Team Building and Work Culture with Andrei Papancea, CEO and Chief Product Officer at NLX
Joining us this week to explore this topic is Andrei Papancea, CEO and Chief Product Officer at NLX. NLX is a conversational artificial intelligence platform that creates automated, personalized, and multimodal customer self-service experiences without coding. Andrei is an adjunct professor at the University of Colombia, where he shares his knowledge of AI engineering, cloud computing, and big data use.
Start-ups cannot function and grow on the enthusiasm and hard work of just one person, it takes a team of committed professionals to create a healthy corporate culture and drive expansion.
To keep your team's curiosity and competitive spirit alive, you need a work environment that fosters success and advancement.
In this episode of The Gradience Podcast, Nigel is joined by Andrei Papancea.
They cover:
π [ 00:11:05 ] When putting together your team, itβs important to ensure that they are people who want to do meaningful and intellectually engaging work and not people who just want a job
π [ 00:14:00 ] Your startup's culture will determine if people will stay with you or end up leaving
π [ 00:15:35 ] There are three reasons people leave companies or switch jobs:
- They are not being paid well enough
- Their job is not intellectually stimulating
- They are not being respected
π [ 00:16:11 ] Complicating the onboarding process does not help anyone but makes things difficult
π [ 00:19:40 ] Maintaining your work culture after scaling starts with hiring someone who aligns with your company's values.
π [ 00:20:30 ] Don't hire people who are not culturally fit for your company, no matter how intelligent they might be or how many skills and references they may have.
π [ 00:21:50 ] Hire people with the potential and hunger for growth, even if they are still novices in the role you're hiring for, because they will spend time researching and ensure they do things right.
π [ 00:24:50 ] "We got to a stage where we needed more people with different skills. When it was just the four of us, myself, Vlad, Peter, and Doug, we made a Google sheet and listed out the various things we were working on, the responsibilities, and the things we should keep doing ourselves.
π [ 00:26:50 ] Do not overhire in advance; only hire when you are ready and have enough resources.
π [ 00:29:10 ] Be patient, stay true to your values, and trust your intuition.
π [ 00:31:41 ] "When people provide advice, you don't always have to take it. Filter through as much advice as possible and then make your own decision."
If youβre interested in gaining insights into building a team that trusts you and is committed to your company's success from someone who's done just that, tune in to this episode of The Gradience Podcast, a Podcast by Build Talent.
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About the Show
βThe Gradienceβ is a podcast by Build Talent & hosted by Nigel Robinson, wherein each episode, weβll be speaking with a founder or expert as we discuss the art & science of hiring leaders, why it matters, and how you can keep up.