Startup founders — Have you recruited the best out there?
Let’s face it. Every founder in the world wants to hire the right people. As we raise or start making money, we get to hire a team who will help us build our product, grow and structure our business. For most of us, it will be the first time we manage people and even more challenging find superstars.
I will focus on one issue I face myself as I am building my team and help other startups build theirs: the number and quality of people you are considering before making a hiring decision.
Elon Musk goes a long way to recruit the best people in their respectful fields. One example is him poaching the guy who created the Apple stores to run his showroom and distribution at Tesla. Who best than this guy can create the future of car showroom? The difference is that Musk has deep pockets and a solid reputation already. He has an army of headhunters to advise him.
Founders don’t interview enough candidates.
I will focus on a simple mistake I see over and over again. Founders don’t interview enough applicants. They will search until they find a couple of candidates ticking the box and make an offer to the one they like the most. They probably know she’s not the best out there. The lack of time and resources make them hire too quickly, to desperately…
Let me share with you the stats we have when recruiting for other startups.
100 approaches (candidate contacted by recruiters)
500 applications (candidates applying online)
10 shortlisted (profiles shortlisted after reviewing questionnaire and video cv)
6 first interviews (by startup)
3 final interviews (by startup)
2 offers (offer to best candidate and then second if first decline)
1 hire
That’s the effort it takes to hire someone of who will make a dramatic impact and fit in your culture. You might have found once a rockstar among 5 candidates but it was pure luck. Recruiting is one of the hardest thing you can do as a founder. You really want to interview the best out there and not simply people applying online. Real talent hides. They are waiting to be seduced into a new job opportunity. No amount of software will ever dig them out.
Joss Leufrancois is the founder & CEO of crowdsourced recruiting platform for startups, Visage. He has worked for 10 years recruiting in Europe, the US, South America, Asia and the Middle-East.
