Many start ups require a founding team. It is practically impossible for one person to have a broad enough skill set to start a successful new venture. I am a huge proponent of teams. I am a strong believer in the fact that no person is an island and that it is much better to have a smaller piece of a bigger pie than a large piece of a much smaller pie.

So who do you need on your team? Where do you find them? What values and characteristics are most important when forging your team?

Who do you need on your team?

First thing you need to do is objectively look at yourself and your own skills and abilities and compare that to what you need to start this venture to see where the gaps are. Are you a good sales person? Organizer? Accounting & Finance? Marketing? Researcher? Writer? Speaker? These are just some of the fundamental areas you will most likely need while planning and launching your new venture. It is hard to critically analyze your own skills and abilities so you may need a third party to help you, there are also tests online that evaluate what type of entrepreneur you are and what other types of entrepreneurs you need to add to your team (check out http://www.peoplethatclick.com/).

There may also be specific technical roles you need to fill on your team (such as software engineer, website designer, etc.). You need to make the decision in the beginning whether these key roles will be paid positions or are they so critical to your venture