Growing a team, hiring friends, and being a young CEO | George Spencer & Gabriele Maroso, Rentify

The Balderton Podcast: Tech Investment | Venture Capital | Startup Funding

George Spencer is founder and CEO at Rentify, a software platform which helps landlords market, manage, and make money from their properties. Gabriele Maroso is the Director of Business Operations at Rentify. 0120 There are two factors that effect an entrepreneur's ability to hire smart people at the very early-stage: chiefly available capital, and the own ability to 'sell' the company to prospective employees. 0240 If there are multiple founders at an early-stage company, each founder needs to have complimentary skills. It's not useful when it comes to execution if you have three founders with overlapping, similar skills. 0310 George speaks about his first hire. Even though they were a great, their role become automated as the company developed. 0415 As the company evolves, the CEO is pivotal in ensuring the team, the culture and the hiring strategy evolves at the right pace. 0600 George has a tip for entrepreneurs: Startups at seed stage often attempt to optimise every process for minimal gain. They should focus on speed, rather than achieve an extra 1% here and there. 0720 Gabriele was the third employee at Rentify. Joining any growth company is a risk, so Ben asks why he chose to work in a startup. 0830 Would Gabriele recommend students to go and work for a startup? 1018 Hiring friends: it's tempting for a CEO, but is it a good idea? 1220 Since founded Rentify, George has parted ways with his original two cofounders. He talks through how that process, and discusses what he learnt. 1330 Startup founders need to be hugely aware that job roles and focuses change as the company grows. 1435 Gabriele explains how his job is now totally different to the role he took three years ago. 1537 Gabriele lifts the lid on how George has changed as a CEO over the last three years. From friend to statesman... 1645 On the subject of mistakes, George answers the question: How do you keep your team believing in the 'Rentify ethos' after particularly difficult moments for the business? 1830 Hiring from large technology behemoths into scaling startups is hard. George explains that employees of large companies often get used to a life of delegation and strategising, and aren't used to rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in. 2055 Gabriele is now in the position where he has made his first hire into his own team. 2225 Having established the company at 24, George talks about the downsides of being a young Founder.