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17 Qualities of the Perfect Early Startup Hire

By Michael Overell - Dec. 19, 2022
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When you’re first starting out in a new venture it can be thrilling. Adrenaline-filled. Nerve-wracking. Insomnia-inducing. When you get to the point of needing to hire someone beyond your founding team, this process can also be filled with anxiety.

Finding the perfect early startup hire is no easy task, but you’re up to the challenge. Start with identifying the characteristics you need from this person. This list shouldn’t be limited to a technical skill set, though that may be important too.

The key is to find someone who is the right organizational fit — a fit with the culture, and a fit with the growing business needs. Someone who just “gets it” and shares your vision for success.

Key Takeaways:

  • Try to find someone who believes in your vision and is as passionately invested in the company as you are.

  • Look for a candidate that is a strategic thinker but is also creative in how they come to a solution to a problem.

  • Find someone who is compatible with your work style and will fit in with the rest of the team.

17 Qualities of the Perfect Early Startup Hire

17 Qualities of the Perfect Early Startup Hire

Here are 17 qualities to look for in the perfect early startup hire:

  1. Belief in Your Vision

    If this new hire is going to be willing to give it everything they’ve got, they need to fully believe in what you’re trying to do. At this stage in the game there’s no half-heartedness allowed! Sure, he or she may take time to become as passionately invested as you are, but belief in what you’re doing should be there from day one. This person should be excited about helping the whole team achieve the mission.

  2. Energy

    Anyone starting up a business knows that it takes drive and energy to get through the long days. Someone who is too passive and lacking energy to drive toward a goal isn’t likely to be someone who will be able to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.

  3. Intelligence

    You would think this one would go without saying, but it doesn’t. Having intelligence means not only having the expertise (technical or otherwise) to do the actual work, but also having the business intelligence to understand what needs to be done and contribute to the conversation. It also means having the emotional intelligence to know how to play nicely with multiple personality types both inside and outside of the organization.

  4. Flexibility

    Does a startup have standard work hours? Hardly likely. One pre-set list of tasks that is an entire job description? No way. Established processes and documentation? Not yet. An early startup hire will need to be completely comfortable with ever-changing responsibilities and work demands. And this flexibility must be accompanied by a good attitude; just because your new hire is willing to put in a crazy long work day when needed, if he or she moans and groans about it the whole time that’s not going to work!

  5. Ability to Get S*!t Done

    GSD. No excuses. No BS. Your new hire should find ways to get things done, even if she’s never done them before. She should be able to ask for help when needed, but not let lack of experience get in the way of making things happen. She should never assume it’s someone else’s job. If it needs to happen, she needs to make it happen! (This skill may also be known as being proactive, persistent or having a sense of urgency. Any way around it: GSD!)

  6. Thrives as an Individual Contributor

    This person won’t wait to be told what to do every step of the way, nor will he feel that he’s above doing even the most mundane task. In a startup, every person has to pull their own weight. You don’t need managers or delegators at this point, you need doers. There’s a time and a place for people who excel at people management and project delegation; but right now is the time for each person to hold their own and then some.

  7. Strategic Thinker

    Thinking outside the box isn’t optional. A new hire in an early startup has to be able to GSD while looking at the big picture and ensuring that his or her actions are helping the fledgling company achieve its goals. This requires a fair amount of strategic thinking. Ideally this person will have their own six-month vision for the business and will be able to explain their strategic plan to get there and what actions will be required along the way.

  8. Creativity

    Did you know that this person will need to get things done, even if they’ve never done them before? Or that there are not yet procedures and processes in place that explain how things “should” be done? The ability to deal with a blank slate (and often limited budget) requires creative thinking. Creative approaches can be a competitive advantage for the organization.

  9. Broad Skill Set

    Do you need someone with technical expertise? What about experience in your industry? What about excellent teamwork skills, adaptability, and a great attitude? You probably need all of those things. You also need someone that is going to be willing and able to pick up new responsibilities as needed.

