Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook

Candidates who come in through referrals are more likely to be hired, more likely to last out the year, and more likely to succeed in performance reviews. Referral candidates are simply better candidates.

Hiring a perfect team means finding perfect fits along just two scales: you want people who are ideal for the work you want them to do, and ideal for the culture that you are building.

Third, give positive reinforcement for great referrals. On the first day when the new person starts, announce to the whole company who referred her and make a big deal of it.

This number will get you started. And if you remember the discussion from the previous chapter, you can now multiply this amount by 3–5x to get a ballpark of what kind of valuation you’ll probably see when you get a term sheet.

When hiring someone for a role you don’t understand, try before you buy: make the role a temporary one and use a series of short-term contracts until you get a sense of what you’re looking for.

We send the candidate a real job offer. It’s pegged to the 50th percentile (higher than half of salaries at companies our size for that position) and has a generous stock grant. Then we give a little speech. It goes like this: We think you’re a fantastic developer/marketer/glassblower, and we’re really excited to make you an offer. We do it a littl

Respond to all emails right away — at least, within one business day. At Ontela we went further and had 1-hour response times during business hours, and 10-hour turnaround outside business hours. Candidates loved it and it moved all our recruiting metrics forward.

I suggest a simple rule: no more than five interviews and two weeks once the candidate sets foot in the building.

It’s not always a negative experience; it can, in fact, be quite positive. That is, incidentally, why she prefers to call it a “phenomenon” instead of a “syndrome.” IP, she said, can do great things. Some individuals with IP use it to propel themselves to tremendous heights. Common symptoms of IP include perfectionism, a tendency to “overwork” — sp