6 Learnings from leading a People Team in Early Stage Startups

Are you debating joining a HR team in a Germany-based tech startup?  Or, are you working in a startup now & looking for wisdom to sort through the creative chaos?  My friend/CHRO colleague Martin and I take a few minutes to summarize our experiences with thoughts on what we WISHED we knew before we started.  We welcome your ideas, challenges, and connections! Help us further learnings in the startup community through sharing and multiplication! Happy to hear from you, fellow experts.

Stay tuned for 6 total articles including 1 knowledge-share in each!

Network, network, network...and network again

Jennifer Kim, a SFO-based startup consultant recently posted “the two loneliest people at a startup are the CEO and the Head of HR“ because they have to look out for everyone and no one is looking after them.

Your startup most likely exists because the Founders are unprecedented networkers, adept in gathering contacts, infos, and ideas from the right people without paying.  At some point, you will be expected to build an external network to avoid reinventing the wheel.  Better start sooner than later!

We’ve profited massively from building a trust-based peer2peer HR network in Munich.  Here are some of our best practices:

1. Create your startup networking strategy by picking 4-6 other startups in relative proximity to your company’s HQ at a variety of stages (2 smaller, 2 same size, and 2 larger) that are not direct competitors, and where there is an existing relationship from Founders or Investors. Get intros to your HR & Recruiting counterparts and set up (virtual) calls with each individual to build trust and establish a relationship.
2. Be prepared to invest at least 4 hours per month, cultivating this startup network through proactive (virtual) coffee chats, lunches, or topic-sharing sessions.  This isn’t about ego; it is about vulnerability and openness.  No startup is awesome in all HR functions and there is incredible power in trading ideas or talking pain points. Where you lose sleep over a topic at night, your peer in another startup can be crushing it, and then that might flip-flop 3 months later.  
3. Extend the network to other members of your HR team AND to relevant functional colleagues in your company who will benefit greatly from a peer; specifically make direct intros to the person in your company and their peer in the participating startup.
4. Be willing to sometimes give more than you get, especially when you support smaller startups that haven’t reached the stage your company has achieved.
5. With the individuals in the network, figure out who you would like to add and who you don’t want to add.  Would you bring Executive Search consultants into your circle of truth?  Up to you!
6. Celebrate and advocate for the individuals in this startup network...chances are high that you might also be one of their only peers or sounding boards at the same level.  The friendships that you make during this journey are irreplaceable.  

Thanks for reading! We hope you found these tips helpful and we’d welcome any feedback. Stay tuned for next one.