Are You Suited for a Start-up?

Establishing a business from scratch is a complicated business and requires a range of skills. Bussgang (2017) identifies the critical tasks of raising money, finding initial customers, and hiring a team are what it takes to be successful. In term of joining a start-up, Are You Suited for a Start-up by Jeffrey Bussgang illustrates tips and steps regarding what and how to be a fit candidate for nascent companies.

Start-ups have no clear hierarchies or paths to advancement (Bussgang, 2017) so they need someone who can effectively manage different functions. Bussgang (2017) identifies the following essential capacities for someone starting a business: (a) Manage uncertainty; (b) exceed the limitation; (c) think like an owner. In my opinion, innovation is also frequently required to outstand among competitors. However, it is not only accomplished by creative capacity but also managerial skills and the ability to carry out new ideas (Van de Ven and Angle, 1989). To maintain high implementation and innovative capacity are part of the essence.   

If challenges are desired all the time, then finding a good start-up that might boost up an individual career is the next goal. According to Bussgang, there is a combined approach can be taken to find the right company: 

• Exploring personal needs - find an engaged emotion field, 
• choose a passionate city that is rich in potential opportunities, 
• figure out the correlation among start-up stages, 
• skill-sets and personality; 
• Thinking in a company perspective – finding a firm with the purpose of success based on their team structure, market share and operating model (Bussgang, 2017).

Once the potential companies are selected, the next barrier is to think about the strategy of selling self-ability, which will help the company achieve its goals. The critical point is to make the best use of preparation as a means of conveyance: An initial connection should be established (through LinkedIn, meet-ups and so on) that will help in winning this wanted position (Bussgang, 2017). This indicates an increasing future social satisfaction which will be helpful in project accomplishing (Nerkar A, Mcgrath R & Macmillan I, 1996). Information about the target company should be selectively gathered, including products, possible profit models and operation procedures. Cross-check personal skills and potential contribution (Bussgang, 2017). 

In my eyes, self-efficacy also has an influential impact on motivation and performance capacity (Litt M.D, 1988) so making a SWOT analysis to identify own competitive advantages. People has its limitation in information gathering which will affect their options (Peters M, Brush C, 1996), they often have to rely on external contacts to obtain necessary information for decision-making (Clercq D, Arenius P, 2006). So conducting competitors research to outline the advantages and disadvantages would be impressive by helping start-up gaining more information for decision-making. Finally, take the lead in the interview and ask for an initial interviewee evaluation in the end.

With the information mentioned above, it can be concluded that candidate and the start-up have a mutual impact. Seeking and matching the “unique selling points “to each other is the right track to locate the excellent fit.

Reference List

Bussgang, J. (2017). Are you suited for a start-up Harvard Business Review, November – December 2017

Angle, Harold L. (1989). Psychology and organizational innovation. In Andrew Van de Ven, Harold

Nerkar A, Mcgrath R & Macmillan I, (1996). Three Facets of Satisfaction and Their Influence on the Performance of Innovation Teams, Journal of Business Venturing11. 167-188, New York

Litt, M. D. (1988) ‘Cognitive Mediators of Stressful Experience: Self-efficacy and Perceived Control’, Cognitive Therapy and Research 12(3): 241–60.

Clercq D, Arenius P, (2006). The Role of Knowledge in Business Start-up Activity, International Small Business Journal Vol 24(4): 339–358, London)

Peters, M. and Brush, C. (1996) ‘Market Information Scanning Activities and Growth in New Ventures: A Comparison of Service and Manufacturing Businesses’, Journal of Business Research 36(1): 81–9.

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