On Hiring: Size Doesn’t Matter and Other Thoughts

We have written before about hiring at theSkimm. Over the last few months, we have noticed that how we look at hiring has shifted over time. Early on, we were looking for all-around athletes. We were looking for culture carriers. We were looking for rising leaders and stars to help us translate our journey into something even bigger than what the two of us could even fathom on our own.
As we’ve scaled our team though, we’ve noticed a big misconception in the startup universe: that size matters. It doesn’t. At least not in this case.
When we reached 50 people, someone asked us if we were going to celebrate. We said no because we don’t want the size of our team to be equated with the success of our team. We did a lot with two people, a ton more with ten, and can’t believe how much we’ve done with 50. But getting to 55 or 75 or 100 doesn’t mean the company is necessarily more successful. We don’t judge success by headcount.
So what do we look for? At this stage, we look for four things:
1. Value. As CEOs, our fiduciary responsibility is to add value to our company. As founders, it’s the same. Each person we look at now, we think: ‘Will you add value? How will you add value?’ It’s something we’ve started asking candidates outright, and it’s something that even the most entry level person should be able to answer. We ask this because of the above — success at theSkimm is not how many bodies we have here, but what each body does. Each person is working towards a key metric that is part of the company’s goal, and therefore each person should know what value they are bringing to the company.
2. Culture. We are pretty damn proud of the culture we have built. There are lots of things we want to improve on, but the fundamentals are there. Our community knows what our culture is, our team knows what it is, and our investors know what it is. And we don’t want anyone messing with it. We are looking to make sure no one could put us at risk for eroding that culture. They need to get ‘it.’ They don’t need to be a part of our target demo by any means, but they do need to respect our audience and get what we have built. During our birthday this year, one of our earliest employees said that she loves that our culture is the exact same now as it was three years ago when she started. Our hope is that we can say the same thing three years from now.
3. Startup Hustle. Without fail, every single person that ever comes to work at Skimm HQ goes through the following:
Us during interview: ‘Hey, you should prepare for the startup hustle’
Them during interview: ‘No worries. I was basically at a startup before’
Us in our heads: ‘No, you weren’t’
Day 1 — **Wide-eyed with excitement**
Day 3 — ‘How are you doing, are you overwhelmed?’ we ask. “No, I’m great, everyone is so nice here!’ they say
Day 8 — **Looks like deer in headlights**
Day 9 — ‘How are you doing?’ we ask. “There’s a lot to take in and learn,” we are told
Day 10 — Someone else on the team tells us that said new person seems overwhelmed
Day 11- We tell them it gets better, and it happens to everyone
4. Scale. At this stage, we aren’t looking for people who know how to be at a company our size. We look for those that can be with us 2–3 stages from now. That doesn’t mean we have 2–3 times the people we have now, but it means we need people who know how to scale with us and know what scale means.
Starting a new job is hard. Being at a startup is harder. There are next to no resources. No one is making your deck. No one is filling the printer tray for you. No one is booking your travel. No one is making your 30-day plan. It’s much easier to talk the talk, than walk the walk. And we look for people that we feel confident can do the latter.
By the way, did we mention we are hiring?
More hiring thoughts over here:
