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
(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
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.
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
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