Entrepreneurial Founder Teams

Running head: ENTREPRENEURIAL FOUNDER TEAMS

Entrepreneurial Founder Teams

Benjamin S. Cheeks

International School of Management, Paris, France

Author Note

This paper was submitted to fulfill the requirements of Building and Leading Effective

Teams, 7010-BLET. I would like to thank Dr. Thomas Schwartz for making the class an

interactive and successful learning environment.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Benjamin S. Cheeks.

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

ENTREPRENEURIAL FOUNDER TEAMS

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Abstract

The American culture of individualism, self-reliance, and independence celebrates the

legend of the lone entrepreneur. However, for many years, research has shown that team-

founded ventures achieve better performance than those founded by individuals. This paper

reviews why entrepreneurs form teams, and the process of securing the various types of capital

required, to increase the probability of success. A particular focus is placed on social capital and

how when complimented with social competence, it can be leveraged to secure financing and

build a highly effective, high-performance team.


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Entrepreneurial Founder Teams

The American culture of individualism, self-reliance, and independence celebrates the

story of the lone entrepreneur; the individual who fights alone against the odds; against the

government to build a business with bare hands and strength of will alone. These forces of

nature are personified in the likes of Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, and more

recently Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Larry Ellison. However, the truth is somewhat different.

While establishing a new venture is a human endeavor, team-founded ventures have shown to

achieve better performance than individual-founded ventures. A team approach to new venture

creation has a strong appeal to investors. Timmons (1975) stated that “a first-rate idea or product

without a first rate entrepreneurial team has little appeal to a knowledgeable investor”. Two of

the leading early stage venture capital firms put this idea into practice. Y-Combinator is one of

the most well-known venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Their investments include Dropbox

and Airbnb. In a recent interview Paul Graham, one of Y-Combinator’s managing partners, had

this to say about the investment decision:

“Mostly, we look at the people. If they seem determined, flexible, and energetic, and their

ideas are not just flamingly terrible, then we'll fund them. We thought Airbnb was a bad

idea. We funded it because we really liked the founders. They seemed so determined and

so imaginative (Lapowsky, 2013)”

David Cohen at TechStars, a leading venture capital firm in Boulder, Colorado says that he vets

companies on five criteria. These are “team, team, team, market, and idea, in that order”

(Kolodny, 2011). Creating a team has become such a fundamental part of new venture creation

that locating a co-founder has become an industry of its own. Sites such as Co-

FoundersLab.com, Founder2be.com and Techcofounder.com create online communities where


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entrepreneurs can meet. Business incubators and accelerators frequently host meet-ups for

founders searching for co-founders.

This paper will investigate the current research on these entrepreneurial founding teams

(EFT); why they are formed and how they secure the resources needed to improve their

probability of success. A special focus is placed on social capital and how when complimented

with social competence, it can help EFTs secure additional resources as well as lay the

groundwork to create a highly effective, high-performing management team.

Why Study Entrepreneurial Founder Teams

Little guidance is available to help founding entrepreneurs choose entrepreneurial team

members. Forbes, Borchert, Zellmer-Bruhn & Sapienza (2006) explain this lack of research by

the difficulty to identify emerging teams until they have passed through several “formative

stages” and the fact that organizational behavior research about teamwork has largely focused on

behavior in existing work teams and those without hiring authority, thereby ignoring team

formation. In addition, much of the scholarship on entrepreneurs has been focused on the

individuals who created the organizations rather than the process of creating the organization.

Understanding the formation of EFTs presents an interesting opportunity for researchers

interested in understanding more about the entrepreneurial process as well as those interested in

studying existing teams. Team formation at this stage of the venture is critical for the future

success of the organization. Currently, few norms have been established. Decisions made at this

stage have the potential to shape critical areas of the culture of the organization such as the

decision-making process and conflict resolution. “If well understood, the process of team

formation could be shaped to enhance ventures’ chances of success,” (Forbes, Borchert, Zellmer-


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Bruhn & Sapienza, 2006). Founders could learn how to avoid some of the pitfalls in team

selection that lead to skills mismatch, team conflict and turnover.

