
Ask HN: Which startups are still “only hiring the best”? - baron816
Does that phrase still have any meaning? It’s hard to imagine someone who might be considered “the best” deciding to work at an early stage company.
======
cocktailpeanuts
The "best" means different things at different point in life of a startup.

For example, an arrogant "10x" developer who doesn't team-play and work 9-5
for work life balance may be the "best" when the company has grown to a large
size, but for an early stage startup, this can act as the #1 reason for the
demise of the startup because it messes up the morale and culture.

~~~
sethammons
I have a hard time imagining a non-team player ever being the "best" in any
size business.

------
alamaslah
The unsuccessful ones.

As soon as a startup becomes successful they have hired an attractive
anthopology gradute to be "head of people ops" etc. After this it is mostly
luxury ideals and gimmicks.

At one time every startup claimed to only hire the best. Then they mostly
failed. They are still out, being the best, that is currently avialable, in a
commutable distance, at below market rate.

------
AkashicSeer
I am older and it seems to me that the Start up companies that hire only the
best, do so to build their system then they replace them with cheaper people,
if the company makes it.

Plus why would you want to work for a startup? That is the most unstable stage
of a company. A large portion of startups fail. I've done it several times. So
you are better off consulting a startup than working for one.

Startups will give you a great marketing speach and try to promise if you work
for cheap or free that you get xxx amount of company stock and you too will
get rich = STARTUP

If you are the best at what you do start a consulting company. That is what I
am doing right now.

------
authief
I agree with a lot of your comments (esp. the one about working on hard
problems). We're constantly shifting our messaging to make sense and resonate
with engineers looking for exciting yet challenging work. Culture is big to
the engineers at Knotch, so we often lead with notes about our best place to
work awards.

But "best" is a subjective term. In a job post referring to "best engineers,"
I think it's a cop-out and just fluff.

------
sergiotapia
A better question to arrive at the same answer is: "Which startups are working
on HARD problems?"

Extremely talented people will gravitate towards those companies and you'll
find yourself surrounded by raw passion.

------
ironmagma
Define “best.” Each company has its own definition, and you probably have a
definition that’s different from all of those. Besides, why wouldn’t someone
who’s great at what they do start a company? Early stage startups are the best
place to get a large chunk of equity which could be very valuable later on if
you succeed at building a business.

~~~
thfuran
>Besides, why wouldn’t someone who’s great at what they do start a company?

That's such a baffling sentence that I don't really know where to start to
unpack the assumptions that must have gone into it. If what someone is great
at (or wants to do) has nothing to do with starting or running a company, why
would they start a company?

~~~
AkashicSeer
Anyone who is good at what they do can start a business consulting others on
how to do what they are good at.

~~~
ironmagma
Not necessarily, some perfectly good workers lack the drive to do customer
calls, CEO work, marketing, etc. Generally speaking, being self employed is a
heck of a lot more work than being in a startup because you must do everything
yourself and you will never be able to be truly "off."

