A panel from MIT's course 15.393, Nuts and Bolts of New Ventures, taught in January 2025. Instructors Vivian Vitale, Michele Bonenfant, and Kim Crowley lead a discussion on building and holding together the team behind a new venture, covering the practical people problems founders run into as a company grows: hiring decisions, defining roles, managing co-founder relationships, and keeping a small staff aligned as the business scales. Drawing on their own experience advising and running startups, the panelists work through concrete scenarios rather than abstract management theory, treating personnel issues as one of the make-or-break factors in early-stage companies alongside product and funding. The session runs 85 minutes and is part of MIT's hands-on entrepreneurship curriculum, aimed at students who are actually building or planning to build a company rather than studying business in the abstract.