Many startups that I'm
advising, invested in or otherwise involved in, including my own startup,
HubSpot, are hiring. This is a good sign (generally), because growth is usually
a sign of success -- or at least optimism.
As I've written before,
hiring for a startup is hard. Of all the things startups need to do, finding
exceptionally talented people that are a good "fit" is likely the
hardest.
I've had several meetings
in the last couple of weeks with potential recruits. Interestingly, I find that
it's usually easy to tell when I'm impressed with someone and think the
opportunity is worth exploring further. What's harder to figure out is
why. So, I gave this some thought and thought about the attributes of
some of these recent conversations that signalled to me that I might have a
winner.
6 Subtle Signs Your
Startup Recruit Might Be A Winner
1. Strong
Opinions, Well Defended: Just about all of the great people I've ever
recruited in my professional career have had opinions. Strong opinions. But,
it's not enough just to have a strong opinion (lots of people have those). I
like to see people that have strong opinions that are good at explaining
why they hold those opinions and defend them well. On the other hand,
people with strong opinions that are weakly defended are not interesting --
they're just stubborn or inarticulate.
2. Intersecting
Disciplines: My favorite conversations with recruits (I don't really
do interviews, I have conversations), are those where we can talk about things
other than startups and software development, but still find these conversations
somehow "intersecting" (or converging) on some common passions. I had dinner
last night with someone I met for the first time. Here are some of the things
that came up during the course of the dinner conversation: quantum mechanics,
degrees in history vs. economics, the quadratic equation and how much math we
actually remember, Flex and Silverlight, why Lisp doesn't really provide the
startup advantage any more that Paul Graham might think it does, San Diego, the
issue with lack of UI abstractions for client-side development, YUI, C# and
LINQ. (That's just what I can remember). The point is, lots of interesting
things happen when non-software discussions intersect software
discussions.
3. Doesn't Feel
Like Either Party Is Selling Too Hard: One thing I hate about
"classic" hiring is that it feels too transactional where one or the other side
is selling. My best recruitment efforts were more explorations were neither
side was really "selling" and instead the discussion was more collaborative. If
you find yourself having to sell too hard, there's something wrong. If you find
that you are being sold to too hard, there's something
wrong.
4. You Learn
Something You Can Use: For the technical part of the discussion, a
good sign that you might have a good recruit on your hands is if you actually,
truly learn something that you can use. It's amazing how many meetings
you can have with people that have been working in software for a while, and you
don't really learn anything.
5. Proclivity For
Change: Thinking back on my history, there's a disproportionate number
of people I've recruited, that worked out really well, that were
already looking to make a big change in their lives. I'm not talking
about job hoppers, but those that are simply not satisified with the status quo
and are looking shake things up a bit. This signals to me folks that have some
risk tolerance, don't need to have everything all figured out and are basically
willing to "experiment". Startups, as it turns out, are a series of
experiments. She that can experiment the most often and the most efficiently,
wins.
6. A Palpatable
Absence Of The Temptation To Run Screaming: There are often times when
you figure out in the first 10-15 minutes of conversation that the likelihood
the person you are talking to is going to work out. That happens The right (in
a business sense and a politeness sense) to do is to not pass judgement too
early because. They've spent the time to meet with you, you saw something there
that warranted the meeting. Make the most of it. But, there are times
when you not only want the meeting to be over, but you want to run screaming.
For those wondering where the sub-title for this bullet came from, I have to
give a head nod to Douglas Adams: "...the ships float in the air the way that
bricks don't..."
Apologies if this
particular thread of reasoning is a bit disjointed. I was up until 4:00 a.m. in
the morning last night working on stuff and I'm not feeling energetic enough to
actually weave a well-constructed article. That's the great thing about
blogging. I don't have to.
Let me know if you have any
signs or signals of your own that you've found are highly correleated with
exceptional talent.