Ask HN: Where do you hire when scaling?

[MarkVenison]

When you went from 1 to 5 employees, where did you find these people?

And how do the best do this?

How did the guy who started Coinbase went from 1 to 3 people? Where did he find them? Or the guy who started Airbnb where did he find employee number 2 and 3?

Are they using Upwork to find talent?

Or many of you guys here with successful businesses and agencies. Where are you hiring?

How do the best tech entrepreneurs do this?

[t312227]

imho. (!)

disclaimer: i'm a tech guy / software-developer etc., no experience in HR ;))

but i worked for countless startups during the last ... decades, in my experience: you have to look for 3 things

in short:

1. generalists / "T-shaped" people

2. self learning

3. "passion for the cause"

why?

ad 1. generalists: in this early stage you need people with a "broader" knowhow, you can't have those "single trick ponies" who are focused on a very narrow skill-set and are not willing to do whats necessary right now.

i read a lot about "T-shaped" people: generalists with certain areas of deep knowledge.

idk. for example. you are looking for a software-developer, ok ... look for people, who have deep knowledge in software-development, but they should also display interest and knowledge in a lot of other areas...

you will need this at some time in the future, you are hiring your first employees ... you don't have the "luxury" to have people on payroll for every task which could come up during "doing things in the real world", you need to have people who are willing to "get their hands dirty" outside of their "primary area of knowledge"/their "comfort zone".

ad 2. good "self learner": as i stated above, you'll discover problems which need to be addressed "as you go". and as you are trying to work out how to solve those things, being able to delve into new areas quickly w/o a lot of outside help besides "the internet" is key.

ad 3. "passion for the cause", read: willing to work for low salaries:

i'm from europe, we don't get "flooded with VC money" just by spitting out a few buzzwords on a business-plan.

so you'll have limited resources - read: money. you won't be able to pay FAANG salaries etc. so you need good - or at least decent - people who are willing to work for relative "low salaries", at least at first...

and we all know the statistics about how likely startups fail, so for most "first employees" this low-paying job will be the only thing they get out of this adventure ...

ah, and the experience / hopefully fun & a good-looking entry on their resume, which can be worth a lot more than money ;))

just my 0.02€

[abyesilyurt → t312227]

I agree with all, except the comments about “willing to work for low salaries”. This type of filter tends to attract individuals who may lack the entrepreneurial spirit essential for a startup. It’s a losing strategy.

[t312227 → abyesilyurt]

hello,

ok, maybe i need to clarify this :))

i didn't meant "low wages" in absolute terms - eg. "exploitation" of people.

i meant "relative low(er) salaries" compared to the "high(er) salaries" big companies are able to pay - let alone big tech...

and i think this is at its core the "hard problem" to solve as an early-stage startup:

to get relative good people who see reason to take such a job - when they would be "capable" to work for one of those big companies and rake in the large(r) salaries payed there ...

so there has to be a reason for them to accept this payment deficit ... this is what i called "passion for the cause" in my first post :)

cheers

[MarkVenison → t312227]

thank you.

In my OP I asked "where" to find these people. Is it Upwork or...?

[localfirst]

You want to filter people out with a ridiculously high level of standards and be willing to pay for that talent.

Many are unwilling to do the latter but expect the former. You get what you pay for.