A Guide to Hiring for your Startup

A guide to

HIRING

FOR YOUR

STARTUPYevgeniy Brikman

What is the most important

part of a startup?

a) The idea

b) The technology

c) The sales and marketing

a) The idea

b) The technology

c) The sales and marketing

People are the most

important part of a startup

Differences between

people are massive

Therefore, hiring is the most

important thing you do

Best piece of startup

hiring advice:

Don’t do it

Don’t do it

(yet)

Stay small as

long as you

can

Build a culture

of leverage and

efficiency

Eventually, you’ll

need help

Founders spend >25% of

their time on hiring

You must spend this

time wisely

I’m

Yevgeniy

Brikman

ybrikman.com

I wrote

a book

about

startups

hello-startup.net

based on my

experiences at

LinkedIn &

TripAdvisor

hello-startup.net

as well as

interviews with

developers from

many startups:

hello-startup.net

Google, Twitter,

Facebook, Stripe,

Pinterest, Quora,

Coursera, GitHub,

and many others.

hello-startup.net

Here’s what I

learned about hiring

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interview

1. Who to hirea. Co-founders

b. Early hires

c. Later hires

d. What to look for

2. Where to look

3.How to interview

1. Who to hirea. Co-founders

b. Early hires

c. Later hires

d. What to look for

2. Where to look

3.How to interview

You need a co-founder

to fill in your weaknesses

to talk you out of bad ideas

to share the work load

Two or three founders

works best

Building a successful

startup takes 10 years

So be careful when

picking a co-founder

Look for someone

you’ve worked with before

College classmates &

former co-workers are ideal

Split the equity evenly

Make sure everyone

is on a vesting schedule

Remember, a successful

startup takes 10 years

You need everyone to be

bought in for the long term

1. Who to hirea. Co-founders

b. Early hires

c. Later hires

d. What to look for

2. Where to look

3.How to interview

Early hires are

like bringing

new DNA into

your company

Choose the first

10 employees

very carefully...

...as they

determine the

next 100

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky

would ask early candidates:

“If you had a year left to live,

would you take this job?”

Early on,

prefer

generalists

In the early

days,

everyone

has to do

everything

“You don't want

someone

saying

that's not

my job”

- Julia Grace

1. Who to hirea. Co-founders

b. Early hires

c. Later hires

d. What to look for

2. Where to look

3.How to interview

Later stage startups

can hire more specialists

Prefer “T-shaped People”

Experts at one discipline (vertical leg of T)

Broadly skilled at others (horizontal leg of T)

1. Who to hirea. Co-founders

b. Early hires

c. Later hires

d. What to look for

2. Where to look

3.How to interview

Smart and

gets things

done

Smart

because you

constantly

have to

learn

Gets things

done

because you

must ship

Good communication skills

Can you converse with them?

Can you understand their

writing?

Can they explain

complicated concepts?

A good culture fit

Similar tastes & appearance

is NOT culture fit

It’s discrimination

Real culture fit is

about shared values

E.g. at Zappos, providing amazing

customer service is a core value

Everyone who is hired

answers customer calls

That’s culture fit.

1. Who to hire

2. Where to looka. Use your network

b. Employer branding

c. Job boards

d. Premature optimization

3.How to interview

1. Who to hire

2. Where to looka. Use your network

b. Employer branding

c. Job boards

d. Premature optimization

3.How to interview

The majority

of startup

hiring is via

referrals

Referrals

fill jobs

faster

Referrals

have the

highest

retention

rate

Referrals

are the

highest

quality hires

1. Who to hire

2. Where to looka. Use your network

b. Employer branding

c. Job boards

d. Premature optimization

3.How to interview

Employer

branding is

attracting

candidates

to your

company

You do this by

sharing

valuable

content and

teaching

Blogs,

meetups,

hackathons,

conferences,

open source,

etc

1. Who to hire

2. Where to looka. Use your network

b. Employer branding

c. Job boards

d. Premature optimization

3.How to interview

No one likes job postings

“Results oriented”

“Has at least 12 years of iOS

experience”

Only active job seekers look

at job postings

If you just

“post and

pray”, you

only reach

1 out of 5

candidates

If you’re going to post jobs,

get creative

And post

them in

the right

places

Better yet, reach

out to candidates directly

1. Who to hire

2. Where to looka. Use your network

b. Employer branding

c. Job boards

d. Premature optimization

3.How to interview

Old joke:

the boss

takes half

the resumes,

throws them

in the trash

and says...

“I don’t

hire

unlucky

people.”

You’re

throwing

away

resumes

if you:

reject

someone

for typos

in their

resume

reject

someone

for not

having a

particular

degree or GPA

reject

someone

for not being

a “bro” or

a “ninja”

Instead of

looking for

reasons to

reject a resume...

