founders, VC's, mentors and startup experts.
Last Tech Tuesday I wrote that the companies which do well on hiring engineers are the ones that "prioritize both hiring *and* having a great work environment." The post went on to talk about some of the best practices in hiring. Today's follow-up is about creating a great work environment for engineers. ...
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Via: Continuations
VC at http://usv.com |
Gabriel Weinberg is a serial entrepreneur (latest startup: DuckDuckGo), an insightful blogger, and quality contributor to Hacker News. He is writing a book on how startups get traction due out this summer that includes interviews with folks like Patrick McKenzie, Jimmy Wales, and Paul English to collect lessons learned from a variety of perspectives.I was delighted when he approached me to take pa ...
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Via: Sean Murphy
New Technology Product Introduction Focused on Early Custome |
Remember your first business loan? Or, if you're like many entrepreneurs, you may have initially bootstrapped your startup by buying some stuff on your credit card. You were excited and apprehensive: Excited because now you had the cash to invest in your business, apprehensive because you had just taken on a debt you would have to repay. ...
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Via: On Startups
Entrepreneur. Founder/CTO @HubSpot inbound marketing and st |
This new manager had to fire someone for the first time—and while she knew it would be hard, she couldn't have anticipated some of the challenges she'd face. Read on for three important lessons every manager should know. ...
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Via: Daily Muse
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A startup's first two hires. Once you raise money, the default action is usually to hire more programmers to build fast and experiment more. Unfortunately things won't move in the pace you expected it to. A lot of things fall into your plate. This leaves very little time to think about product ...
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Co-founder @hackerrank & @interviewstreet |
Our Partner Reid Hoffman posted a very thoughtful, relevant post today that all of the entrepreneurs that work with Greylock should read and think about. Since it covers the the delicate topic of Founder-CEO, it could ruffle a few feathers. Still, it's a discussion that should be had. ...
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Via: Greylock VC
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how to hire a tech guy if you're not techie yourself? Here are some of my additional thoughts from a techie point of view. ...
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Via: pragmatic startup
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Have you ever been on a project team with great people? I'm not talking about super-smart people, although they might have been some of those great people. I mean a project team where the team meshed. Where the team jelled, where the team knew how to work together. Now, I bet that team didn't magically jell on day one. But I bet that team had a lot in common from day one. That's called cultural fi ...
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Via: Johanna Rothman
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"Become indispenable to your employer." That's the advice I see from job training and professional coaches all the time. And I can empathize with why it exists. Many employers are not supporters of their teams, and treat human resources as, well, resources that just happen to be human. Hence, employees fight back by being the only person in the company who knows how to accomplish a critical task. ...
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Via: Rand's Blog
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If you're trying to attract awesome developers, you need to create an awesome candidate experience (CX). Something that makes them go "WOW!". It's like UX -- but for the people interviewing to join your team. ...
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Via: On Startups
Entrepreneur. Founder/CTO @HubSpot inbound marketing and st |
In the early days (less then 10 customers) of a startup, the founder typically is expected to do most all of the selling to get the early adopters. This helps solve the problem of understanding the customer's buying process which aids in hiring the right sales person for your startup. ...
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Via: Be a Force of Good
CEO in Residence, Microsoft Accelerator @msftaccelerator |
Call them hackers, 'ninjas', or 'rock stars' if you'd like. Other than being very talented developers, they all share one thing in common -- it's unbelievably hard to bring them on-board your company. And as if competing with other companies for the same talent was not enough, being a startup just adds more challenges to the equation. ...
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Via: On Startups
2X entrepreneur and co-founder at Takipi http://t.co/mCt1Lat |
Spoiler: You can't hire out sales because in the early days it's about learning, not selling, and hired guns can't bring back bad news. ...
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Via: The Startup Toolkit
Founder at http://dex.io (get more speaking gigs). I talk & |
Most job posts suck. Not because the founders didn't try. Not because the company and compensation are bad. They're just so damn uninspiring. When you're trying to hire, I think it's important to stop thinking like yourself. Most people don't. This is why the order in most 'job posts' is generally: 1. Description of the company 2. Requirements 3. Perks. ...
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Via: Jason Shah
product manager @yammer; creator @heatdata; learned some thi |
As entrepreneurs, we easily whip out our credit cards to pay for online courses to "fix" ourselves or our businesses, or we splurge on the latest software to stay current but. Suddenly, when it comes to actually hiring someone to help us, we get skeptical. The fact of the matter is that your company's biggest leaps are probably only going to happen when you free yourself--physically and emotionall ...
