Build and strength­en your team

As your start­up scales, hav­ing the right team in place is essen­tial. That means more than just hir­ing – it also means invest­ing in the peo­ple you already have. Ask your­self: What skills are miss­ing? And how can you close those gaps? A clear plan for skill-build­ing, team devel­op­ment, and smart recruit­ment sets the stage for long-term, mis­sion-dri­ven growth.

1. Pin­point the skills you need

Start by iden­ti­fy­ing the key skills required for each role on your team. Con­sid­er both hard skills (tech­ni­cal know-how) and soft skills (com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lead­er­ship, etc.), keep­ing your long-term goals in mind.

Com­mon hard skill gaps:

• Tech­ni­cal skills: Lim­it­ed cod­ing or AI knowl­edge can hold back prod­uct devel­op­ment.
• Finan­cial skills: Weak­ness­es in bud­get­ing or account­ing can put your startup’s future at risk.
• Project man­age­ment: With­out clear plan­ning and exe­cu­tion, your team’s effi­cien­cy takes a hit.
• Impact mea­sure­ment: If you can’t mea­sure and track your social or envi­ron­men­tal impact, it’s tough to show results.

Com­mon soft skill gaps:

• Team­work or com­mu­ni­ca­tion issues can strain col­lab­o­ra­tion – inter­nal­ly and with users or tar­get groups.
• Lim­it­ed cre­ativ­i­ty or prob­lem-solv­ing can stall inno­va­tion and slow momen­tum in tack­ling chal­lenges.
• Lack of lead­er­ship or man­age­ment skills can dis­rupt work­flows, team dynam­ics, and your cul­ture.

2. Take stock of your team’s skills and spot the gaps

Once you’ve mapped out the skills your start­up needs, it’s time to see what your team already brings to the table. You can do this through per­for­mance reviews, self-assess­ments, or infor­mal check-ins.

A skills matrix can help you match your team’s cur­rent strengths with what’s actu­al­ly need­ed. Use it to iden­ti­fy the most impor­tant gaps – and focus on those first.

3. Dig into the root caus­es and impact of those gaps

Fig­ure out what’s behind the miss­ing skills. Then look at how those gaps are hold­ing your team back – from missed goals to slow progress.

4. Build a prac­ti­cal action plan

Then put togeth­er a clear plan. This might mean offer­ing tar­get­ed train­ing, hir­ing new peo­ple, or both. Set achiev­able goals and time­lines.

Get clear on process­es and respon­si­bil­i­ties

When work­flows are fuzzy and roles aren’t defined, things can fall through the cracks. By stream­lin­ing your process­es and clear­ly assign­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties, you make team­work smoother, boost trans­paren­cy, and lay the ground­work for steady, sus­tain­able growth.

1. Pick a process to ana­lyze

Choose one core process in your start­up to focus on, and define clear start­ing and end­ing points. Ask your­self: What steps are tru­ly nec­es­sary? Who’s respon­si­ble for what? And how does this process affect your over­all impact? Some exam­ples of key process­es include:

2. Use a SIPOC dia­gram to map it out

A SIPOC dia­gram is a sim­ple way to visu­al­ize and break down a process. It helps you under­stand the key ele­ments and pin­point what dri­ves suc­cess – or where improve­ments are need­ed. SIPOC stands for:

• Sup­pli­ers: Who pro­vides the inputs for this process? This could be exter­nal part­ners, inter­nal teams, or oth­er stake­hold­ers.
• Inputs (resources): What mate­ri­als, tools, or infor­ma­tion are need­ed to get the process start­ed?
• Process­es: What are the key steps, from begin­ning to end? Focus on list­ing five to sev­en main steps in order.
• Out­puts (results): What’s the end result of the process? This could be a prod­uct, ser­vice, report, or any oth­er deliv­er­able.
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• Cus­tomers (clients): Who receives or ben­e­fits from the out­put? This could include exter­nal clients, inter­nal teams, or any­one who relies on the results.

3. Take a clos­er look at each activ­i­ty in the process

Doc­u­ment every task need­ed to car­ry out the process from start to fin­ish. To clear­ly define who’s doing what – and improve effi­cien­cy – you can use the RACI method. RACI helps clar­i­fy roles by assign­ing each task to one or more of the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories:

• Respon­si­ble: Who is direct­ly respon­si­ble for com­plet­ing the task? There can be more than one respon­si­ble per­son, but try to keep it man­age­able.
• Account­able: Who has final own­er­ship of the task? Each task should have just one account­able per­son.
• Con­sult­ed: Who should be asked for input? These peo­ple should be involved before key deci­sions are made.
• Informed: Who needs to stay in the loop? These peo­ple aren’t direct­ly involved but should be kept up to date.

