How to hire

How to convince people to join your startup

I actually researched and covered this in a previous issue, so go read that post. Here’s the high-level summary of what you need to get right:

1. Captivating vision —Make it easy for candidates to visualize what you are building toward and to feel like their work will be meaningful.


2. A++ early team —The best

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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.

It’s also important to think about what you’re well-suited for. This is hard to do with pure introspection; ideally you can ask a mentor or some people you’ve worked with what you’re particularly good at. I’ve come to believe that founder/company fit is as important as product/market fit.

Taking the time to make sure that every hire early on is the right person and the right fit, the right combination of courage, brains, and heart is incredibly important. I've always been very focused on that. The mistakes you ask about. I guess my advice to entrepreneurs out there, and I guess any businessperson honestly, is that it takes some expe... See more