Why Form Teams

According to Katzenbach and Smith (1993), there are four reasons that people form

teams: 1) teams bring together complimentary skills and experience that exceed any individual;

2) teams support real-time problem solving and are more flexible and responsive to changing

demands with greater speed, accuracy, and awareness than individuals; 3) teams provide a

unique social dimension that enhances the economic and administrative aspects of work; and 4)

teams have more fun. Timmons (1975) listed two common instances in which EFTs are formed.

In one instance, an entire team may be formed at the outset based upon an idea or the desire to

start a business together. In the second, one person has an idea for a business and seeks out team

members to assist in its realization as a business. Nearly 30 years later, Forbes, Borchert,

Zellmer-Bruhn & Sapienza (2006) provide a more formal label. The first is based on

interpersonal attraction; the second is based upon resource seeking. For completeness, it should

be noted that a third reason for creating an EFT was also mentioned. In this case, a team is

formed based upon criteria imposed by outside forces. This could include requirements set by

venture capitalist in which to receive funding (i.e: the need to hire a CFO), or requirements for

government grants or types of funding. However, for this paper, we will concentrate on

additions caused by interpersonal attraction and resource seeking.

Interpersonal Attraction

Interpersonal attraction is rooted in social psychology and refers to the human desire for

personal interaction. Examples include such things as collaboration, support, and validation.

Forbes, Borchert, Zellmer-Bruhn & Sapienza (2006) refer to this type of member addition as an


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“opportunistic search”. The new member is usually added without undertaking a formal search.

In support of this, Chandler and Lyon (2001) research indicated that teams did not perform a

system analysis of their business competencies before adding a new team member, rather a

“common interest in the product or technology itself, or a desire to make money were far more

significant drivers in determining who would be in the team.” In addition, in a sampling of U.S.

entrepreneur teams, Ruef, Aldrich, & Carter (2003) found strong support for homophily1 or

likeness, with respect to gender, ethnicity, and previous occupation in team composition. Also,

in a study of 202 team-based ventures in Sweden, Steffens, Terjesen, & Davidsson (2012) found

that new venture teams were primarily composed of members of the same sex, similar age, and

start-up experience. Hinds, Carley, Krackhardt, and Wholey, (2000) found that when selecting

future group members, people prefer those of the same race, those with whom they have strong

working relationships, and those with a reputation of competence and hard work. They found no

correlation for choosing team members with a complementary skill set. Anecdotal data from Co-

FoundersLab also supports interpersonal attraction. Co-FoundersLab is a company that

describes itself as and online matching system to discover entrepreneurs who are looking to join

a startup or are seeking a business partner to join them. They interviewed teams from the 2012

classes of two of the top startup accelerators in the world, TechStars and Y Combinator, and

asked them where they met their co-founder. Roughly 69% were either classmates, co-workers,

or old friends (Hughes, 2013).

1 “The mechanism of homophily explains group composition in terms of the similarity of members' characteristics.

In principle, these characteristics may refer to social identities that are attached externally to individuals (e.g.,

ascribed characteristics such as gender, race, or age) or to internal states concerning values, beliefs, or norms” (Ruef,

Aldrich, & Carter ,2003).


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Figure 1: How did you find your Co-Founder? (Hughes, 2013).

In the ingeniously entitled article, “THE DEVIL YOU KNOW?”, Zolin, Kuckertz, &

Kautonen (2008), researched 170 German entrepreneurial teams to determine the affect that

strong ties had on the founder’s ability to modify the team members existing work arrangement

and on the potential to terminate the working relationship. Both of these abilities are of

significant importance to the entrepreneurial team. The results of the research indicated that

strong ties with the team, increases the founder’s ability to modify the team member’s working

arrangements, but makes it harder to exit the relationship. Given that role modification increases

performance, and the potential to exit the relationship to reduce it, the overall effect of an initial

strong tie on the entrepreneurial team member’s subsequent performance was positive.

However, another interesting finding of the study was that this proved true only for first-time

entrepreneurs. This implies that serial entrepreneurs may rely more on resource seeking.

