Startup Hiring = Finding "FSO" (Figure Shit Out) People

The ability to learn things quickly is one of the most important skills Founders need, because when you have a blank canvas absolutely everything needs to get done.

It doesn't matter if you hate legal, accounting, or sales, you are going to (at least) learn the basics to get the business to a point where you can afford the luxury of specialists. This is why we test for Fluid Intelligence (among other traits) when evaluating entrepreneurs for the Founder Institute.

But this requirement doesn't stop at just the Founders.

When seed-stage startups are hiring they should also optimize around finding people that can learn quickly. As the Founder of a small team, you need to resist the temptation to "be in charge" of all the learning. Your natural inclination will be to do the research, determine the strategy, and create guidelines for all of the various tasks your people will need to execute. But you can't do this.

You don't scale.

When describing the types of people you need at seed-stage startups, I've typically used the terms "entrepreneurial", "resourceful", or even just people you won't have to send a snarky LMGTFY ("Let Me Google That For You") link.

But in a recent interview FI did with Maren Kate Donavan (a Silicon Valley Founder Institute Graduate & Founder of AVRA Talent Partners), she used the absolute perfect term:

"FSO (Figure Shit Out) People"

These are people that not only CAN learn quickly, but also intrinsically WANT TO learn (no matter the topic).

People that with just Google and a few hours can understand basic best practices and get started on any type of project.

People that don't pull back when encountering a project they don't understand, but are rather energized by it.

Even if you are hiring someone with a specialized skill, they will fail in a seed-stage startup if they are not also FSO people. And to be honest, if the company takes off and grows quickly, there will be a point when the business may outgrow many of these people. In a few years the FSO people may need to be replaced with specialists in order for the business to mature and scale. But that doesn't change the fact that these are absolutely the types of people you need in the earliest stages.

In addition to discussing FSO people, the interview about startup hiring with Donavan was great, and it covered a variety of topics like outlining company needs, determining compensation, building a hiring funnel, and more.

I recently published an overview of the discussion about recruiting great people for your startup on the Founder Institute Blog. Check it out, and let me know what you think...