from investors. The biggest dilution comes from co-founders.”
– @msuster
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Flickr: oskay
2 founder dynamics
http://venturehacks.com/articles/pick-cofounder
Jobs and WozniakAllen and Gates
Hewlett and PackardLarry and Sergei
Yang and Filo
“The ideal founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at building
products and the other is good at selling them” – @venturehacks
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Finding founders & early employees
Share ideas, be open
Co-founders need to be people you trust, preferably people you worked with before
You want broad skills and doers
Controversial but interesting: vesting founder shares (VCs will ask for this)
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Size matters
Output is not linear in # employees
Most efficient (development) team is ~4
Over ~15 “formal” organization and information channels becomes increasingly important
Avoid hiring admin staff or positions that don’t “produce” anything(non-coding proj manager, office manager...) as long as possible.
Ideally, never hire such persons.
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Part 2: Hiring staff
Flickr: yodelanecdotal
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Where to find them?
1. By recommendation (both ways!)
2. Events and conferences
3. LinkedIn!
Avoid recruitment agencies at all cost. Waste of time and money.
Never hire unless you absolutely must.Are you sure you need to hire now?
Flickr: bouldair
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Interviewing and testing
Early on, look for people that are bright, broad with potential to grow
Always test developers
Don’t underestimate team fit (personality)
Never hire without trial period
Computer vision team should have a mix of skills “theoretical”-”practical” and people that can make demos.
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Stock options and motivation
MotivationMoney is not motivation (competitors ALWAYS pay more)Good motivators are similar to founders’ motivators (build something, dynamic organization, make a difference, ...)Warning: people with “big-co” motivation (titles, salary, career, benefits, “security”)
Stock optionsGood idea if exit is the goalIf possible create options pool post investmentBeware: rules and taxes vary a lot between countries!
What is special about Vision?In terms of building teams
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
What’s special about Vision?
Academic research groups can be a great “extension” to your R&D team
Small vision teams can go far, no need to overstaff
How we did it
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Polar Rose: How we did it
1. Founder + key early employees
2. Built 2 dev teams (vision + infrastructure)
Hiring process:
Initially friends and connections from universityNetworks of a few key employees (especially France and Poland)
LinkedIn - search, search, search
Trial period in ALL contracts
Stock options (legal & tax mess with multi-national team)
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Kooaba: How we did it
Founders + 1 key early employee (first employee needed to be changed, lost lots of time)Built two dev teams (vision + interfaces (web, mobile))
Was hard to find initial employees
Work permit problems
Hiring process:Initially friends and connections from university
Networks of a employees
LinkedIn - post job offer (299 is cheap)Sales & Marketing hired from customer (EMI Music)
Employees are involved in interviewing process
Recently: testing day
Stocks (promised, formalized these days)
We are hiring later this year!!
Q & A
Lear
ning
s fr
om fo
undi
ng a
Com
pute
r Vis
ion
Star
tup
Resources
Founders:http://venturehacks.com/articles/pick-cofounder (Picking co-founders)
Hiring:xxx