Most ventures are the brainchild of an individual founder – but if they are to grow then they soon need to take on more people as co-founders, employees or partners. These initial hires are critical – at best they bring resource, energy and add to the DNA of the venture. Bad hires squander, distract, enervate and mutate the venture – often to destruction. Most founders are alive to these perils so they play safe and stay small. The best founders escape the curse and are somehow able to build great teams. Is this down to luck, charisma or is there a science to attracting top talent, even if you have no money? In this session we ask Rowan Jackson to tell us how it is done – whether you select primarily on skills, experience or attitude and how you do ‘due diligence’ on someone before committing.
We finish by applying these principles to LBS alumnus-founded businesses:
- Jess Harcourt MBA2021, Founder of Mate, the next generation dating app that makes online dating feel more organic by creating communities based on affiliations, interests, and causes and gives people more agency to find people they are excited to meet.
- Jomy Jose Mangalathu EMBA2022, Founder of E-Lite Learning, an Ed-Tech start-up.
Following the discussion with the two founders, the attendees will have an opportunity to network with the LBS community and members of the Company of Entrepreneurs.
The event will be facilitated by Lee Robertson, an accomplished entrepreneur and past master of the Guild of Entrepreneurs.
This event is organised by the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital at the London Business School together with The Company of Entrepreneurs.
Please note that the event will be held on campus at London Business School. For those who prefer to tune in virtually, please select the virtual ticket type. Zoom link will be sent in the confirmation email when you register.
Agenda:
18:45: Doors open
19:00: Event commences
20:00: Networking (Wine and nibbles provided)
About Rowan Jackson: Rowan's career has been leading people and businesses, the last 20 years with his own companies. Most recently he has grown Promising Outcomes (www.promisingoutcomes.com) by 300% in the last two years. Key to this growth is getting the right people on board to build strong relationships with large and small clients in UK and internationally. He will focus on lessons learned from this growth and will give some tips on how to select the right people for a new business. After managing the acquisition of his employer by WPP he set up his first company in 2001 and has gone on to be a non-executive chair as well as running Promising Outcomes.
Prior to his business career, Rowan was in the Royal Marines. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and holds an MBA from Cranfield University.
About Lee Robertson: Lee is an accomplished entrepreneur and past master of the Guild of Entrepreneurs. He has founded a number of companies in the financial services sector including Investment Quorum, one of the UK's leading wealth managers which he sold in 2018. He then went on to found Octo Members (www.octomembers.com) the private social network for financial services professionals, where he is CEO. Lee speaks and judges at financial events as well as mentoring aspiring and senior people in wealth management.
