Hiring and Firing
How Much Equity Should You Give Your First Engineers?
If you want to build a great engineering team, then you have to get your equity grants right. And, you’ll blow it if you don’t this right. The good news is there are some rules you can follow to help you make good decisions about splitting your equity. I’ll explain how in this short video.…
Read MoreHow Hiring Inexperienced People Can Help Your Team
There’s an old adage that, “You should never hire someone without experience” for your startup. The problem with this adage, like many adages, is its wrong! I’ll explain how hiring inexperienced people for your team can be a force multiplier in this short video. Read The Transcript Below: Okay, so why should you…
Read MoreWhat Are The Four Reasons You Shouldn’t Hire Someone?
You likely have some sort of criteria for the people you hire. So you should have a criteria for not hiring people too. The surprising thing I’ve learned is that a lot of CEOs don’t have a criteria for not hiring people. You don’t want to be one of those people. In this short video,…
Read MoreHow Do You Recruit Senior People To Your Tiny Startup?
Recruiting top talent to your startup is tough, especially if you’re trying to recruit people from large companies like Facebook. You’re not going to be able to overpay to get them. After all, they’re already likely making a lot of money. So what can you do to give yourself a fighting chance? I’ll go over…
Read MoreHow You Can Hire 10X Engineers For Your Startup
“I think Greg is going to join us, “ I said to my cofounder and VP Engineering Jeroen. “That would be a huge coup for us.” Jeroen smiled and nodded his head. Then he said, “I know it would be great if Greg joined us.” Then he paused and asked me, “But can we afford…
Read MoreWhat Should You Do With Your Flawed Employees?
When you’re just starting out, you may have some members of your team that have serious issues. Ideally, you’d let the person go and find a replacement. But you may not have that option when you’re just starting out because the perfect fit for a given role may not want to join your startup yet.…
Read MoreHow You Can Staff Effectively To Supercharge Your Startup’s Growth
Years ago, I remember a startup CEO telling me, half joking, that his hiring criteria was, “Anything that breathes.” That’s not exactly a sound strategy to grow you startup, is it? I think what the CEO meant was that it’s tough to hire really good people when you’re starting out. The reality is it’s always…
Read MoreWhen Should You Replace Yourself As CEO?
Years ago, I was introduced to “William”, the CEO of newly formed startup. I think our first meeting was a lunch meeting, and William was trying to convince me to join him. I liked William on a personal level. However, I didn’t see him as a CEO, so I passed on the opportunity. That didn’t…
Read MoreWhen Should You Hire An Employee From A Failed Startup?
You’re right to worry about the effect of hiring an employee of a failed startup into your company. Maybe the potential employee will bring all the bad habits of the failed startup to your company. And who needs that? However, you’re missing a real opportunity if you don’t hire people from failed startups. I’ll give…
Read MoreHow Strong Technically Does Your VP Marketing Have To Be?
Years ago, I had someone who worked for me that was really bright, really intuitive. I thought he had a lot of potential, but the problem was he didn’t have a technical degree. So, I gave Matt the least technically challenging product line in the company to run. Matt did a great job. The businesses…
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