If you're an early stage startup founder trying to hire people for your team, you're probably in a very difficult position. It's probably true that you don't have a lot of money to hire people indiscriminately. And even if you did, you don't quite want to do that.
You want to make sure that every person you hire actually fits into the company well and fits the role perfectly. Number one, you need the right skill set - but that's actually the easier thing to assess.
The Real Challenge in Startup Hiring
The other soft skills - making sure candidates have a startup mindset and would fit your company culture - are often very difficult to tell during an interview. People behave very differently during interviews. Once they start working in your team, you may find out they're not a good fit or didn't really understand what working in a startup means.
We've been able to build amazing teams again and again. So I'm going to share two secrets that will particularly reveal during an interview whether somebody is a good fit for your company and has the right startup mindset.
Secret #1: The Discouragement Test
After all other rounds of discussions are over, either my co-founder or I have a final discussion with the candidate, actively discouraging them from joining us.
This is a brutally honest conversation where we lay out:
- All the different ways we could be wrong about what we're pursuing
- Where we could fail
- The most likely outcome being that we are going to fail
- The possibility we may not be able to raise our next round
There is nothing false about this discussion. This is the reality in terms of statistics - over 90% of startups do fail. We're simply presenting that truth in a very obvious and fully laid out fashion, telling candidates they should seriously consider whether this is still a risk they want to take.
People who get past that discussion and still feel strongly about joining us? Yeah, they're the real deal.
Secret #2: The Mental Endurance Test
One or more of us will have a long discussion with the candidate - often 45 minutes to an hour - going over particular areas of problems, usually related to things we're building. To the extent we can share publicly, we have them participate in brainstorming and regular discussion.
This is to assess how quickly they get mentally exhausted talking about these problems.
Why This Matters
To endure the working style of me and my co-founder, people need a very high tolerance for lengthy discussions - what may feel like endless discussions on certain topics. We're trying to dig very deep into problems we're solving and emerge on the other side with solutions.
People with shorter attention spans or those who get tired easily in longer discussions are unlikely to be a good fit for this.
Important Note About Fit
The second test isn't necessarily indicative of an overall fit for any startup - it's specific to our working style. Candidates may actually be a fit for some other startup where the founders do things differently.
But generally, if you're solving complex problems, you've got to have the ability to think deep.
Conclusion
These two unconventional interview techniques help reveal who truly has the startup mindset and resilience needed for early-stage companies. By being brutally honest about risks and testing mental endurance, you can identify candidates who will thrive in your startup's environment.
