1.
A guide to
HIRING
FOR YOUR
STARTUP
Yevgeniy Brikman

2.
What is the most important
part of a startup?

3.
a) The idea
b) The technology
c) The sales and marketing

4.
a) The idea
b) The technology
c) The sales and marketing

5.
People are the most
important part of a startup

6.
Differences between
people are massive

7.
Therefore, hiring is the most
important thing you do

8.
Best piece of startup
hiring advice:

9.
Don’t do it

10.
Don’t do it
(yet)

11.
Stay small as
long as you
can

12.
Build a culture
of leverage and
efficiency

13.
Eventually, you’ll
need help

14.
Founders spend >25% of
their time on hiring

15.
You must spend this
time wisely

16.
I’m
Yevgeniy
Brikman
ybrikman.com

17.
I wrote
a book
about
startups
hello-startup.net

18.
based on my
experiences at
LinkedIn &
TripAdvisor
hello-startup.net

19.
as well as
interviews with
developers from
many startups:
hello-startup.net

20.
Google, Twitter,
Facebook, Stripe,
Pinterest, Quora,
Coursera, GitHub,
and many others.
hello-startup.net

21.
Here’s what I
learned about hiring

22.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview

23.
1. Who to hire
a. Co-founders
b. Early hires
c. Later hires
d. What to look for
2. Where to look

24.
1. Who to hire
a. Co-founders
b. Early hires
c. Later hires
d. What to look for
2. Where to look

25.
You need a co-founder

26.
to fill in your weaknesses

27.
to talk you out of bad ideas

28.
to share the work load

29.
Two or three founders
works best

30.
Building a successful
startup takes 10 years

31.
So be careful when
picking a co-founder

32.
Look for someone
you’ve worked with before

33.
College classmates &
former co-workers are ideal

34.
Split the equity evenly

35.
Make sure everyone
is on a vesting schedule

36.
Remember, a successful
startup takes 10 years

37.
You need everyone to be
bought in for the long term

38.
1. Who to hire
a. Co-founders
b. Early hires
c. Later hires
d. What to look for
2. Where to look

39.
Early hires are
like bringing
new DNA into
your company

40.
Choose the first
10 employees
very carefully...

41.
...as they
determine the
next 100

42.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
would ask early candidates:

43.
“If you had a year left to live,
would you take this job?”

44.
Early on,
prefer
generalists

45.
In the early
days,
everyone
has to do
everything

46.
“You don't want
someone
saying
that's not
my job”
- Julia Grace

47.
1. Who to hire
a. Co-founders
b. Early hires
c. Later hires
d. What to look for
2. Where to look

48.
Later stage startups
can hire more specialists

49.
Prefer “T-shaped People”

50.
Experts at one discipline (vertical leg of T)

51.
Broadly skilled at others (horizontal leg of T)

52.
1. Who to hire
a. Co-founders
b. Early hires
c. Later hires
d. What to look for
2. Where to look

53.
Smart and
gets things
done

54.
Smart
because you
constantly
have to
learn

55.
Gets things
done
because you
must ship

56.
Good communication skills

57.
Can you converse with them?

58.
Can you understand their
writing?

59.
Can they explain
complicated concepts?

60.
A good culture fit

61.
Similar tastes & appearance
is NOT culture fit

62.
It’s discrimination

63.
Real culture fit is
about shared values

64.
E.g. at Zappos, providing amazing
customer service is a core value

65.
Everyone who is hired
answers customer calls

66.
That’s culture fit.

67.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
a. Use your network
b. Employer branding
c. Job boards
d. Premature optimization

68.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
a. Use your network
b. Employer branding
c. Job boards
d. Premature optimization

69.
The majority
of startup
hiring is via
referrals

70.
Referrals
fill jobs
faster

71.
Referrals
have the
highest
retention
rate

72.
Referrals
are the
highest
quality hires

73.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
a. Use your network
b. Employer branding
c. Job boards
d. Premature optimization

74.
Employer
branding is
attracting
candidates
to your
company

75.
You do this by
sharing
valuable
content and
teaching

76.
Blogs,
meetups,
hackathons,
conferences,
open source,
etc

77.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
a. Use your network
b. Employer branding
c. Job boards
d. Premature optimization

78.
No one likes job postings

79.
“Results oriented”

80.
“Has at least 12 years of iOS
experience”

81.
Only active job seekers look
at job postings

82.
If you just
“post and
pray”, you
only reach
1 out of 5
candidates

83.
If you’re going to post jobs,
get creative

84.
And post
them in
the right
places

85.
Better yet, reach
out to candidates directly

86.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
a. Use your network
b. Employer branding
c. Job boards
d. Premature optimization

87.
Old joke:
the boss
takes half
the resumes,
throws them
in the trash
and says...

88.
“I don’t
hire
unlucky
people.”

