As most of you might know now, I'm an avid reader of Mashable and recently they've written a story on 3 Ways to Find Talent for Your Startup, of which, I've tried all 3 ways and I'm going to share my personal experience here.
Firstly, attend Networking Events, which I do on a regular basis. I also have co-curate TedxSingapore here and have certainly met a number of people at events. However, meeting people at events do not necessarily find you the people you want or need for your startup. I find however, having worked with some of them to organise some of these events a larger reason some of us are working together and helping each other out. From these non-profit events, you can really see the work ethics of an individual even more clearly. Basically no one makes any money out of these events so who is really in it for the team and who is basically a egoistic, self interested parasite. I found some of the best team players and best friends while organising TedxSingapore. The same people I approach and offer a share of my startup.
Secondly working your personal network. Having been with several MNCs and Startups, I know who all my best colleagues are. Phone calls, Facebook messages and emails went straight out to all the best people I knew. It helped that throughout my professional career I've been helpful and friendly to most of my colleagues. So when I tell them of my dreams of grandeur and how I want them to come along on this trip, it's a natural YES! A couple of you I want to make special mention of Bianca, my good friend from MyFatPocket. Eran, my good friend all the way from Israel. Ba, Joe and Nat, these are brothers from when I was a teenager. Special thanks to all of you who have and are supporting me in this journey. I won't disappoint you... :)
Thirdly, making my company a good target. We will attempt that very soon. I've tried posting really cool job postings on the internet but the response rate was very very low. I guess it's still the good old postings of a normal stable job that people respond to. This area is still a little cold for us in terms of good candidates.
As you can see, it's still the friends and ex-coworkers who have been of greatest help. In my experience at least. I'm still looking for talent so if you are interested in joining the team, please leave a message below.
