Posts Tagged ‘hiring’
How to identify venture capital firms that may be hiring
It’s not always obvious which Venture Capital firms may be hiring.
In just 2 and 1/2 minutes I’ll show you how to find out. Check out the audio download here.
Hire the future startup stars
Experience is often over-rated. Some of the most successful startup teams consisted of people that lacked relevant experience at the time they joined. But, what they lacked in experience, they more than made up for in sheer talent and hunger. In the early days, hire athletes. People with raw talent and a propensity to get things done. Don’t be resistent to recruiting people that are early in their careers. You’re looking for arbitrage opportunities. You’re looking for the future stars — because you likely can’t afford or convince the current stars.
via Startup Lessons From 17 Hard-Hitting Quotes In “Moneyball”.
Powerset’s founder on cult creation i.e. hiring process
When you are building your team, be relentless, be a hiring monster and never let go of someone once you know you want them.
Lean hiring tips from Eric Ries of IMVU
Eric Ries is keeping a blog called Lessons Learned where he discusses the application of formal rigor and process to all parts of a startup. Today I missed my stop on the train because I was engrossed in his post about hiring. I thought that if the post was good enough for me to (almost) accidentally take the V train to Queens, then I should probably blog about it!
Eric spends a great deal of time in this post talking about when to hire (answer: when a bottleneck exists not when you’re annoyed that you’re doing 18 different jobs at once) as well as how to hire.
The latter is extremely important and an area in which many startups underestimate what it takes to recruit the best of the best.
For example, it’s not enough to post to a mailing list and say something to the effect of (and I see this all the time):
I’m a business person with a great idea set to turn the XYZ market on its head, looking for a tech cofounder to join for equity (read: no pay) and help us build a prototype which will then be used to help us pitch investors.
Besides the working for no pay thing, there is no attempt to convince the audience of tech people you’re hoping to recruit why you are going to lead the charge, attract investors, and help create a breakout company. There are so many business people looking for tech people that you need to go the extra mile…
You need to get out there and recruit.
Get on LinkedIn and identify the top people in the market you’re going after, find out how to get in touch with them, and pitch them on your idea. Get them excited about what you’re doing. Even if they’re not willing to join you, oftentimes they’ll be willing to help you connect with other individuals who could be helpful as well. And if they aren’t willing to come work for you and don’t seem particularly interested in helping, maybe you need to work on your pitch. Keep in mind that hiring (especially hiring people out of positions they’re comfortable in and that they like) is sales, plain and simple.
Your ability to recruit could impress potential investors. As an example, I recently met with a company where the founder (a 1st time entrepreneur) was able to recruit a very well-known individual to join his team. This person arguably was a perfect hire and a perfect match for the company’s mission. We didn’t end up investing in the business but this was one of the reason these guys got my attention.
In any case, take a peek at Eric’s blog post, it is well worth reading, especially if you’re building your core startup team.
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