4 ms·

How do you attract smart people to work at your startup?

• ardit33 19y ago
  Good product (or idea). Good chunk of equity ( if you are offering a good salary but a petty stock options package, then you just going to get mediocre people that want a job). Let techincal people feel they will have a great impact on the company (and eliminate unecessary b.s.) Whatever else you do, it doesn't matter. As the really good programmers will never apply for a job at your company. If your job offering is just that (a job offering and nothign more), then you will never attract the great programmers out there.
• Shooter 19y ago
  Good question. One of the things I do is ask potential employees to HONESTLY list several specific things they DISLIKE and/or HATE about our business (either the business model or the actual implementation.) Every business has warts, so it shouldn't be too hard to find some. If the business in question is a complete startup or is in 'stealth mode', I ask them to list things they dislike about the general industry we're operating in. I want to hire employees that are honest and will work to improve our business. Asking this question helps me screen for brown-nosers, it leads to the obvious follow-up question of how they would change things to improve them, and it also really gives me an insight into how they think. It also shows me how much research they've done and how much industry knowledge they have. I've actually created new positions for people based on their answers to this question...it can be really enlightening. You just have to be genuine in wanting to hear their answers and you have to have a thick skin.
  • vlad 19y ago
    Wow, great answer. I didn't really understand where you were coming from in that "how do I spend my money" thread, but this post shows how it came about. I wanted to suggest in that thread that maybe you should use your greatest asset--the knowhow about creating startups--to help others prepare their YCombinator application or similar activity. By helping young people create startups (or make their YCombinator application as good as it can be) you will help create jobs and solutions to save everybody time and money, or socialize better, or entertain everybody with better and better startups.
    • Shooter 19y ago
      RE: [I didn't really understand where you were coming from in that "how do I spend my money" thread...] At the risk of hijacking this thread, I made that "Are you going to change the world" post after being up for 28 hours. I rambled too much and I see how easy it was to lose the trail. I actually only had a very brief, passing thought about going to medical school which I quickly discounted, for example, yet some people thought that was the core issue of my post. I also have zero interest in DONATING my money to charity at this point, yet some people thought that was a core issue of my post. Medical research and charity were red herrings for some people who read the post. I'm interested in social entrepreneurship, not charity. I also have tons of my own ideas and have no trouble spending my money (on business or pleasure)...but I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, because I can only implement so many ideas myself. Interestingly, some people also thought I was having a huge identity crisis based on my post, which is not the case. I apparently injected too many specifics in the post... Some people that commented on that thread actually helped me crystallize my thoughts better, though: 1. "Software is powerful. Engineers are powerful." (via falsestprophet) To this I would add that youth and inexperience are also powerful. And they are also the people most likely to underestimate their power and their ability to change the world for the better. 2. There are people changing the world with your skillset RIGHT NOW. To think that you can't do anything is a cop-out. (via altay, falsestprophet, Hexayurt, and others) 3. "If you are not working on the most pressing issues in your field...why not?" "If you are not tacking the biggest problem you can tackle with your skillset, why not?" As someone pointed out, everything has an opportunity cost. The true CORE idea of my post was to prompt people to examine those opportunity costs and weigh whether they are working on something that will have the biggest positive impact, versus just working in a hot field (or on pedestrian ideas that they think they can flip for cash.) In sum, don't settle. 4. Changing the world for the better doesn't have to involve curing cancer or saving the lives of African children. Again, I may have thrown out a red herring with the medical stuff. If you are saving people time and money, then that's great. But, even then, is it THE optimal solution? Etc. Etc.
• menloparkbum 19y ago
  "We're getting ready to hire our first employee. We've decided to go with an intern, because they are cheap, and if they turn out to be an idiot it's easy enough to get rid of them." How do you attract smart people to work at your startup? Not like that, I'm afraid.