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I'm a Suitcase Entrepreneur addicted to travel, Frisbee & us |
One of the hardest lessons for an entrepreneur to grasp is to hire slow and fire fast. Every new entrepreneur thinks it won't be a problem. It sounds easy until they are faced with the situation. I have no idea how many people I've hired over my career, but I know how many peopl e I've fired - twenty-three. It's stressful on everyone. It never gets easier, but with more experience, the faster you ...
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Via: Under30CEO
I share info about start-ups, business, and entrepreneurshi |
I've done a lot of interviewing, hiring, and firing in my career. It's inevitable as you start to build your own companies, become a team leader, or move into management. I fully subscribe to the notion that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. ...
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Via: stu.mp
Co-founder of @sprintly, @attachmentsme, and @simplegeo. Cyc |
I'm TIRED of answering this question so I'd rather write it out and just point people to this post. After running AppSumo for over 2 years I've finally understood that Facebook made the right decision to let me go. ...
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hi* |
It take significantly longer for most companies to hire their first employee than it does to hire subsequent ones. Reasons ...
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Via: Eladgil
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This post is targeted at tech startups that are looking for an execution focused, front-line sales person. Filepicker.io is a good example of this kind of a company. This post is not about bringing on a business co-founder or hiring your first senior business person. ...
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Via: Swombat on Startups
Tech sales & biz. dev. enthusiast with an intimate knowledge |
As a founder of five startups, I've seen thousands of resumes and interviewed hundreds of applicants in search of talented employees. It's caused me to realize that it's not always easy for businesses to find the employees they're looking to hire or for job seekers to stand out in the application process. ...
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Via: David Hauser
Young Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of @grasshopper, @chargify, @ |
Confidence and programming ability are not correlated. If your job post requires a developer to evaluate their own skill, you're doing it wrong. We've written before about What developers think when you say "Rock Star", and we'd like to expand on the broader problem: companies often feel they need to state they only want the best. ...
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Via: Hirelite Blog
Developer & founder at http://ohours.org & http://hirelite.c |
Being acquired is one if the positive outcomes of starting a company, it means that some other - presumably larger - company agrees with the vision and the product created by the smaller entity and has decided to express this agreement with an offer that was substantial enough that the owners of the smaller company thought that it was good enough. ...
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Via: jacquesmattheij.com
techie, coder, troubleshooter (maker ;) ), outspoken, always |
If you are good enough to be that first employee, you are a very small step away from being a co-founder. You're an essential part of the mix, and that will substantially alter the chances of this start-up succeeding or failing, you are sharing in the risk and you should be compensated accordingly. ...
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Via: jacquesmattheij.com
techie, coder, troubleshooter (maker ;) ), outspoken, always |
Hiring technical talent is often cited as one of the most difficult parts of scaling a startup. Great companies are built by great teams so naturally, when it comes to technical talent, companies are competing harder than ever to entice the best of the best. The rationale you'll typically hear is along the lines of "a great developer is 10x as productive as a mediocre one." That might be true, but ...
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Via: On Startups
@flatironschool, founded @designerpages, Rubyist, Skillshare |
"Isn't it better to hire a person that has great potential to fill the job rather than bemoan the lack of candidates?" On my previous post, commenter David Bley asked that rhetorical question. More and more, employers are sharing this perspective. ...
A major criteria or a deciding factor for employee happiness is the people he/she is working with. High pay, bonuses, equity, benefits, etc are all just fuel to the car. The people in it should be great to actually enjoy the ride. Your employee will stay if she enjoys working with the people around. ...
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Co-founder @hackerrank & @interviewstreet |
A popular question I get on a regular basis is "what positions are you guys hiring for now?" Previously, I'd enumerate a small number of outstanding positions that were top of mind. Now, I say that we're opportunistically hiring for all major positions all the time. ...
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Via: David Cummings
10-20 tweets per week. Tech entrepreneur who enjoys family, |
"The difference between an A team and an A team is the difference between a million in revenue and a billion in revenue." - Paul English, Kayak According to Steve Jobs, "hiring the best is your most important task". ...
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CEO/co-founder of @skillshare, investor/advisor for @collabf |
This is the final post I am writing in this MBA Mondays post on People. Next week we will start with the guest posts and I've lined up about a half a dozen of them. I am going to finish... ...
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Via: AVC
I am a VC |
Hiring Employee #1. When is it time to hire your first employee? Who to look for? and How to go about it? ...
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Via: The Naive Optimist
I'm a Father, entrepreneur and lover of movies. Founder and |
I created an online persona named Pete London - a self-described JavaScript ninja - to help attract and hire the best JavaScript recruiters. While I never hired a recruiter from the experiment, I learned a ton about how to compete in today's Silicon Valley talent war. Based upon two years of non-scientific research, here's what you should know ...