    Someone who is going to be able to use their creative thinking to get things done that perhaps they’ve never done before. Maybe your technical person is also going to have to help market the company for a while, for example. Be sure that your new hire has enough experience and the right attitude to be able to take their skills and apply them broadly.

  10. Different From You

    One of the best pieces of advice when hiring, especially when your team is still small, is to assess the skills your team is lacking and hire someone who has those skills. This is no small task, but it will help your team become stronger.

  11. Willingness to Take Risks

    The ability to stick your neck out is crucial for an early startup hire. Why? Because there are only a few of you on the team, and whenever the business needs a bold idea or a risky action, someone has to take ownership of it and do it or it won’t get done.

  12. Compatible Work Style

    Call this cultural fit. Call it attitude. Call it whatever you like. The person you hire needs to have a work style that will be compatible with the rest of the team, or misunderstandings and frustrations could quickly mount. They can be perfect in every other way – experience, intelligence, skills, etc. – but if this person is unable to mesh and integrate into your organizational culture, it’s probably not going to work out.

  13. Patience

    Some things happen really fast in a startup. Other things – like the formation of a career ladder to climb – are not always so quick. If your new hire simply wants to have ever-changing new titles on his or her resume, they will probably grow impatient quickly. Look for someone who understands that things don’t always happen at the rate you expect in a startup. Sometimes it’s faster and you have to be prepared. Other times it’s slower and you have to regroup. Sometimes processes need to be repeated to see results. Someone who gets frustrated or impatient quickly is not going to be happy in this environment.

  14. Ability to Fail Fast

    Making mistakes is expected. So is quickly learning from them and doing better. This process has to happen fast if the startup is going to survive. In a startup environment, the team must research, learn, implement, analyze for issues and fix problems—and then do it all again.

  15. Sense of Humor

    When things go wrong – and they will – the whole team needs to be able to band together and fix it. This is borderline impossible if anyone on the team focuses on blame and negativity rather than being pragmatic. Having a sense of humor throughout the whole crazy process is crucial.

  16. Ability to Receive and Act on Feedback

    Combine the need to be fast-paced with the fact that mistakes are going to happen and it’s easy to see why feedback will need to be delivered frequently and will need to be acted upon immediately. If a startup team member cannot take feedback and use it to improve, then how will that person learn and grow and help the organization thrive?

  17. Gut Instinct—Yours

    Most importantly: disregard any or all of the items above when you find the person who can mesh with your team and push you forward. Gut instinct matters.

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Early Startup Hire FAQ

  1. What are the three pillars to a startup?

    The three pillars to a startup are capital, product, and marketing. These are the key pillars to help your startup to become a sustainable company. Only focusing on one or two of these pillars will eventually have negative affects later on.

  2. What are the traits of a startup?

    The common traits or characteristics of a startup include:

    • Growth

    • Age

    • Innovation

    • Culture

    • Risk

    • Tech-oriented

  3. What are the types of startups?

    There are six different types of startups. The types include:

    • Scalable startups

    • Big business startups

    • Small business startups

    • Lifestyle startups

    • Buyable startups

    • Social startups

  4. What do you need to start a business?

    To start a business you first need a business plan that provides in-depth details about your business and your goals. After getting a plan, the next step is coming up with the structure and the types of leadership and ownership your business will operate under.

    After that you will need to get a registration and any other legal requirements with your state authorities that allow your business to operate. The last step is to get funding for your business from grants, loans or personal savings.

Final Thoughts

Does having and following this list guarantee success? Of course not – nothing does. But if you start here you’ll have a good idea of what to look for before the interviewing process even begins.

Author

Michael Overell

Michael Overell is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with a proven track record in building companies, products, and teams in both startup and hyper-growth environments. Currently, he serves as a key executive at ClassDojo, where he is responsible for driving revenue growth and helping children around the world access quality education. Michael is also actively involved in investing and providing support to promising foreign founders looking to break into the US market through his work with Antipodes.

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