<Venture Capital, Team Member Selection>

<Introduction>

Most business are no more than the sum of their personnel. By their very nature Internet startups depend on their people more than most and in the cut throat atmosphere of today the right team can be the difference between success and failure. Investors must have confidence in the people you select and even if staff are imposed on you as part of a deal its vital to know the score.

<Why?>

There is such a vast gulf between a professional team which works together to generate high levels of output and the average business team put forward to investors. In the high-technology arena where miracles are expected having a poorly put together team or an uncertain understanding of the way recruitment works.

Everyone will be examined and any surplus or problem staff might be axed at any minute and this can cause enourmous disruption. Make sure you and your team are sound before you make any approaches. Understanding the personnel market in the UK helps a lot, especially if you are forced to get more staff at someone else's behest. Bad choices can scupper a plan at any stage.

<How?>

One of the trickiest of the lot and normally solved by a recruitment consultant. However...here's a reprint of last month's article...

How will I get staff?

Easy I'll give a few recruitment consultants a call...

Every single consultant (with only a couple of exceptions!) is looking for 25% of the 1st years wage bill up front and for any DECENT technical staff will be billing out at £50 per hour upwards. Some sites can take thousands of man hours and you must add to this the 20-25 hours a week the consultant will waste every week as they will ring and ring and ring and ring...

TIP! Best avoided, give your competitors details to them and watch the opposition crumble under an all out sales offensive.

How do you get stuff done without breaking the bank or tearing your hair out? Not easy we grant you. Certainly try to avoid any DIY unless it is writing simple HTML pages full of content. Do the maths, if it takes several years to get good at programming so your sites will compete with the US, and you have exactly 24 seconds to spare a day anyway, and every bad site you put up will lose you 10 times more customers than no site at all...?

Perhaps the best way it to try to employ a younger programmer at first who is keen to make their mark, and needs exposure from real commercial ventures. There is a wealth of quality people out there who need a way into Internet ventures but who dont have the contacts etc. By approaching these people, usually through an agency, you may be able to get several hours of work a week for under 50% the cost of a standard recruitment deal, with NO upfront fees. And they won't be clocking in and out with their eyes on your cheque book.