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Via: Elaine Wherry
co-founder of meebo |
When hiring strangers, you first have to attract people. Figure out your strengths, internal and external. Do you use cool technologies in your startup? Highlight that. Does the job offer perks, even if it's a cool location or flexible schedule? Mention that. If you run ads, make the interesting and talk to people like you would face to face. Avoid jargon. ...
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Via: HackFwd Blog
We're experienced tech entrepreneurs looking to support and |
The first step is building a hiring roadmap which should lay out the hiring plan over time by job type. This should be built into your operating plan and budget. You want to be very strategic about how you invest your scarce resources into hiring and think carefully about when you need to add resources. ...
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Via: AVC
I am a VC |
This is the third post in the MBA Mondays series on People. The number of people you have in your company at any time is a very important part of getting the company building process right. Too many and you will slow things down, burn through too much cash, and increase management overhead for no real benefit. Too few and you will be resource constrained and unable to grow as fast as you'd like. ...
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Via: AVC
I am a VC |
One of the most vexing problems entrepreneurs face is where to find strong talent for their companies. The kind of people you want to hire for your company are in short supply and they are rarely out looking for a job. You have to go find them and recruit them to join your team. But where to look? ...
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Via: AVC
I am a VC |
At this point, it's probably not difficult to understand why MBAs carry little credibility in startup world. So why am I even asking the question? I think we have thrown the babies out with the bathwater. More specifically, we've thrown the outstanding talent out with the bad behavior of an old, irrelevant sub group. ...
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Via: Bhorowitz
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Starting a new technology company is exciting. Since the founders have their energies fully focused on new technologies and innovations that promise to change the world, there is little time left for them to think about creating the right culture for the company. Hence, more often than not, the company's culture takes after the styles and personalities of the founders. ...
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Via: Venture Beat
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Anyone looking to get a job in a startup learn about how to be effective at interviewing for a job. Feel free to weigh in if you have other "Stop, Don't, Nevers" or "Pleases" ...
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Via: Feld Thoughts
President & COO Gnip. Organizer of Startup CEO Lunch. Snow |
It's not enough to focus on vision and mission. If things are taking off then your team might stick around while the times are good. But if things go bad (and let's face it, they always do), your team will only stick around if you have aligned their passions and values with yours. In so doing, the opportunity cost equation will have them sticking around and making things right as part of your team ...
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Via: Mark MacLeod
Seed investor for SaaS, e-commerce and other awesome startup |
I've been invited to join as startup as employee #1. They're giving me a salary and an OK stock grant, but I want more stock. I have $95,000 saved from a previous exit. I don't need the money in savings because I've been making $150/hour as a consultant so my "plan B" is fine. Should I invest my $95k at a $1m valuation to bring my total stock allocation into the double-digits? Or should I keep th ...
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Via: A Smart Bear
Keyword, buzzword, half-truth, adjective, hey look at me! |
Your company culture is the foundation on which everything you do rests. Your culture acts as an unwritten set of rules that drives behavior and cohesion across the company. Cohesive, insular cultures are more resilient and can withstand shocks to it (e.g. pivoting multiple times) as well as can be extremely motivational / draw out the best in people ...
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Via: Eladgil
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Companies change. Products evolve. Approaches get thrown out the window. The centrifugal force alone of that kind of rapid development is enough to throw anyone off center. Throughout my experience, one guiding rule on team building in fast-moving companies has emerged: hire people, not skills. ...
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Via: David Cancel
Entrepreneur. Chief Product Officer at @HubSpot. Previously |
Most companies don't have a serious, repeatable interviewing process for hiring. Instead they wing it, bringing people in for interviews, asking a few questions, turning it into a fireside chat, and then hoping for the best. In my experience that's not good enough. At Standout Jobs (2007-2010) we hired some great people. I still consider them friends today, but more importantly they’ve all gon ...
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Via: Instigator Blog
VP Product @GoInstant. Partner @YearOneLabs. Ex-CEO/Founder |
Hiring your first employee is a huge step for your start-up—and a hugely important one. So how do you pick the right person to help take your company to the next level? ...
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Via: Daily Muse
Building @ReWorkJobs: Helping talented professionals find me |
I have nothing against hiring for the right reason--when it is clear that doing so will advance critical path quicker and/or with higher probability. When that's clear I've extolled (and am practicing) inbound hiring; when it isn't clear I think the right answer is not hiring until it is clear. ...
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Via: Gabriel Weinberg
Founder, DuckDuckGo. Angel investor. Family guy. |
Strong corporate culture starts from the top with the co-founders. If the co-founders don’t emphasize corporate culture it'll take on a life of its own, even more so than it already does. As the company grows, middle management will drive corporate culture if it isn't pushed from the top, and the outcome can be fine ...
