Hiring for your product startup – Best practices to succeed

If you’ve never hired for your product startup, then you can face challenges in the beginning. Especially if your firm is bootstrapped. It’s not that you hire good people from well-known companies and that will be sufficient. If you’ve worked with a leading brand, then you’ll always have good people applying to your company. The reverse naturally happens with smaller brands, as many well established people fret applying to them.

Several competent people do want to change their jobs. However, they won’t do that unless they’re convinced about their future with a prospective company.

In this case, what should a startup do? Should one work with whoever is applying to them? Or try to understand the changed dynamics and act accordingly? Well, as the cheese moves, so should one change their approach to life.

Here’s what you can keep in mind, when hiring for your product startup.

DON’T

1. Think a few times before getting people from big corporations. Most of them can’t adjust to a startup culture. In fact, whenever you hire, then prefer people who can adjust to a startup’s way of working. So, it’s advisable to catch them young. Then they can easily do multiple roles and work longer hours for your company to succeed. They will not expect a gamut of facilities and understand better that it takes time for processes to be perfect. On the contrary, if you hire someone from an established firm, chances are they may go into comparison mode. Such as, “my previous company had this good thing which new one doesn’t have” etc. Everyone doesn’t realise that each established firm was once a startup which took many years to reach this stage. There are some who do, and that’s what you should look for. Are you convinced that someone will adjust well to your startup’s current state and help shape it better? If not then don’t go ahead.
2. Don’t outsource hiring to third-party firms, just on their projected face value. Be actively involved yourself in hiring. If you give it to an agency then they’ll usually try to fulfil their quota. They won’t always look at if the candidate is a right fit for your startup’s culture or not. This is something you will be able to assess yourself better as compared to someone else.
3. Whenever you interview then split it across rounds. Don’t have 4 people in the same room. If a candidate feels they cleared 4 rounds with 4 people then they’ll value it more. As compared to, if they cleared just 1 round with 4 people.
4. Never assume you’ll get good hires and they’ll make your company do well. The first step will have to be taken by you. That is, your brand should have a story and vision that connects with people. Also, ensure you’re serious about the vision and your commitment to its success. Convey that people joining your company will get a unique chance that they won’t get everywhere.
5. Some job sites will sell you database of resumes on their portal. Due to certain issues, it shouldn’t be on top of your to-do list. There can be incorrect data or candidates might no longer be looking for a change. Some portals that are popular among product oriented people, don’t sell resumes. Hence, you should invest where the people’s preferences are. Recently I’ve observed great traction among young Indians on CutShort.io, as the portal is focused primarily for product startups.
6. Don’t be quick to hire someone simply because they want to work for you. Always follow basics of doing an interview followed by a background check. Be clear on things before you get someone on board. Also, offer ESOP if their rates are outside your budget.

DO

1. Make optimal use of job portals where you can discover candidates with a product bent of mind. Look for people with skills relevant to your line of work. If they have a GitHub account or blog then be sure to check that out. On LinkedIn, some candidates will explicitly mention that they’re actively looking for a job change. This will make things easier for you, as you can straightaway approach them. Also, there’s no harm scanning your competitors and poaching their employees.
2. Approach top colleges. Every institute always welcomes job creators. Though you’ll have to careful that if you go and don’t hire then some placement officers might not like it. If you have the bandwidth for indirect marketing then hold free seminars and paid workshops on latest technologies. This way, students will know that such a company exists who is knowledgeable in newer methodologies. If your brand is unknown then offer freshers an equity in your company, along with a basic takeaway. Give them top positions provided they spend x years in your company and it gets a certain level of VC funding.
3. Do search for Google summer of code and similar coding competitions. Find out people who participated in them. Most of these will be having a good coding experience. Approach them and talk about possible internship or job with your company.
4. Put a professionally worded JD on job platforms. Highlight the benefits of choosing your startup. Make sure your company’s website is up to date and has all the relevant job listings. Do SEO for organic marketing, so that you can save budget on paid ads. You can yourself comment on quora posts or websites frequented by youngsters, mentioning in author’s bio that your company is hiring. Such as “Mr. ABC is so and so at this company which is hiring. Click here to apply.”
5. Improve your company’s brand image. Write guest blogs for leading publications read by young tech people. Offer value to the reader and target places where you can find talent.
6. Make salary expectations and joining times clear in the beginning itself. Often startups can’t pay as much as enterprises. Be honest about things, that’s the best way to retain people.
7. When it comes to tech interviews , you may often have to ask on topics you yourself don’t know. In this case, behave like a subject matter expert when asking questions, as if you know the answers. First, find out something about the matter on the net and grasp some basic knowledge. Then, make a list of questions and do the interview. Analyse the body language of the respondent and if they are giving vague answers just to sound intelligent. Figure out not just what they know, also how they think.
8. Focus on improving your company. You have to take your brand to the level where people will contact you on their own. When that happens it will always give you some good candidates. So, always make sure your public information is up to date including phone number and brand’s USP.
9. Look for the ability to self-learn. Startups often have people experimenting with technologies, since newer ones keep coming in the market. So, even if you bring an Angular expert then React comes in market and you can’t hire new people all the time. You need people who are happy to learn new things because they believe in your vision and want to take it to newer heights. Your target should be to look for people with unrecognised potential and giving them an environment to excel.
10. Be true to your words. If you don’t want to offer stake then don’t do it. Give something that you can deliver. If bad name spreads among one candidate then negative word of mouth can be quite fast. Be clear about what you’re expecting from the person and what you’ll give them. It can sound tempting to offer lofty promises, as some do. Never do that, it’ll ruin your own life as well as brand to a stage where it’ll never recover from. Let go of someone who can’t come on what you offer. Rather, improve yourself so much that people will always come to you and be associated with pride.

Make your startup dreams come true

Good people are the backbone of any company. Hiring for product startups might seem intimidating for first timers, yet it’s possible. Make sure you don’t follow what big companies often do. Keep your basics right, be honest, look around places, and find those who want to grow.

If you still have any queries, feel free to write in comments box below.