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Hooray! You business has product market fit. Customers are purchasing, telling their friends, and coming back for more! This is a huge milestone for all young companies, but it leaves many wondering âwhatâs next?â
The answerâŠ. Hiring.
Now, if youâre a first time entrepreneur, hiring can be a nasty and sneaky job. Itâs riddled with tricks and traps that can cripple your company at any step. Luckily, Iâve made nearly every mistake along the way and Iâm writing this post to help other founders stay clear.
To avoid past mistakes, I built a small, but important set of simple rules.
1.) Always Hire for Values (i.e. culture)
This is the most important rule. If you donât hire someone with similar values to the organization, it will not work out. And, when youâre just starting your company, you canât afford to have a bad hire because it will cripple your growth.
So, now youâre probably wonderingâŠ.how can I hire for values?
Itâs not that hard, but you need to do some heavy lifting up front. For example, you cannot hire for values if you have none. The first step is to write your values down. This is the holy bible of your organization – it shows what you believe, what you stand for, and sets the precedent for all future behavior.
After youâve written down your values, you must become skilled at identifying the values of others. This isnât easy either. So letâs break it down into two parts. First, you need to study the person’s past history, what were they doing? Trying to make a quick buck or trying to help the world? After youâve done your homework, youâll need to learn a bit more. This part is tricky because it relies on your ability to ask good questions. Youâll need to know what motivates them. Are they financially driven or value driven? Are they willing to make sacrifices? Why do they want this job?
If you clearly understand your values and know a thing or two about asking good questions, thereâs a good chance youâll find someone who aligns with your company culture.
2.) Always Hire People more Knowledgeable than You
Any first-time founder will tell you, there is a never-ending black hole of information youâre expected to know. And, not like âoh yeah, Iâve heard that beforeâ, you need to be like âI understand the ins and outs, the tradeoffs and everything in between like the back of my handâ.
This is clearly impossible to do by yourself, so instead focus on your strengths and hire people with expertise to fill in the gaps. This will help you make massive leaps in your business, rather than small steps. It will also save you time and money. Youâll spend less time learning and more time executing.
Note, if you canât pay competitively, you need to make more money before hiring them, donât try to skimp people on salary.
3.) Prioritize Hires to Drive Revenue and Fundraising, then support these.
In the end, businesses are run on cash and if you donât have any, youâre finished. Out of Business. Caput! If you want to survive and thrive, you need to sell (or grow)….fast. For every business Iâve worked in, weâve prioritized our first hires around bringing in revenue and then building operations around the revenue.
Look at it this way, itâs easy to hire an operations person when youâre making a lot of money. Itâs hard to hire anyone when you have none coming in.
4.) Do not compromise
Maybe you think this is obvious. You say âIâll never do thisâ, but most of you will. Youâll post a âcompellingâ job description on your companies Facebook, LinkedIn, and Angel.co pages and a few people will apply. Youâll look through your measly list of applicants and hire one hoping theyâll work out.
If this has been you, Iâve been there too and it may be okay in the beginning, but as you grow and learn more, itâll get bad. That âhopeâ you had in them earlier will turn to doubt. Evil thoughts will creep into your mind⊠Is this person really perfect for our company? Could we have found someone better if weâd interviewed more people? And on, and on.
So, whatâs the trick?
Do the work. Review 100+ resumes, interview at least 20 people over the phone, and 5-10 in person. Then, decide. If youâve followed steps 1-3, thereâs a good chance youâll have hired the right person.
Important Caveat to this whole piece – no matter how long or perfect you thought a candidate was, not everyone works out. Give them everything they need to succeed and if they cannot, cut the cord.