On our latest episode of the Scaleup Diaries podcast, our Co-Founder, Alan Furley was joined by Deirdre Mc Gettrick, Co-Founder and CEO of ufurnish.com.

Deirdre founded ufurnish after attempting to furnish her first home and hitting a brick wall- unable to find a clear site that showed options from across the market.

It turns out Deirdre was not alone in facing this problem so in 2019, she decided to create a solution. Deirdre built a platform with over 170 furniture companies compiled in one place to help make comparing furniture shopping a much easier and seamless experience.

Deirdre joins Alan to discuss the realities of growing a business post-covid, how to plan for success and the importance of networking.

Here are our key takeaways:

Don’t skip the planning stage- anticipate your future hiring needs

As an early-stage founder it’s easy to think on a role-by-role basis.

But you should start planning months before you’re ready to hire. Go out and speak to people.

You might meet people who you may not have a job for right now, but in a few months, or even a few years, they could be just what you need to move your business to the next level.

So, start building these connections now and grow your talent pool. Deirdre also uses these conversations as chance to establish what roles she needs to hire for.

Ask people what they do, what their role includes, what they look for in a job, and write your job specs off the back of these conversations. Take your potential hires on the journey with you.

Look into EMI and share schemes. You might not be able to offer a competitive salary right now but set a plan to hire people aligned with your startup culture. Shares are a great motivator and a way to ensure that everyone’s pulling in the same direction.

Outline what you want success to look like for your company, and when you speak to people, help them to establish what success looks like to them.

Planning for hiring is an important step that a lot of startup leaders skip. But thinking about a role before you jump straight into hiring will allow you to ease some of the pressure.

If you can look forwards and anticipate where your future needs might arise you can gradually build up a network of people to help shape and fill that role. A series of relaxed conversations can take the place of a frantic interview process.

Not every hire is risk-free- but learn from your mistakes and you can prevent it from happening again.

Look past CVs and big names- hire the best people for your team

It’s easy to skim read a CV and put your trust into a credible brand name.

But someone could have worked for Google, and you still won’t know what experience they gained.

Don’t make assumptions, ask questions.

• What did you do in the team?
• What surprised you?
• What was the biggest challenge you faced? And how did you overcome it?
• What would you do differently next time?

And remember the hiring process goes both ways.

The startup culture isn’t right for everyone- and you don’t want to scare people off, but the reality is that ‘working in a startup is like looking after a baby. It needs constant care and attention.’

If people are looking to make the transition to this style of role, they have to be able to deal with this culture. You don’t always have the same comfort blankets that big corporates have like an IT helpline or an HR department, you might not even have established policies yet.

So, you need to bring people on who are capable of self-serving. And maybe this will scare a few people off. But you should embrace this risk- after all, it’s better to scare them off now and avoid the rippling effects of a bad hire a few months down the line.

Sometimes transparency is hard. Especially if you don’t know the realities of what’s in store yourself.

And the likelihood is you’ll make a few hiring mistakes along the way. But understanding where you went wrong and adjusting your hiring plan to stop history repeating itself is all part of the learning curve.

‘Everybody wants to work in a startup because it’s deemed to be sexy. But it's hard work too.’

Don’t forget the value of in-person interactions in a remote world

Like many companies, ufurnish were plunged into the world of remote working at the start of the pandemic.

This was a sink or swim moment for Deirdre, who had just signed a lease on an office space for her team of 4.

But 2 years on, Deirdre has handed the keys back and her team of 22 work remotely from up and down the UK- with some employees even dialling in from Portugal.

Remote working opens doors, allowing you to get the best talent on the market, not just the best talent in a commutable distance from your office.

But in doing so, it removes a level of human interaction that doesn’t always come hand in hand with virtual catchups and remote calls.

This isn’t to say that it can’t, but you need to actively encourage those conversations to happen. Deirdre and her team recently met up in January- the first time they came together as a team, for 4 days of activities, team building, planning, and aligning their values.

‘You can’t replace the energy and the bonds that are built in the office.’  

There are grads joining remote teams now with no experience of a pre-covid workforce, no understanding of old-school office politics, and they’re working full-time from their childhood bedrooms.

Onboarding and incorporating these hires into your team is crucial. Deirdre encourages everyone to ask questions, remembering the first few years of her career where she would ask questions until she understood. And sometimes this would mean asking several people the same question to get a deeper understanding.

Create an environment where there’s no shame in not understanding something straight away.

The promise of flexibility may draw people into the startup and scaleup world, but don’t forget the value of in-person interactions.

Build your own network of business leaders and ask questions

Your network can be a great source of talent for your startup. But it can be much more than that.

You can get a lot of value out of a good support system. Reach out to founders in your network and ask questions.

People like helping people. It makes them feel good about themselves. You can learn a huge amount from your peers, and they can learn a lot from you.

'I’m learning how little I know now all the time.'

Everyone around you might be building successful businesses, but no one really knows what they’re doing. Learn from your collective mistakes- a quick video call might help you break down a barrier preventing your startup growth. And you might be able to solve a problem on their end.

So, next time you’re scrolling on LinkedIn and come across a post from a founder who’s shouting about their latest win, drop them a message.

We’d love you to be our next guest on our Scaleup Diaries series. If you’re a startup founder looking to share your story, contact Alan Furley at alan@isltalent.com to find out more.