#043 - How to avoid mistakes when building a team - lessons from mentoring 1200+ hardware entrepreneurs, with Alan Clayton of SOSV
Alan Clayton, Roaming Mentor at the hardware-focused VC and accelerator SOSV (which runs programs like HAX, IndieBio, and Food-X), explains how to build effective startup teams using the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI). He uses Star Trek characters to illustrate the four quadrants of intelligence—Captain Kirk (vision), Spock (analysis), Scotty (execution), and Dr. Bones (empathy)—and advises founders to consciously adopt these perspectives to avoid project delays and improve pitching. Clayton highlights that while technical founders often dominate early teams, a lack of project management talent ('Scotty') is a primary cause of crowdfunding failures.