Startup Team Building: Abuse My ‘Serial Entrepreneur’ Framework

After 20 years of building, failing, succeeding, and exiting – you start to identify some patterns…

And not only patterns in business but also in human behavior.

These patterns can easily lead to a) great startup team building, which results in a successful business, or b) a total catastrophe.

It’s true – it’s more often that a startup fails due to human connection issues, rather than some huge technical mistake.

I go much deeper on this in my Make it CLEAR course, but I want to give you a little teaser here.

In this article, I’ll show you exactly what this framework means, and how I used it time and time again to build unshakeable startup teams.

You also have a relationship with yourself, so this article (and course) will be VERY useful to you if you’re a solo founder as well…

The CLEAR Framework: What The Hell Is It?

I was going to reveal it bit by bit to get you to read the entire article…

… but I remembered it’s 2025, and people know how to use the scroll button on their mouse by now.

So without further to do – CLEAR stands for Capabilities, Limitations, Expectations, And, Risks!

(Yes, A stands for ‘And’. This isn’t the Acronym Naming Olympics, okay?)

Now I can lay them out bit by bit…

Capabilities and Limitations: How Do Founders Complement Each Other?

Everyone in your team is human, and everyone has some strengths and weaknesses. Even your 17 AI agents.

It’s very important to lay them out on a piece of paper and see EXACTLY how your team complements each other.

This includes everything from technical skills (like coding or graphic design) to valuable resources (such as financial backing or industry connections) and personal attributes (like stellar leadership or out-of-the-box thinking).

For instance, you might absolutely SUCK at client acquisition… but you’re a legend at delivering the service.

You definitely want to note those down.

I mean, it’s like a cheat sheet that tells you who can handle what tasks best, if you think about it.

Then, let’s say your co-founder struggles with fulfilling your huge promises, but he’s good at making those promises and closing clients…

You guys probably make a good team. Never do business with someone just because you have a shared interest and you like them. That is NOT good startup team building.

(That goes for friends and family, too. You can read a whole article about that here, it’s very interesting.)

Capabilities and Limitations: Make a Self-Assessment Table

This exercise is not that complicated, it really doesn’t take a licensed psychologist to complete it.

You just need brutal honesty.

Simply open your Google Docs right now, and make a new table.

The Capabilities column is the place where you note all your strengths: your past projects and roles, your managing experience, or your character traits that you consider to be your advantages.

The Limitations column is where you assess your weaknesses: like, for example, lack of international experience, your phobia of details, or perhaps your inability to market yourself.

Of course, it can evolve over time.

Feel free to tweak it as needed when you’re doing it for your own team. You can add, adjust, or remove lines based on what’s relevant to your situation.

The next part of this exercise is something you and your partner will need to tackle together, right after completing your self-assessment.

Depending on the project you’re launching, it’s time to define the key competencies and skills you’ll need—and put together a list of what’s required.

To make things easier, we suggest breaking down this list into three key areas:

The Three Project Competencies You’ll Need To Avoid Failure

Let’s get straight into it:

• Product essentials: The professional knowledge and skills needed to develop and launch your product (e.g. if you’re diving into the B2B market, having someone with past experience in that area)
• Key project skills: The soft skills that will help you manage your project smoothly (management experience, networking abilities, fundraising expertise, etc)… Don’t underestimate how important these are.
• Resource requirements: Who and What you’ll need to bring on board for the project’s success.

Remember, this list can vary depending on your project, but try to keep it simple—stick to the 10-12 most important points.

Any more than that, and it might get a bit overwhelming to manage.

In the Make it CLEAR course, you get WAY more ideas and things to think about. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Is $101 too much at this stage of your business journey?

No judgment whatsoever. You should start with my 8D Framework To Launch Your Business eBook.

It’s a step-by-step guide designed to show you everything you need to know to build a winning product, market it, sell it, and start scaling it.

If you’re starting a new business, you could do much worse things with your time than to give it a quick read:

After you’ve mapped out your Product Essentials, Key Project Skills, and Resource Requirements, it’s time to put everything together.

