Never hire opportunistically

Something that happens often with startups is they choose to hire people who have really good resumes or experiences, even though they don’t have a specific job for them at any given moment.?

Typically this happens because a VC or advisor wants to impress the startup, and they try to “show value” by connecting the company to someone with a compelling background that maps to the startup in some way. Then, the company falls in love with the idea and they bend over backwards to jam the person into the company. This can come in the form of excessive comp, inflated titles, or sacrifices on team values (such as IRL work vs. remote, etc).

But the worst part about it is that the person ends up doing a job that usually shouldn’t exist in the first place. This can have all sorts of negative downstream effects, such as: wasteful spend of capital / equity, constant misalignments between coworkers, and an inevitable firing that takes up mindshare and emotional capital of the founders. It’s a mess.

The cure to all of this? Just never hire opportunistically. Does it work out sometimes? Sure. And some teams are better at it than others. But it’s rare and much more commonly, a trap.?

Instead, set a hard rule for your company: don’t hire anyone until something is actually broken. Then, define the exact specific role you need filled to fix the problem, along with requirements, level, comp, etc. And then go do the hard work of finding the exact perfect person for that role.?

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