Resource Seeking


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Forbes, Borchert, Zellmer-Bruhn & Sapienza (2006) define behavior as resource seeking

when a new member is added to enhance the team’s present or future inventory of resources.

The search is considered problemistic, as it is based upon the fact that the team has identified a

resource problem and undertaken a search to find a new member to fill this gap. In one example,

using a theoretical approach, Larson and Star (1993), propose a network model of organizational

formation where founders use existing relationships to mobilize resources based upon existing

need. Also Ucbasaran, Lockett, Wright, & Westhead (2003), propose that team members are

added to fill gaps in skills and to provide necessary human capital to pursue the goals and

strategies of the new venture. Finally, Sandberg (1986) speculated that entrepreneurs fill gaps in

their knowledge or experience through hiring managers.

The two different motivations for adding team members are likely not mutually exclusive

and the truth lies somewhere in between. In order to conserve resources, entrepreneurs look to

their social network for partners. In most cases, a person’s social network consists of people

similar to them in terms of race, education, and age. Therefore, what started as resource-seeking

behavior may result in a decision that appears to be interpersonal behavior.

Interpersonal Attraction or Resource Seeking

When choosing a co-founder, should one look for interpersonal attraction or should the

search be more skill based? Despite the fact that the majority of teams appear to be formed

based upon homophily, team members (including co-founders) should be chosen based upon

their skill rather than their personality. This is supported by Katzenbach & Smith (1993), who in

their study of high-performance teams found those that chose members based upon the right mix

of skills improved success. This is also supported by Wasserman (2012), who found that while

homophily did have short-term benefits such as speed in finding resources and developing


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relationships, they were outweighed by the long-term risks such as overlapping skills and

missing skills.

How to Fill Resource Gaps

Whether teams add members for interpersonal reasons or resource-seeking reasons, the lead

entrepreneur must be aware of gaps that exist in required resources and how these gaps can be

filled. Stockey (2010) lists five types of capital that entrepreneurs use to fill resource gaps.

Financial capital refers to the money that entrepreneurs can use to buy things they need.

This money could come from sources such as personal funds, investors, grants, or

operational cash flow.

Human capital refers to those skills and knowledge that a person acquires through

education or prior work experience. Examples would include industry knowledge,

technical skills, and operational skills.

Intellectual capital refers to specialized “know how”, patents, or intellectual property.

Physical capital refers to the specific assets required to run the business. These could be

general assets such as office space and vehicles, or specialized assets like production

facilities and custom-designed equipment.

Social Capital refers to the benefits gained from one’s social network and relationships

with others. It can also include things such as personal reputation, degree, and

professional affiliations.


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Figure 2: The Resource Acquisition Framework. (Stockey, 2010).

From Social Capital to Social Competence

Some have argued that of the five types of capital, social capital is the most important

component in helping a new venture to succeed. Brinckmann & Hoegl (2011) found that social

capital is more important to the performance of a new venture than their initial teamwork ability.

Social capital provides both information and access to financial, physical, and human resources.

This explains the placement of “Social Capital” at the center of Stockey’s Resource Acquisition

Framework (Stockey, 2010), see Figure 2. Shane & Cable (2002) concluded that direct and

indirect social ties between entrepreneurs and 202 seed-stage investors positively influence the

selection of ventures to fund the startup. Specifically, the social ties provide an efficient

mechanism by which the investors are able to obtain information. In a study of Dutch new-

venture founders, Bosma, Praag, Thurik, & Tinbergen (2002) found that social capital, as

measured by contact with other entrepreneurs in the networks, appears to positively influence

new-venture performance. In analyzing the Cambridge High technology cluster, Myint,


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Vyakarnam, & New (2005) found that the social capital of entrepreneurs plays a pivotal role in

reducing barriers to entry for new companies. The Cambridge entrepreneurs utilized their social

capital to evaluate potential business opportunities, for forming connections with investors, and

for recruiting co-founders, advisors, board members, and management teams.

However, as with any type of capital, it is not enough to merely possess social capital.

