The best interviewing trick I learnt from my co-founder.

Look for signs and crumbs, not just what they claim or say.

I learnt something really interesting from my own cofounder Raymond.

He raised this in one of our management meeting long time ago but it only took shape in my mind recently.

In our line of work, we interview a lot of people.

From founders who are interested in joining our accelerators, to new potential hires keen on joining our company, to even mentors that we bring in for our programs.

It’s remarkable how little you can learn from just an interview with a stranger.

Yet with the right question, you can unlock so much and sieve out the necessary information.

Asking them for their regrets is also a very interesting, introspective question that can reveal a lot.

Learning to read between the lines and observing how the candidates answer the questions will provide you important details that may be the difference between a good hire and a bad one.

The essence is in discovering whether the candidate has a bias to action.

You said you were interested in startups?

Prove it.

You don’t have to start a startup or raise a funding round.

You don’t need deep insights or carnal knowledge of starring a business.

But did you bother to even try?

If a candidate has zero questions, its not a good sign.

What startup newsletters you subscribe to?

Do you make an effort to even learn or keep up with startup news?

Have you even attended or made attempts to join any kind of startup event, hackathons or conferences?

Do you read about any interesting founders or startup topics?

Can you hold a meaningful conversation about startups or interesting ideas?

Basically, don’t talk about how much you really want to do something and show me what you have actually done.