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The first ten hires are the company
Why each hire counts
Steve Jobs rejected the idea that a busy startup has no time to recruit. A founder would spend a lot of time finding a partner, who would be half the company, so the third, fourth, or fifth hire deserves the same care. If three of ten people are not so great, 30 percent of the company is not so great. A small company depends on great people much more than a big one does.
Winning talented people
Talented people don't need to work for you, and they have plenty of options. General and undifferentiated pitches say nothing about why a recruit should join, and the only good answers are specific to your company. Recruiting is a core competency that should never be outsourced.
Choosing the wrong partners or hiring the wrong people early is very hard to correct later. The first and most crucial decision is who to start with.
Why do early hires shape a whole company?
In the 1990s, Stanford sociologists James Baron and Michael Hannan followed about 200 young Silicon Valley technology firms. They found that the way a founder set up employment in the early days, such as hiring for skills versus hiring for fit with a mission, tended to stay in place as the company grew. Firms that changed course later tended to suffer higher turnover. The research program became known as the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies.
How do companies guard their hiring bar?
Amazon uses a system called the Bar Raiser. A trained interviewer from outside the hiring team joins each loop and holds a veto over the decision. The role exists to keep a manager's urgency to fill a seat from lowering the standard. Bar Raisers are drawn from employees with a record of strong interviewing, and the program has been in place since the early 2000s.
How did Jobs talk about great hires?
Jobs said in interviews that the best people in a field can be many times more productive than average ones. He also said that top performers hire other top performers, while weaker ones hire people weaker still. In his account, a team of A-level people sets a bar that A-level recruits want to join. He spent hours personally interviewing candidates for key roles at Apple.
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