The entrepreneur must have the ability to utilize the capital effectively. Baron & Markman

(2003) refer to this ability as social competence. They define social competence as the

effectiveness in interacting with other persons as based on discrete social skills. To determine

these skills, they surveyed literature to determine those social skills shown to have the strongest

impact in a business context. That research resulted in the following five skills:

(1) Social perception – accuracy in perceiving others (e.g., their traits, intentions, and

motives).

(2) Impression management – a wide range of techniques for inducing positive

reactions in others.

(3) Persuasiveness and influence – the ability to change others’ views or behavior in

face-to-face encounters.

(4) Social adaptability – the ability to adapt to, or feel comfortable in a wide range of

social situations.

(5) Expressiveness – the ability to express one’s emotions and feelings clearly to

generate enthusiasm in others.

Using these skills as a basis of analysis to study new ventures, they found that social competency

is an important factor in determining the financial success of a new venture (Baron & Markman,

2003).


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Bozeman and Mangematin (2004) say that social competence underpins the production,

use, and distribution of knowledge. Lux (2005) states that social competence is the ability to

develop and utilize social capital to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Baron &

Markman (2003) further conjecture that social competence may be of such high value to

entrepreneurs due to the fact that as their venture is progressing, they must form social

relationships with many different people “from scratch”. It is during these uncertain

environments that social competency is highly valued.

Another area where social competence is critical is when entrepreneurs meet with

potential investors. Cable & Shane (2002) show that direct and indirect social ties have a

positive effect on the funding decisions of venture capitalist. This effect of social capital could

be the door opening to funds. When studying the presentation skills of entrepreneurs, Clark

(2008) found that factors relating to the entrepreneurs’ style of delivery and their ability to “sell

themselves” tended to have the highest influence on business angels’ level of investment interest.

In another study of entrepreneurial presentations, Baron & Brush (1999), found that one aspect

of social competence, social adaptability, to be a significant predictor of measures of their

success.

The prevailing thought is that social capital (i.e.: education, reputation, network) has the

ability to open doors to people important to their success, but it is social competence that allows

the entrepreneur to capitalize on the opportunity. Going back to David Cohen of TechStars five

criteria of team, team, team, market, and idea, we can see that without social competency,

investors may have already decided no before the entrepreneur even gets to the idea.


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Social Competence and the High-Performing Team

Social Competence is not just important when the entrepreneur is dealing with external

parties such as customers, vendors, and investors. The same skills can help the entrepreneur to

succeed in these environments are those that help to create a strong internal team.

First of all, new ventures are competing against established firms for a finite set of

resources. In this environment, new ventures suffer from a liability of newness (Stinchcombe,

1965). In many cases, entrepreneurs must offer deferred compensation, equity stakes or profit

sharing to persuade people to join the team. Given these liabilities, entrepreneurs must be adept

at impression management and persuasion to convince others as to what the venture can and will

become in order to attract these resources to the firm.

Second, it is critical for entrepreneurs to be able to manage the emotional state of the

team. In an atmosphere of stress and uncertainty, the social skill of expressiveness, or the ability

to express one’s feelings to generate excitement in others, is critical to generating the necessary

excitement, conviction, and motivation required to keep the team working at high levels.

Third, a major challenge for EFTs is the effective management of conflict. Conflict with

an EFT can have a devastating effect on the firm; including the exit of co-founders. In a survey

of 450 small businesses in New England, Boyd & Gumpert (1983) found that two-thirds of

founders that had gone into business with a partner had dissolved the partnership. The majority

was due to conflict.

Citing findings from applied psychology and related fields, Markman & Baron (1998),

suggest that entrepreneurs with developed social skills will develop better relationships with

others and are better suited to “diffuse and resolve” interpersonal conflict. In addition, Bradley,

Postlethwaite, & Brown (2013), build on applied psychology to make a connection between


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open-minded people and agreeableness. They put forward that agreeable and open-minded

people are more open to discussion. They then go on to show that teams that are able to maintain

an environment that encourage open discussion perform at a higher level that those who do not.

