Why I Like Hiring People Who Are Better Than Me

Beware of “Bozo Explosion” when growing your team!

Here’s what I mean:

It’s when A-level people hire B-level people, and then B-level people hire C-level people, and soon the organization is full of what @Guy Kawasaki calls bozos.

If you’ve 8 people in a team at 100% talent for the challenges they have and 2 people at 50% talent, then you’ve got 90% talent density.

As a result, it:
– Costs you more money.
– Makes some people do more work.
– Drags down the entire culture.

Here are 2 things to consider while recruiting for your startup to have a high talent density:

1. Don’t worry about competition:

Your product, culture, and philosophy will appeal to certain kinds of people on their own.

At @babelforce, people take 6 months to become real experts in the product, even if they were already an expert in their field.

But what they’ve in common is the excitement to work on the product and help customers use it.

That’s how we’re able to hire high-quality people despite the competition.

2. Give space for people to grow:

Increasing your talent density doesn’t always mean hiring VPs of everything.

In the early days of a startup, people may join from a particular field and go on to do great work in a different field.

For example:

5 years ago, @Will Connor – our head of Product Development – joined us as an intern marketing operations assistant.

He had never touched a technical product in his life but had an affinity for it, while I come from a product development background.

But today, @Will is many factors better than me at what he does.

In the early days, you do a lot of jobs as a founder.

But when you find someone talented enough for a role, you need to give it up and be glad to be challenged by someone better than you.

Thoughts?

#hiring #entrepreneurship