Ask the Wizard

One of our investors, DFJ, has an annual portfolio CEO's meeting in the bay area. Serial entrepreneur and all around great guy Mike Cassidy spoke this year and ran through a very rapid fire presentation on launch and operating strategies. One of the questions Mike posed was something along the lines of "When you're just getting started, would you rather hire experienced veterans or extremely energetic young people who will passionately attack whatever challenge you lay in front of them?" Mike's hypothesis was that in the early days, you need to hire the right experienced people because there's just too much going on and you don't have lots of time to train more junior people how to tackle a particular role. I'm not sure I totally agree with this, although I know where Mike's coming from and obviously, he went into a lot more detail on his rationale so i'm shortchanging it a bit here.

In any case, not everybody is afforded the luxury of being able to find an experienced person for a much needed slot in the early days of the company. Maybe the market is crazy and it's impossible to find or attract the right experienced hire, maybe you're 23 and starting your first company and with only a seed round in the bank and a big vision, there can be fifty reasons you can't find the right person.

One of the things we've done a few times at FeedBurner is hire what our vp advertising Brent Hill refers to as Best Available Athlete. This is a bit of a silly analogy drawn from a term used when pro football teams are drafting college players. Sometimes there's a guy who was a quarterback in college and everybody knows he won't play quarterback in pro football, but he's smart, he's fast, he's strong, he's got a great attitude etc. Some team will select him on the bet that although they know he's not going to be a quarterback, he's the best available overall athelete remaining among the available players, and they know that a person with these qualities will work somewhere on the team.

I think this a good approach to hiring in the very early going even when there are other experienced people who fit the role. Look for somebody who's the best available athlete, ie. has the right kinds of characteristics and skills and personality/attitude for your business and the general role, and bring that person in. The other great thing about hiring the best available athelete is that your organization will shift as you grow, and it's helpful to have a couple people that can slide into somewhat different roles as you the organization shifts. I think this approach applies equally well to all areas of an organization.

It's also important to know when not to hire the experienced person who has all the "on paper" qualifications for the role. Cultural fit in the early days of the company is critical. Don't sacrifice cultural fit for grade point average, industry pedigree or any other resume checkpoints.