ACCELERATORS & VC'S TEAMS
FAITH CAPITAL
About the VC At Faith Capital Holding we offer long-term value to our investments, by providing capital and knowledge leadership, to build sound operations with the vision for GCC expansion. The Faith Capital team comprises of leaders in their areas of expertise, some of these people have worked with Mohammed Jaffar in the past and others have extensive experience in the GCC. The selection of the team members took several months to make sure that we got the right fit of people, this only works if we have the correct person on each position. Each member of Faith Capital brings their professional as well as their personal experience into adding value to each business and to each other. In your own words. define teamwork and how do you reflect it within your accelerator / VC. We do not want to sound like a cliché but we truly work as a family, we spend more time together than we do with our actual families. It is very important that we work together, collaborate and support each other. We try our best to transfer this culture of collaboration and support to our investments. How do you perceive the team of entrepreneurs approaching your accelerator / VC for the products and services that you offer? What are key elements that you would like to see them possess in terms of teamwork and collaboration between each other? Hard work, ideas are cheap, what we look for are entrepreneurs that are willing to roll their sleeves and made the sacrifices needed to get their projects to work and grow. We also look for people that match our culture and that we feel we can help. There is no point in taking an investment that we have no knowledge on how to add value to. In your opinion, what are the necessary aspects that each entrepreneur should consider when establishing a team for their startup & enterprise? This is a very tough and delicate question, when you are starting, those initial members that join you can make or break the whole project/organization. You need to be very honest with yourself and those people that you approach and make things clear, get things in writing and get a lawyer involved. You have no idea how important it is to have the right legal advice when you start a project.
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For Entrepreneurs By Entrepreneurs
Do you believe that the team is behind the success of a startup & enterprise? Please elaborate Absolutely, people are the key to success. The teams that will work in creating this organization and driving it to success are essential. That is why it is so important to get the right people, to be transparent, to work together and communicate. You could have more money than you need, but if you do not get the right human capital, you could waste all that money very fast. On the other hand, there are plenty of success stories of great organizations that have reach amazing heights of success because of the people behind it and with very little money. If you are approached by a single entrepreneur that is fully dedicated and working on their startup alone; would you recommend them to establish a team? Please elaborate on individual effort vs teamwork Hard working individuals are great but they are limited, you cannot have great knowledge in technical, operations, sales, marketing, finance, and you need all of this for success, you need to establish a strong foundation for growth. You might not need to hire or partner with people for all these positions from the beginning, but it is extremely important to identify your major weaknesses as an individual and get one or more people to carry on these areas. How would you advise entrepreneurs on choosing suitable team members? Not differently from the previous question about what you should consider when establishing a team, be honest, be transparent and don’t be afraid to get a lawyer involved if you are thinking of bringing a “Co-founder”. All this is for the good of both you and the other party. Ask yourself “can I work with this person every day?”, “do I trust this person with my business?”, “do we share similar values?” Is there any message that you would like to share with our readers on teamwork? Teams are the engine of any organization and if your teams are not running in-tune then the organization will start to unravel. Team work is essential for startups, as the risks of a team member affecting the organization are much greater than in establish or big organization. www.faithcapital.com