Hiring people who are the right fit will be the number one challenge – not fundraising.

Fundraising is critical, but this isn’t what’s slowed us down.

There is no shortage of literature on why startups fail, and building the team is very often the top reason. I’ve pondered this one a?lot and?am by no means an expert in hiring or finding the right talent.

Firstly – as mentioned in previous posts, I interviewed about 20 founder friends and this survey agrees that building a team is harder than fundraising and sales! Among the group, when asked to rate fundraising and hiring on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the hardest), the former got a 6 and hiring got a 7.

Hiring. Is. So. Damn. Hard.

You want someone that is mission aligned, that you get on well with, that wants to (and can) work long hours, that is okay with a startup-range salary, that is whip-smart but humble and chill, that can not only think strategically, but also get their hands dirty and do a dog-kennel’s-worth of shit jobs as well. Not to mention, we (the smaller startups) have to compete for the right talents with the big startups and giant tech companies, who have a lot of cash, allowing them to offer the same culture and opportunities for innovation, with more perks.

?Oh, and then if you make a mistake… Our VC once said to me: “This creates two problems from one - you get someone and think you’ve sorted your hiring problem, only to be left still having to manage them and that area of the business, and often getting a junk execution and no outputs/outcomes as well.” Beyond the financial aspects, there is an impact on your time (the most important asset!), team energy, business goals, and wider partnerships, to name a few. I’d say I hypothetically wasted two years of progress in some business areas.

What has worked for us then? I wish I knew the right answers, it’s hard.. But looking back,?here are five lessons I’m now trying to follow.

Networking is good for sales, AND hiring.

Get people to bring and introduce their friends. Similar to sales, in which referrals from customers is the holy grail, and paid advertising is expensive with low-conversion, recruiting is the same. Work through your own network and also your teams’ as the number one channel at smaller scale.

Open hiring often doesn’t work, but sometimes you just have no choice.

You get fresh grads applying for CTO roles. You receive 100 CVs and 97% or more usually don’t match. There is a huge?amount?of unknown (motivation for joining, salary expectation, and general ‘fit’ with you and the company). They might have a great CV, but so often don’t align with one reason or another. It’s a huge time sink with limited pre-validation or endorsements. (And if building a team is not too different from finding a life partner), I’d prefer to find my future wife through an intro from a friend versus endless swiping on Tinder, but sometimes it might be the only option. Recruiters often suck, and it’s just a big and time-consuming task you have to buckle in for

Have trial periods to test the water.?Have clear milestones agreed with the new hires.

Don’t be afraid to trial people. A candidate might look good on paper but most of the time, you only find out if it’s a good fit when the rubber hits the road. This is especially true for senior hires, especially if taking on a critical area of the business – such as shipping out the product, or getting the sales flowing.

Think about the strengths you really, really need.

Don’t just look at the fancy CVs. Hire people with the specific skillsets to solve the problems you currently have. Experience doesn’t equate good problem-solving skills. Big corporate successes often struggle in startup environment, so ‘0 to 1’ skills is often better than an industry expert that will cost corporate-rate salaries. If you want to let someone learn, often better for a smart mid-senior than an experienced hire that has to un-learn skills. Be really strict in the interviews and have your job description in front of you to keep orientating back to the real problem and jobs to be done that you have – an ineffectual-but-nice person won’t fill the hole.

Have a healthy balance of people who are mission-aligned and not.

Not every employee is in it for the mission and that’s okay. But?whether?it is about the tech, the service offering or the work that aligns with their personal goals, there must be more to it than just getting a paycheck every month.?For us as a social enterprise, having team members that were more financially focused has been a great counterbalance in our conversations, for example.

Ultimately, set goals and try to keep your own focus on ‘the fit’. I’m pretty terrible at this, but if it ain’t working out after a reasonable period… some people just have to go! As the startup phrase goes “hire slow, but fire fast” – and I’d say some of my biggest mistakes of reach52 have, unfortunately, been not following this rule.

Lastly, going back to the survey of other founders, in terms of traits, having the?right culture fit?is the one quality that most of the founders look for in a candidate. They emphasised that they always look for people who fit the core values of the company and are aligned with its vision. The lack of culture fit has also been the top reason why some hires have not worked for them.

The other traits and qualities that these founders value (roughly prioritised - albeit from unstructured data / a bit crudely) are:

• ?Good work ethic
• Hunger for knowledge and learning
• Ability to self-manage, can think, and speak for themselves
• Having the right skills, expertise, and experience
• Tenacity
• Empathy
• Good leadership and people management skills, able to drive the business

For me, anyone displaying all of these traits is the perfect hire! And building culture is one the next posts…