Hire Fast (we can talk about firing later)

Hire Right & Fire Fast- the subject of many a book.

And I agree.

That being said, hiring fast is just as important.  Let’s be clear, I am not saying you should hire the first person that walks in the door. What I am talking about is increasing your candidate pool to find the right person more quickly.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make the same mistake I have made (many times) when hiring. I am a very cash conscious entrepreneur – always thinking about runway, budget, and cash flow, which most of the time is a good thing. Because of this, I have often made the mistake of setting salaries below market to conserve cash and extend runway.  I have justified the salaries by offering equity and selling the “sexiness” and flexibility of working for a tech start-up. Eventually I am always able to fill the role, the problem is that it can literally take months!

A lot of qualified candidates can’t afford or are unwilling to take a cut in salary, regardless of the upside you give them.  Some people just aren’t as motivated by upside as we founders are.  The result? You immediately lop off a huge portion of your candidate pool and instead of a deluge of resumes you receive a trickle.

It has taken me 9 years and multiple companies to realize this, but with my next ramp up I am going to pay at or above market and still offer upside, a fun culture, and exciting place to work. I may even hire a firm to help in recruiting when we are still tiny!

What I have found is that getting the right people in place quickly accelerates your progress more than additional salary or recruiting costs reduce your runway. One of the best ways to find the right person quickly is to increase your candidate pool. Two obvious ways to do this are to offer more money and bring in outside help.

Once you have the deluge of resumes coming in you can move on to vetting and finding the perfect person. I do not recommend rushing that process (you still have to hire right).

I will take my chances with 9 months of runway + the right team over 12 months with an incomplete one.