  • axiom 19y ago
    I can see how that may have come off as cynical. Let me clarify. We are based in Waterloo, Ontario. We will be hiring an intern from the University of Waterloo. Waterloo has an all co-op engineering program (at the cost of having no time off for students, and a 5 year program.), so even if you're hiring a 2nd year intern the guy already has a year of experience at 3 different companies (not bullshit experience either, but serious engineering work at Google, Microsoft, nVidia etc.) So when I said interns were cheap I meant that we get a bargain for the level of experience the guy has. When I say interns are easy to get rid of, I simply mean that the guy can seem downright brilliant in an interview, and have a solid resume, but turn out to be useless on the job. So it's nice to know that the worst cost you will incur is 4 months salary, and none of the paperwork associated with firing a full timer. --------------- Tangent --------------- Funny story. I was working at a software startup in Waterloo not too long ago and we were looking to hire. We got a bunch of resumes, and we were about to start interviews. One resume in particular was very impressive. The guy worked at Amazon, NVidia, and had just graduated from comp eng (very tough program to get into.) The guy who was going to do the interviewing thought there was something funny about this resume. He couldn't put his finger on it but something just wasn't right. Maybe it was that this guy with a very impressive resume was applying to a low level web development job. Anyway, so he decides to check this guy out. He googles the name, and he gets this: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news%5C2006%5C8%5C8255_image_headline.html http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news%5C2006%5C8%5C8255_image_... Suresh Sriskandarajah. The guy was on trial for smuggling weapons for the Tamil Tigers terrorist group in Sri Lanka. That's not all, this guy's court appearance date was set for 10 days after he sent in the resume. I'm not sure what the hell he was thinking he was going to do if we hired him. "ummmm, sorry guys I'm going to have to take sick leave for the next 5-10 years"
    • 19y ago
• breck 19y ago
  I suggest paying a few people for small tasks. You will find out that some people become really committed to the company, some people are really excited at first but turn out to be very flaky. Have a long term hiring plan for finding excellent employees. In the interim, bring on interns/friends/outsource to India. Of course, this assumes you have some money to pay them. Best of luck.
• Harj 19y ago
  "We're getting ready to hire our first employee. We've decided to go with an intern, because they are cheap, and if they turn out to be an idiot it's easy enough to get rid of them." i bet that person feels very loved right now.
• comatose_kid 19y ago
  This is a good question. One way to answer this is to think of what I would want from the startup experience: 1) A chance to work with great people. This is by far the most important thing. And since a startup typically has only a few people, the chances of one of them being 'not great' is pretty small, as there is no room to hide. 2) The idea has to be in an area that appeals to me (opportunity cost of working on something that isn't interesting should be considered). 3) The work environment - this goes back to 1) again. More clearly, working with smart people who you actually like hanging out with would be ideal. Perks and stuff doesn't really matter. The salary should be competitive, but I wouldn't really care 10-20% either way if the above conditions were satisfied. But at such an early hire level, a good chunk of equity would be a must (perhaps not for an intern, but something to think of if/when you decide to bring them on full time).
• mian2zi3 19y ago
  Have them do the job during the interview. What better way could there be to find out if they are competent to do the work? Have a look at Nick Corcodilos's Reinventing the Interview: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452278015?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwonebadseec-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0452278015 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452278015?ie=UTF8&tag=...
• dhpye 19y ago
  Speaking as a developer who joined a project started by a guy who had a great idea for a business, the things I looked for was a really solid business plan, a good understanding of the problem domain, and a map that showed how we could get from here to there in 18 months. I might be more cynical than most, having gone through 3 dotcoms as a developer, but I'm also more optimistic than most (having earned less than 20k in the last year while we build this thing and I earn my pony, and the estate upon which to esconce it). Don't sweat the code if that's not your strength: focus on your business plan. Most seasoned coders have seen umpteen 'cool ideas' burn and die, and it's usually not technical issues from which Demise doth spawn. The one freakish happenstance of the current market is that, while most coders are not great risk takers, they are wonderful risk-smellers. Some background: the progenitor of my current gig spent the last 3 years trying to build a business. He tried to outsource, and contract, and everybody told him it couldn't be done. We met through a mutual business acquaintance, and I fairly scoured his plans. 3 months later, we had a working prototype, and we launch in 4th quarter 2007.
• jkush 19y ago
  Ask to see their work and then go with your gut feeling. Don't rely on arbitrary questions or other forms of measurement. When it comes to people, the proof is in the pudding and when you meet them, what your gut tells you. I would have to imagine this is exactly how the YC application process works.