“Look for

something

that shines”

- Gayle

Laakmann

McDowell

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interviewa. Interviewing is hard

b. Basic interview process

c. Interview questions

d. Making an offer

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interviewa. Interviewing is hard

b. Basic interview process

c. Interview questions

d. Making an offer

You get an hour to make a

decision that lasts for years

1970’s orchestras:

5% of members are female

1990’s orchestras:

35% of members are female

The difference?

Blind auditions.

Interviewers will be wrong.

Err on the side of no.

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interviewa. Interviewing is hard

b. Basic interview process

c. Interview questions

d. Making an offer

Step 1: connect

Email, phone, in-person.

Get them interested.

Step 2: phone screen

On-site interviews

are expensive

Use a phone

screen as a filter

Step 3: on-site interview

Aim for 4-8 interviewers,

each with a different focus:

communication, culture fit,

job-specific skills, closer.

Don’t confuse

interviews with

interrogations

Your goal is

learning, not a

confession.

Make sure the

interviewers

are good

representatives

of your company

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interviewa. Interviewing is hard

b. Basic interview process

c. Interview questions

d. Making an offer

Puzzles and

brain teasers

are terrible

interview

questions

Whiteboard

coding is a

terrible

interview

practice

There are much

better

alternatives

Work on real-

world problems

(GitHub,

Jawbone)

Give a talk

(Peopleware)

Take home

problems

(Pinterest)

BYOL: Bring

Your Own

Laptop

(Coursera)

Go through a

real workday

(Typesafe)

1. Who to hire

2. Where to look

3. How to interviewa. Interviewing is hard

b. Basic interview process

c. Interview questions

d. Making an offer

First, check references

What has this person

accomplished?

What was it like working with

this person?

If the

reference checks are good,

make the offer personally

Then follow up in writing

An offer has

four parts

Part 1:

the

opportunity

There's work and there's your life's work.

The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind

of work that you'd never compromise on. That you'd sacrifice a

weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People

don't come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the

deep end.

They want their work to add up to something.

Something big. Something that couldn't happen anywhere else.

Welcome to Apple.

Part 2: the salary

Be fair and transparent

Use a formulahello-startup.net/resources/salary/

Salary = (job type x seniority x experience) +

(location + salary choice)

Seniority Salary

Executive $150,000

Senior $125,000

Junior $100,000

Use a tablehello-startup.net/resources/salary/

Part 3: the equity

Be fair and transparent

Equity = (i - 1) / i

Use a formulahello-startup.net/resources/equity/

Employee Equity

Hire #1 2-3%

Hire #2 - 5 1-2%

Hire #6 - 15 0.5-1%

Use a tablehello-startup.net/resources/equity/

Part 4:

the benefits

Listen to

the candidate

$1 in benefits can be worth a

lot more than $1 in salary

Time off,

classes,

outings,

commute,

hackathons,

remote work, etc.

Recap

People are the most

important part of a startup

Founders spend >25%

of their time on hiring

Use your

network

Build a

strong brand

Be thoughtful

about how

you interview

Make an offer

they can’t refuse

Check out

Hello, Startup

for more info

hello-startup.net

Questions?

Slide 1, Road: Bec Brown

Slide 2, Business plan: Heisenberg Media

Slide 5, People: Heisenberg Media

Slide 8, Four buildings: Davide Ragus

Slide 11, Ant: US Dept of Argriculture

Slide 13, Helping Hand: Tomas Sobek

Slide 21, Handshake: Flazingo Photos

Slide 22, Road: Joshua Tree National Park

Slide 25, Jobs & Wozniak: Revol Web

Slide 29, Schmidt, Brin, Page: Joi Ito

Slide 32, Classmates, Travis Rigel Lukas Hornung

Slide 34, Scale: Bob Miller

Slide 39, DNA: EnzymLogic

Slide 42, Brian Chesky: Official Le Web Photos

Slide 44, Swiss Army Knife: Wikimedia

Slide 48, Tools: Lachland Donald

Slide 49, T-shaped person: Valve

Slide 53, Brain: Allan Ajifo

Slide 56, Tin Cans: Sebastien Wierz

Slide 60, Scrabble value: Got Credit

Slide 69, InMap: Ali Imam

Slide 74, Honey: Thien Gretchen

Slide 78, Flyers: Joel Kramer

Slide 82, Passive candidates: LinkedIn

Slide 83, Billboard: Google Blog

Slide 87, Trash can: Sebastien Wiertz

Slide 97, Office interview: Weltbild Verlag GmbH

Slide 103, Keyboard typing: iloque

Slide 105, Phone call: NEC Corporation of America

Slide 108, Office: Robert Couse-Baker

Slide 111, Chair: Paul Kehrer

Slide 115, Puzzle question mark: Horia Varlan

Slide 116, Whiteboard: Doc Searls

Slide 117, Light bulb: R. Nial Bradshaw

Slide 124, Reference call: Martin Cathrae

Slide 129, Letter: Bearstache

Slide 132, Money: Ervins Strauhmanis

Slide 136, Stock certificate: Wystan

Slide 140, Ear: Travis Isaacs

Slide 152, Questions: Derek Bridges

Photo credits