Some investors believe that what makes or break a successful project is almost entirely its leader.
While a true leader is always extremely important I do believe that his ability to attract into the project very early on a group of talented individual is probably the most visible sign of his capacity to be the leader he pretend to be.
While it’s relatively simple to recruit when a venture has traction, 10 million of cash in bank, 3 large VC on board and in the position to offer six figures packages, attracting talented people who might have to leave their jobs for some shares when there is no cash and just a project on paper, is indeed a challenging task. Somebody succeeding in it already deserves respect.
Going forward those 3 or 4 early recruits (even though some might drop or have to be dropped on that road) will certainly help out the founder to keep going in spite of difficult times that sooner or later occur in every start-up. Their loyalty is typically greater as greater will be the sense of responsibility of the founder toward them (more than toward investors indeed). While second waver recruits will come and go, most of them will stay until the end.
This is why when looking at an early stage investment opportunity I like to assess not just “the” leader but the entire founding team.
