1st time founders focus on product 2nd time founders focus on growth 3rd time founders focus on team Here’s everything I’ve learned about hiring and team building since my first startup 15 years ago - Early teams need more generalists - As you grow, you need more specialists - Finding undervalued talent (not unqualified) is the difference between great and good teams - Rockstars have a bias for action, get sh*t done, and have a growth mindset. You can’t coach/teach these things. - People are who they are. It’s hard for them to change - People usually revert back to the things they’re best at/most comfortable with - What someone has done well is more important than the logos they have on their resume - Date before you hire: do projects, do mock scenarios, consult before hire, etc - The best talent has clarity about their strengths, weaknesses, and when they need help. - The best teams have clarity about their goals and roles: Why they’re doing something, how they’ll achieve them, and who’s responsible for what - The best teams focus on finding solutions and not problems - The best teams are motivated by the mission they’re on vs the jobs they have - The best teams focus on We > Me - The best teams support each other but don’t enable each other - Teams who are able to have hard conversations, disagree, and share bad news will move 10x faster than teams who aren’t. - Communication is undervalued: proactive, with ease, no drama, data backed, ability to share hard/bad news, written and verbal - Documenting things and sharing notes along the way will save lots of miscommunication, help w accountability, and save you time as you grow. It’s especially critical for remote teams. - If you have 1 remote employee or 1 flex day out of the office, you are a remote company and need to build accordingly. - You spend more time w the people you work with than anyone else. They don’t need to be your best friends but they need to be people you want to build with, grow with, and learn from. - People who are easy to work with make work 10x more enjoyable - Culture and accountability is the sum of the all little things that leadership models and follows through with every day - Happy hours cannot fix culture, but can be the the byproduct of a good culture - If someone needs to be treated like a child they’ll likely never grow up. Just part ways - Actions > Words - People need to show what they can do first to earn more freedom, flexibility, and responsibility. The worst thing to do is to hand someone new a project and just say go - no matter how senior they are. - The only people ultimately responsible the company are the founders. - Teams where everyone feels responsible and like founders will be rocket ships. - Customer obsessed teams can buy themselves more good will with customers when times are tough to figure it out. And customer obsessed ones generally do. - Hiring is hard. Pro sports teams who have scouts and years of data fail every year in drafting and signing, because humans are unpredictable and lots of things contribute to someone being successful - Building teams is hard. - But hiring and team building are some of the most rewarding parts of building a company and in life.