We did a lot of things right in the early days of Cleartrip, albeit, serendipitously. The team that was forged in the fires of hashtag#startup mountain was something magical.

We had the honour of hearing John Doerr himself speak in our Mahalaxmi office. I clearly remember his advice:

“Hire only A people. A people hire A/A+ people. B people hire C people”

“Hire missionaries not mercenaries”

We hired the crazies. The curious. The deeply interested. People who were willing to take the leap of faith. People who believed.

The missionaries

Leave the HR out of this - they are not designed to hire a startup tech team.

Startup teams are built on mutual trust. Everyone must feel comfortable giving and receiving honest feedback, discussing mistakes, and showing vulnerability without fear. They must be able to freely challenge each other to do better.

Only in such an environment can they give their true best. In a manner early startup teams are software commandos.

An open forum. We debated and debated problems and challenges. We questioned everything.

This helped the team to rapidly evolve and mature. The team grew close, worked cohesively and supported each other.

We were all collectively responsible for outcomes.

We acknowledged contributions and celebrated achievements.

Optimize for the team. Do not overly celebrate or reward individuals.

Give autonomy. Ask for accountability in return.

Spend large efforts on mentoring. We all need to learn. Give time to learn.

Dont introduce enterprise process or add unnecessary red tape.

Georges Harik - an early Google employee - once visited us. When our Product team asked what tools they used for project management he simply replied: “post-it notes”. These were the early days at Google but a lot of exciting products like Orkut, Gmail were being developed.

The shorter and faster the feedback loop the better

Small autonomous teams of 3-4 “pizza teams” work best to solve focused problems.

To go the distance the team needs a clear vision and mission.

For us Hrush Bhatt, Stuart and Sandeep Murthy were always accessible. They spent a lot of time with us - we were all a team. Hrush, especially, was our mentor and leader and was always in the trenches with us.

Leadership matters. Critically. Dont hide in the cabin or behind big words. Roll up those sleeves and dig with the team.

A lot is changing around us. New tools. New capabilities. In all this chaos, the ones who will win, who will succeed in the long term, will be the ones with the strongest teams.