89.
You’re
throwing
away
resumes
if you:

90.
reject
someone
for typos
in their
resume

91.
reject
someone
for not
having a
particular
degree or GPA

92.
reject
someone
for not being
a “bro” or
a “ninja”

93.
Instead of
looking for
reasons to
reject a resume...

94.
“Look for
something
that shines”
- Gayle
Laakmann
McDowell

95.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview
a. Interviewing is hard
b. Basic interview process
c. Interview questions
d. Making an offer

96.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview
a. Interviewing is hard
b. Basic interview process
c. Interview questions
d. Making an offer

97.
You get an hour to make a
decision that lasts for years

98.
1970’s orchestras:
5% of members are female

99.
1990’s orchestras:
35% of members are female

100.
The difference?
Blind auditions.

101.
Interviewers will be wrong.
Err on the side of no.

102.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview
a. Interviewing is hard
b. Basic interview process
c. Interview questions
d. Making an offer

103.
Step 1: connect

104.
Email, phone, in-person.
Get them interested.

105.
Step 2: phone screen

106.
On-site interviews
are expensive

107.
Use a phone
screen as a filter

108.
Step 3: on-site interview

109.
Aim for 4-8 interviewers,
each with a different focus:

110.
communication, culture fit,
job-specific skills, closer.

111.
Don’t confuse
interviews with
interrogations

112.
Your goal is
learning, not a
confession.

113.
Make sure the
interviewers
are good
representatives
of your company

114.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview
a. Interviewing is hard
b. Basic interview process
c. Interview questions
d. Making an offer

115.
Puzzles and
brain teasers
are terrible
interview
questions

116.
Whiteboard
coding is a
terrible
interview
practice

117.
There are much
better
alternatives

118.
Work on real-
world problems
(GitHub,
Jawbone)

119.
Give a talk
(Peopleware)

120.
Take home
problems
(Pinterest)

121.
BYOL: Bring
Your Own
Laptop
(Coursera)

122.
Go through a
real workday
(Typesafe)

123.
1. Who to hire
2. Where to look
3. How to interview
a. Interviewing is hard
b. Basic interview process
c. Interview questions
d. Making an offer

124.
First, check references

125.
What has this person
accomplished?

126.
What was it like working with
this person?

127.
If the
reference checks are good,
make the offer personally

128.
Then follow up in writing

129.
An offer has
four parts

130.
Part 1:
the
opportunity

131.
There's work and there's your life's work.
The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind
of work that you'd never compromise on. That you'd sacrifice a
weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People
don't come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the
deep end.
They want their work to add up to something.
Something big. Something that couldn't happen anywhere else.
Welcome to Apple.

132.
Part 2: the salary

133.
Be fair and transparent

134.
Use a formula
hello-startup.net/resources/salary/
Salary = (job type x seniority x experience) +
(location + salary choice)

135.
Seniority Salary
Executive $150,000
Senior $125,000
Junior $100,000
Use a table
hello-startup.net/resources/salary/

136.
Part 3: the equity

137.
Be fair and transparent

138.
Equity = (i - 1) / i
Use a formula
hello-startup.net/resources/equity/

139.
Employee Equity
Hire #1 2-3%
Hire #2 - 5 1-2%
Hire #6 - 15 0.5-1%
Use a table
hello-startup.net/resources/equity/

140.
Part 4:
the benefits

141.
Listen to
the candidate

142.
$1 in benefits can be worth a
lot more than $1 in salary

143.
Time off,
classes,
outings,
commute,
hackathons,
remote work, etc.

144.
Recap

145.
People are the most
important part of a startup

146.
Founders spend >25%
of their time on hiring

147.
Use your
network

148.
Build a
strong brand

149.
Be thoughtful
about how
you interview

150.
Make an offer
they can’t refuse

151.
Check out
Hello, Startup
for more info
hello-startup.net

152.
Questions?

153.
Slide 1, Road: Bec Brown
Slide 2, Business plan: Heisenberg Media
Slide 5, People: Heisenberg Media
Slide 8, Four buildings: Davide Ragus
Slide 11, Ant: US Dept of Argriculture
Slide 13, Helping Hand: Tomas Sobek
Slide 21, Handshake: Flazingo Photos
Slide 22, Road: Joshua Tree National Park
Slide 25, Jobs & Wozniak: Revol Web
Slide 29, Schmidt, Brin, Page: Joi Ito
Slide 32, Classmates, Travis Rigel Lukas Hornung
Slide 34, Scale: Bob Miller
Slide 39, DNA: EnzymLogic
Slide 42, Brian Chesky: Official Le Web Photos
Slide 44, Swiss Army Knife: Wikimedia
Slide 48, Tools: Lachland Donald
Slide 49, T-shaped person: Valve
Slide 53, Brain: Allan Ajifo
Slide 56, Tin Cans: Sebastien Wierz
Slide 60, Scrabble value: Got Credit
Slide 69, InMap: Ali Imam
Slide 74, Honey: Thien Gretchen
Slide 78, Flyers: Joel Kramer
Slide 82, Passive candidates: LinkedIn
Slide 83, Billboard: Google Blog
Slide 87, Trash can: Sebastien Wiertz
Slide 97, Office interview: Weltbild Verlag GmbH
Slide 103, Keyboard typing: iloque
Slide 105, Phone call: NEC Corporation of America
Slide 108, Office: Robert Couse-Baker
Slide 111, Chair: Paul Kehrer
Slide 115, Puzzle question mark: Horia Varlan
Slide 116, Whiteboard: Doc Searls
Slide 117, Light bulb: R. Nial Bradshaw
Slide 124, Reference call: Martin Cathrae
Slide 129, Letter: Bearstache
Slide 132, Money: Ervins Strauhmanis
Slide 136, Stock certificate: Wystan
Slide 140, Ear: Travis Isaacs
Slide 152, Questions: Derek Bridges
Photo credits