The internal structure of an organization is complex and for it to be successful, interactions within it sometimes matter the most. Though we live in a highly digital world and teams get more diverse and even dispersed, they still rely on some core rules to thrive.
Entrepreneurs and key members in technological teams have exposed, during past editions of Techsylvania, their approaches and also their challenges when it comes to the best deliverance of a team.
Fredrik Nylander — partner at Lakestar, has experienced work across multiple countries and thus he got the bigger picture over what drives people to do better within a company. From his point of view, there’s a mix between very aspirational, intellectual, solving difficult problems and the ability to execute and deliver on time. When he is looking for engineers, he looks for the ones that have a solid background and are not necessarily fanatic about the tools, but pragmatic enough to use whatever it needs to get the project done.
Fredrik has a few pieces of advice for the ones who are at the beginning of a new project or company and want to build it in a solid way:
▶ Use the tools available as much as you can
▶ Focus your intellectual assets on the things that really matter
▶ Pick “boring” technology at first so you don’t get over your head
▶ Hire the best engineers you can afford
Shifting over to another perspective, one that tends to get in the way of the comfort and well-being of a team: sexism.
Even though the number of women in technology is continuously on the rise, sexism in this industry still exists. In a panel from 2016, Jennifer Becker — Product Manager at Soundcloud, Lisa Enckell — Partner at Approach, Alexandra Schiel — Head of Operations at DLD Media and Lisa Lang — CEO and Founder of ElektroCouture discussed different situations that still happen most of the time to them at work and shouldn’t.
Jennifer Becker mentioned that everybody should consider when creating a workplace — to make it as inclusive as they can so that anybody who comes at work to feel safe and productive. An aspect that isn’t dedicated to women, but to all categories of people.
Also, another aspect that should be tackled is that of role models. Everybody needs role models, either within the company or outside it and women should be put more in the spotlight so that more can follow their example.
“Silicon Valley is almost like a natural resource that everybody should feel like they can use. So go to the Valley, meet the people, see how it’s done — it will push you to be better. “
One thing that Di Ann considers to be found in the US and not in other parts of the world, is the ability to pitch ideas without being humble. And yes, that seems to be a problem when you want to strive in a highly competitive entrepreneurial world. For her, one of the key ingredients of this recipe is being excited about your vision so you can further excite people.