Mutual Respect
A startup is already working against the odds. Having employees, founders, or investors working against each other is a sure way to torpedo success. Having a team that listens to each other and takes advice, feedback, and criticism to heart help move a project forward quickly and easily. Gaining consensus on large-scale pivots requires team members to understand and trust each other. This will come naturally when team members have mutual respect, not just for the founders, but for each other.
Diverse Experience
A great founder or investor knows what she doesn't know and hires people smarter than herself to fill the gaps. Having experience in scaling a business requires a background in fast-growth business. Having technical experience to build, fix and pivot requires a skilled technologist. Understanding the pace and unique iterative style of a startup requires someone with past successes and failures in the startup world. Before beginning to fundraise, we try to make sure we built a team of founders, investors, and employees that brings their own unique skills. We all look for developers who have business experience, look for growth hackers who might have investor relationships. Everyone brings a unique amalgamation of experience. Investors will see that as a huge benefit and it will be easy for them to help the team in return.
Customer Knowledge
It's inevitable that our early startups will make assumptions about what their customers want and will pay for. Having an intimate understanding of customers and the market will give us a huge advantage. The goal is to avoid wasting time testing ideas and creating products that don't have a good market fit. We make smarter informed assumptions and understand how to test those assumptions if we have team members who are a part of the communities that are building the product to serve and have the problems our product is hoping to solve.
Adaptability
Every product/service changes. If we don't take huge pivots early in the startup process, we'll definitely have to change as we scale. Having a team that is invested in the problem and solution that your product is trying to fix, rather than the product and features will help them iterate quickly. Adaptability is key to bringing the right product to market.
Compatible Vibe
It goes without saying that teams that like each other, including coaches, employees, investors, and hands-on third parties support who enjoy being in the same room together for hours at a time are going to make the whole team (especially investors) more comfortable. The constant tension between team members is bad for a young company. Having a team that feels comfortable opening up about issues, asks for help when they need it, and can band together when things get difficult (because they will) shows to the founders and investors that the company/project will be more likely to ride out the painfully bumpy road of bringing a startup product to life.
We like to add that you must agree on the team criteria and its content if you are an Investor, a Venture or an Employee working with/for Quickers :)