Advice::How To Know You've Hired A Killer Team

Basically, you need people who do their jobs as if the life of the company were on the line.
Why?
Because the life of the company is on the line. Every day. The day you forget that is the day you'll be headed for the scrap heap.
Many talented folks from big companies are seduced by the idea of startup life…right up until the time they actually start working for one. Then they realize that the company depends on them in a way that a larger company never will, and they find the responsibility (and workload) overwhelming.
A great startup executive, meanwhile, wants to carry the fate of the company in his or her hands.
You need to find the latter folks. And you’ll find them, in part, though trial and error. Interviewing and reference-checking helps, but you won’t know for sure that you’ve hired a winner until they hit the ground and start sprinting.
via How To Know You’ve Hired A Killer Team.

I’d like to work in a startup again, hope the second time would be better for me.  Generalizing this advice is useful for Non-Profits, Non Governmental Organization, Government Workers, etc.  Give me a group and we can use this to determine if you have a killer team. It’s very simple if you think about it. I feel that in most projects you just need one uber mind and the rest just helps in assembling, or making the vision work. I believe this is how Apple operates and in a sense how many open source projects work, with their BDFL.
I love this quote from The West Wing:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”