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Via: David Cummings
10-20 tweets per week. Tech entrepreneur who enjoys family, |
I've been developing software since age 12. Building great product teams has become second nature to me. So when a friend of mine yesterday at Facebook and another friend last week at Salesforce asked me how I put teams together, I had to think hard about the answer. ...
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Via: vcdave
Investor, operator, and entrepreneur |
Sean Ellis had an interesting model as an outsourced VP, Marketing. He would join full time but be focused on the initial phases. Once a product was launched and an initial user base built, he would hire his replacement and move on. I like that for core areas like product and marketing. ...
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Via: Mark MacLeod
Seed investor for SaaS, e-commerce and other awesome startup |
I think hiring Engineers is harder. I personally had to go through the Gnomes problem while at Plaxo and logic problems while interviewing for an internship at Goldman (wth was I thinking), and I hated every minute of it. So, now I take a more practical approach. When I interview engineers, I get in front of a white board and ask the person to build me a link-shortening service with APIs. ...
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Via: TK's weblog
I make simple software that helps people communicate better. |
How many times have you heard this from a potential recruit or student looking for a job at a startup? It's scary that people think that will work or that that's an actual job. The other one I hear a lot is "I want to do strategic partnerships" or "I want to manage projects". ...
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Via: Nat Turner
Co-founder of Flatiron Health. Previously Co-Founder/CEO of |
There's no magic bullet for hiring programmers. But I can share advice on a few techniques that I've seen work, that I've written about here and personally tried out over the years. ...
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Via: Coding Horror
Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of http://stackoverflow.com an |
I have the benefit of seeing lots of startups pitch their teams and watching many seed-funded companies establish their early org structures. I've found that there are certain types of orgs and titles that I have a naturally visceral reaction towards. For example: - Having any more "C's" than the CEO and CTO. ...
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Via: Robgo.org
Cofounder of NextView Ventures. Founding advisor at Boundle |
Your startup finally has the financial resources to expand the team. That's both awesome, and dangerous. So here is one more filter for you to think about as you evaluate each candidate: Is your company "pre" product-market fit, or "post"? (I'm not talking about your pitch to VCs but your own honest assessment) ...
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Via: Giff Constable
MD at Neo in New York; maker, designer, entrepreneur, and ag |
While in the midst of raising capital, you should also be recruiting top talent. That’s precisely the right time to start attracting people to the company. You’re building momentum for funding, in an effort to attract investors. You’re going after press attention, growing your network, bringing on advisors ...
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Via: Instigator Blog
VP Product @GoInstant. Partner @YearOneLabs. Ex-CEO/Founder |
So you start your business, and you get it going, and growing. If you have employees, it's likely you’re going to have to deal with firing somebody. Here are my some of my thoughts (based on actual experience; not theoretical) on that subject. Having to fire somebody who's been trying hard and failing... ...
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Via: Tim Berry
Founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software; entrepreneur, bu |
Most exits today are MnAs instead of IPOs and most M ...
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Via: Forbes
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Recently a team member was lamenting about how long it was taking us to fill a position. We had interviewed a number of qualified candidates, some even getting to the final stage of the process. Internally, I had to keep reiterating that these candidates were very strong but not perfect for us. Frustrating? Yes. The [...] ...
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Via: David Cummings
10-20 tweets per week. Tech entrepreneur who enjoys family, |
The following is a guest post from John Greathouse. John is an entrepreneur and investor. He currently blogs at Infochachkie where he provides practical startup advice. You may not realize it, but your adVenture's Core Team, the senior executives who make the key decisions which drive the company's strategic direction, is akin to a primitive tribe. Primitive tribes an ...
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Via: On Startups
Entrepreneur. Founder/CTO @HubSpot inbound marketing and st |
A couple of weeks ago, David Crow had a post in StartupNorth about the importance and challenging that startups face when it comes to hiring. The post came to mind during a conversation with a startup entrepreneur looking to aggressively hire. A key point was how hiring has to be seen as a strategic rather [...] ...
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Via: Mark Evans Tech
Startup marketer, conference organizer, hockey player, dad, |
Talent in Companies There used to be a long-term economic and psychological pact between employee and employer that guaranteed lifetime employment in exchange for lifelong loyalty; this pact has been replaced by a performance-based, short-term contract that’s perpetually up for … Continue reading → ...
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Via: Ben Casnocha
Entrepreneur & Author |
Every startup with any traction quickly reaches a point where they need to hire employees to grow the business. Unfortunately, this always happens when pressures are the highest, and business processes are ill-defined. At this point you need superstars and versatile future executives, yet your in-house hiring processes and focus are at their weakest. The result is a host of hiring mistakes that s ...
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Veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech pro |
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