4. Check how each activ­i­ty affects your impact

Every action you take can influ­ence your startup’s social, envi­ron­men­tal, or eco­nom­ic impact – pos­i­tive­ly or neg­a­tive­ly. To make sure you’re using your resources wise­ly, take the fol­low­ing steps:

Eval­u­ate how each activ­i­ty affects your impact an to what extent. Use clear ata an KPI track­ing (reg­u­lar mea­sure­ment of key val­ues). Use your sys­tems map from the “Impact man­age­ment” / LINK) to spot unin­tend­ed side effects. This includes neg­a­tive out­comes from your busi­ness mod­el an your behav­ior across your the entire val­ue chain (see note). Once you iden­ti­fy weak points, cre­ate tar­get­ed mea­sures to elim­i­nate them.

Reflect on your orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture

Your cor­po­rate cul­ture is the back­bone of your start­up. It shapes how your team works togeth­er and how oth­ers see you. A strong, inten­tion­al cul­ture can dri­ve inno­va­tion, attract great tal­ent, and bring your vision to life.

1. Define your core val­ues

Think about what real­ly mat­ters to you – val­ues like trans­paren­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, or bold think­ing – and how those val­ues show up in your work. Bring your team into the con­ver­sa­tion with work­shops or brain­storm­ing ses­sions to build a shared set of val­ues that feel authen­tic and rel­e­vant. Aim for three to five core val­ues that reflect who you are and what you stand for. Keep them focused, prac­ti­cal, and tai­lored to your start­up – not just buzz­words.

2. Map out the cul­ture you want

Start by tak­ing stock of your cur­rent cul­ture. Use anony­mous sur­veys, one-on-one feed­back, or team inter­views to get hon­est input. Then ask: What kind of cul­ture do we want to build? What will help us grow and stay true to our mis­sion? Think about how you want peo­ple to col­lab­o­rate, make deci­sions, and embody your val­ues day to day.

Ask your­selves: What goals do we have? What needs to change? What makes strate­gic sense?

Think about how you want peo­ple to col­lab­o­rate, make deci­sions, and embody your val­ues day to day. Your ide­al cul­ture should sup­port your goals, reflect your strat­e­gy, and fit your cur­rent chal­lenges. To guide the process, try using the keep-start-stop method:

• Keep: What should be retained?
• Start: What should be start­ed?
• Stop: What should be left behind?

3. Bring your orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture to life

Defin­ing your val­ues is just the first step – what mat­ters most is how they show up in day-to-day deci­sions and behav­ior. For exam­ple, if one of your val­ues is sus­tain­abil­i­ty, that might mean choos­ing to work with envi­ron­men­tal­ly respon­si­ble sup­pli­ers. Every deci­sion you make should reflect your val­ues, even as your start­up grows or con­di­tions change. Cre­ate a clear, inspir­ing vision for the cul­ture you’re aim­ing for, such as: “We’re build­ing a cul­ture that encour­ages open feed­back and embraces inno­va­tion.”

To track your progress, set mea­sur­able goals using the S.M.A.R.T. method.

Your goals should be:

• Spe­cif­ic: Clear­ly stat­ed and well defined
• Mea­sur­able: Quan­tifi­able
• Achiev­able: Real­is­tic giv­en your cur­rent resources
• Rel­e­vant: Aligned with your strate­gic goals
• Time-bound: Tied to a clear dead­line

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4. Put it all into a code of con­duct

Turn your val­ues and cul­ture into a writ­ten code of con­duct that every­one on your team can under­stand and fol­low. Have it reviewed by your legal team or exter­nal legal coun­sel. Make sure the doc­u­ment is easy to access – for employ­ees and exter­nal part­ners – and avail­able in all rel­e­vant lan­guages. Hold reg­u­lar train­ing ses­sions to help your team under­stand how to apply the code in real-world sit­u­a­tions.

Next step: Start track­ing your KPIs

You’ve start­ed build­ing a team that’s ready for growth, put smart sys­tems in place, and laid the foun­da­tion for a strong orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture.

Before you dive into KPI track­ing or cre­ate a base­line for mea­sur­ing your impact, take time to devel­op a busi­ness growth plan (LINK 1) and fine-tune your impact man­age­ment strat­e­gy (LINK 2).