In the prior example, it is important to note that when it comes to conflict, the verbs

diffuse, resolve, and discuss are used rather than avoid. Avoiding conflict can have a negative

impact on team performance. Brinckmann & Hoegl (2011) show that those characteristics of a

closely collaborating team have negative impact on venture performance. They put forth that an

effective collaborating team may lack the appropriate level of conflict. When managed properly,

conflict can energize a team and actually improve performance (Katzenback & Smith, 1993).

However, in order to reap the benefits of conflict, it must be the proper type of conflict. Ensley,

Pearson, & Amason (2002) review conflict from the dimensions of affective conflict and

cognitive conflict. Affective conflict is defined as personally oriented; focusing on personal

likes and dislikes. This type of conflict can be divisive and cause problems in decision making.

Cognitive conflict is defined as “task oriented and focused on judgmental differences about how

to achieve common objectives (Ensley, Pearson, & Amason, 2002). This type of conflict occurs

when teams consider alternatives from various perspectives. It is seen as necessary and

improves decision-making and overall team performance. Ensley, Pearson, & Amason (2002)

proceed further to show that cohesive teams have more cognitive conflict due to the fact that

cohesive teams are more likely to have stable interpersonal relationships among the team

members and are more adaptable and agreeable.

How One Company Encouraged Open Discussion of Issues

The Management Team at Bertelsmann, a German multinational mass media corporation,

used a unique method to encourage open discussion referred to as “put the fish on the table”.


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Kohlrieser (2010) explains that the analogy comes from Sicily where at the end of the day, the

fishermen would put that day’s catch on a large table to clean it. They would work through the

messy job together and be rewarded at the end with a great fish dinner. If a fish is left under the

table, it will start to rot. Bertelsmann even gave each member of the management team a school

of wooden fish to take with them to meetings. When an “uncomfortable” issue would arise, a

member of the management team could put his or her fish on the table to signal to the rest of the

team there was something that needed to be discussed. It took the focus off the individual and

put it on the fish, thereby helping to mitigate the affective conflict.


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Conclusion

The American fascination with the solo entrepreneur is not likely to go away anytime

soon. However, researchers and practitioners are well aware of the fact that it is new venture

teams that achieve better performance.

Entrepreneurial teams are built from scratch and the founder entrepreneur should

endeavor to form the most effective, high-performing team. The better the dynamics of this

process are understood, the more likely it can enhance a venture’s chance of success. And while

this paper introduces the issues associated with team formation, the results of this analysis could

have an influence on the decision-making and priorities of founders. With a more detailed

understanding of why teams are formed and how resources are secured, a framework can be

developed to assist the entrepreneur in making these decisions.

Given the importance of social capital and social competence on everything from finding

and exploiting opportunities, to securing funding, to developing the internal team, founders

should spend time before launching their venture working on the social skills from which social

competence is developed. Once the venture is launched, there will be little time available to

implement this results-benefiting strategy. For those entrepreneurs that do not have an interest in

developing these skills, it would be wise to find a co-founder who does.

My focus on social skills and social competence of the entrepreneurial team in no way

minimizes the importance of other elements. These are two pieces of a complex puzzle that

includes such things as the viability of the product or service, market forces, industry trends,

technology, competition, and operational execution. Given the founders high-degree of control

of developing social skills, determining the skill gaps and acquiring appropriate resources, it

should be considered a priority to make these decisions at the outset of a new venture.


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Additional research is related to several issues. The first is defining the appropriate role

for the new member addition. When securing resources for the team, founders have the

possibility of adding co-founders, advisors, board members, employees, investors, or contractors.

Under what circumstances would one role be preferred over the other, how would each be

compensated, and more. The findings by Zolin, Kuckertz, & Kautonen (2008), that serial

entrepreneurs were not as influenced by strength of ties as were new entrepreneurs leads to the

question of why and in what other areas do serial and novice entrepreneurs differ.

In conclusion, Stangler (2009), states that the United States might be on the cusp of an

entrepreneurship boom. I hope this is true and the future research can develop more concrete

guidelines as to what future entrepreneurs should consider when putting together their EFT.


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