Maybe a better title for this post is : How start-up companies should hire.
Great post and great comments at Seth Levine’s blog, and here are some quotes:
Aim high. In the fast paced world of start-ups there’s a natural tendency to need to get everything done yesterday – including that latest hire. As a result, it’s pretty easy to convince yourself that someone is “good enough” or “better than not having anyone”. Not true. Don’t settle in your hiring. It’s better to delay a product/release/market launch to find the right person for the job than to hire low and suffer the consequences. A bad team member brings the productivity of the entire team down.
and from the comments:
you bring up a good point around sales, shane. i think a lot of companies assume that if they are selling enterprise software the best sales people they can hire are ex-Oracle or SAP or something similar. that sort of strategy almost never works out. selling at a start-up is just different than selling from a mid tier or large company. often i’ve found that the better strategy is to hire a solid and scrappy vp and then fill in with less experienced, but bright and hungry sales people who are more likely to both work harder as well as to stick to the program (sell the way you want them to sell). i’ve had some companies (not just in enterprise software but will all varieties of products) that they best sales people they hire are the ones with the least experience but with the highest energy and drive. i think the idea isn’t to upgrade later – but to build up a strong force yourself. thoughts?