Simply take the self-assessment reports from each founder and evaluate their skills and competencies in relation to the project needs.

To score it, use a scale from 0-5, where 0 means there’s no competence in that area, and 5 indicates high proficiency.

What Do I Do About My Limitations?

I know you know that everyone has limitations.

But still, people OFTEN don’t know where they (or their team) do not excel. Limitations can truly be superpowers…

(I mean, they’re superpowers if you’re AWARE of the limitations. That’s what we’re here to do…)

It’s so useful not just because you know which tasks to avoid… but you can also see opportunities for growth by acknowledging the limitations.

Whether it’s a lack of technical know-how, experience, or soft skills like staying cool in a crisis – recognizing these gaps is the first step toward building an unstoppable team.

So How do I Handle These Gaps?

Luckily for you…

I’ve got three tricks up my sleeve: delegation, partnership, and calling in some external reinforcements.

• Delegation: If a task doesn’t play to your strengths, pass the baton to someone who’s got the skills to crush it.
• Partnership: Find your business soulmate who will complete you for the rest of your life. But maybe don’t fall in love with them, it might lead to some problems down the road… (or is it actually okay 😏️?)
• External support: Consultants, mentors, or even a cool new software. If you need a business consultant that’s at least somewhat entertaining, you can check out my page here.

Expectations and Risks: How To Not F*ck Up Your Startup Team Building

Let’s face it, expectations can make or break any relationship (not just a partnership, but also that)…

Your expectations are all about what gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to put in the work.

Are you in it for the money, or are you aiming to change the world?

Whatever your mission, it’s gotta be crystal clear and aligned with your partner’s vision.

Earlier, we highlighted the importance of understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Now, we’re understanding what the hell you guys both want from this business (or only what YOU want if you’re a solopreneur).

For expectations, here are some of the useful questions outlined in the Make it CLEAR course:

• How do you picture the biz in 6 months?
• What about 3 years?
• What about 10 yers?

If you’re not on the same page, it will be very clear in the decision you’ll be making down the line… Which will result in a lot of fighting!

And don’t forget about the “how much money do we need NOW and how much can we invest for future success.”

I wanted to give you that one for free, since it’s such an important question to ask.

Now, let’s talk Risks.

Here’s some good news: if you’ve already hashed out your expectations with your partner and found a compromise, you’ve dodged one of the biggest bullets—ruining your partnership and sinking the project due to misunderstandings.

WOOHOO!

But… there’s more work to do.

not woohoo.

Look, there are two main types of risks: a) those related to the project and b) interpersonal risks.

To finish off this article, I’ll quickly mention the risks related to project management. The usual ‘suspects’ are:

• Running out of resources: How much time can you afford to work without making any money?
• Juggling too many projects: Business is about focus. If you or your co-founder are building 7 different businesses, hmm…..
• Mixing work with friends or family: Are they objectively a good co-founder for you? Are you ready to throw the business in the toilet for the sake of preserving the relationship?

There are also interpersonal risks, but I go into SO much detail in the course. I would do an injustice to my customers by spilling all the tea here 😀

Takeaways

In this article, I gave you tons of free ‘startup team building’ advice from my Make It CLEAR course.

People usually pay for that info (but they get way more, as well as tables and exercises)…

Let’s recap what I revealed here, which in fact, could trigger some of my customers:

• CLEAR stands for Capabilities, Limitations, Expectations, And, Risks!
• Note down your capabilities and limitations…
• This includes everything from technical skills (like coding or graphic design) to valuable resources (such as financial backing or industry connections) and personal attributes (like stellar leadership or out-of-the-box thinking).
• But it also includes your limitations, such as (possibly) your lack of networking abilities, lack of money, or phobia of details.
• The three project competencies you need: product essentials, key project skills, and resource requirements.
• When you acknowledge your limitations, solve them with delegation, partnerships, and external support.
• What are your expectations for the business? Ask yourself the right questions.
• Project management risks: running out of resources, juggling too many projects, and mixing work with friends and family…