Each chapter is made up of essays whose titles complete the following:
Under no circumstances should you...

So much ink is contributed to the topic of finding good co-founders and hiring great employees, but very few offering advice steer you in the direction of needing to focus on your extended team. While the people with whom you are working day to day will have a great deal of impact on the success or failure of your project or business, the people with whom you interact less often might actually save your ass.

The line item on your income statement of “professional services” can be a pretty broad one, and mostly encompasses service providers which are considered non-core to your business. Until you are a large company, you will most likely be outsourcing a good deal of services to these providers, and finding the right partner can mean the difference between good work and wasted money. There may be service providers whose services are specific to your industry, but more generally, every business needs a lawyer, a banker, and an accountant. You may also need a professional recruiter and a commercial real estate broker.

Regardless of the type of service which is being rendered to you from these providers, it’s of utmost important that you find a provider that is right for you. This is going to depend on a few variables, but when in my past I have sought out these providers for my businesses, I learned (through mistakes) to ask the following questions:

Do they believe in what you are trying to do?

Your extended team doesn’t necessarily need to believe that you are going to be changing the world, or even having a significant impact on it, but they do have to believe in what you are doing, whatever that may be. The reason for this is you need to know that they are going to bring that little something extra to the table when you need it. You may find yourself in desperate need of a solution from one of these service providers, and if you are “just another name” to them, it’s more than likely that you aren’t going to get what you need. It’s too easy for them to do what’s passable, versus what’s extra-ordinary.

Do they understand what it is you are trying to do?

I can remember my first meeting with an accountant in Texas when we were starting IMSafer. I had found this particular individual through the local chamber of commerce, after spending time asking around my anemic professional network in the area. We spoke on the phone and he seemed like a decent guy, so we agreed to meet. The most important question I should have asked on the phone, which I didn’t, was “have you ever had any software startups as clients?” His answer would have been “no” and that would have been the end of the conversation.

When we first sat down to go over the company’s current financial situation, you should have seen the look on this man’s face when we told him we had not revenues and that there wasn’t a concrete plan to start generating revenues in the coming months. This was clearly anathema to him, and in fact, he grew increasingly uncomfortable as the conversation went on. During our meeting, I had to explain too many things to him, with him repeatedly asking questions about business models, funding, the security which the angels had invested, etc.

Ultimately we decided that we would give it a go, but only after taking him on a probationary period. I wasted two months with that particular accountant, who not only didn’t understand what we were trying to do, but he really didn’t ever help beyond the basic checking of my double entry accounting. When it came time to get creative with how we were going to manage payables to our search engine marketing company, he didn’t understand their business either, and could offer nothing up. Perhaps I just drew a dud of an accountant, and it wouldn’t have mattered if he understood our business or not. However, my experience with our intellectual property attorneys led me to come up with the third qualifier.

Do they have other clients who look and smell like your company?

Above and beyond simply understanding your business, what experience does the service provider have servicing clients like yourself? You would never dream of hiring a programmer specifically to scale your service if they have never done it before. Doubly so if you have the opportunity to hire a similarly competent programmer who had. Why then would you consider hiring a member of your extended team if they have never had experience working with a company like yours? Since most of these service providers are providing that service on a per hour cost basis, it helps to know that they will be working efficiently and not learning on the job as you go.

If you locate yourself in a hub that is a natural gathering point for companies/businesses like yourself, you will most likely be in luck when it comes time to build your extended team. Things become slightly harder if you are the only company like yourself around. As I pointed out earlier, finding an accountant in the area where I lived north of Houston who understood software startups was very challenging. Finding one that understood the oil and gas industry was obviously much easier. Similarly, you won’t have any challenges finding lawyers in Silicon Valley who can help you structure your funding documents for an Internet startup.

The Moral? You need to put just as time and effort into building your extended team as you would your co-founders and employees. Having an extended team that supports you, understands what your company does and has other clients like you is hugely important when you get yourself into some really sticky situations.