Frameworks for Hiring

n the beginning though, the CEO has to recruit. No one cares like founders care: No one’s going to personalize emails or sell candidates in person like the founders will. And surely no one’s going to have as much credibility as the founder in selling. So if you’re the CEO, own the function initially, while building out a process so it can eventuall... See more

One of the biggest mistakes I see founders make is that they hire too quickly. Once their startup raises $1M+, they immediately want to recruit 8-10 people to look "official," when in reality they should be focused on the mechanics of finding product market fit.

I’ve recently liked asking these questions in interviews:-If you were me, what kind of candidate would you be looking for?-If you joined and this didn’t work out in 3 months, why do you think that would be?-What was your last boss like? How would they describe you?

You want to find opportunities for talent arbitrage: for example, find people who are excellent at their craft but struggle at self-presentation or public speaking. Others will write them off before seeing what they have to offer — and you get to harness them for their skill while either hiding or improving their weaknesses.

Of course, you’ll have to do cold-sourcing too. Have each hiring manager block 30min/day on their cal for 2 weeks, go on LinkedIn to identify 10 candidates to send outbound messages to. If you have great messaging you can expect 20% to be interested in a first call. Roughly 50% of the people you interview will convert into the pipeline, so you shou... See more

You want to find opportunities for talent arbitrage: for example, find people who are excellent at their craft but struggle at self-presentation or public speaking. Others will write them off before seeing what they have to offer — and you get to harness them for their skill while either hiding or improving their weaknesses.