Behave like an owner of the company

Working at startups is hard for many reasons:

• There are a lot of things to do, and a few people to do it.
• You have to learn to do a lot, and fast.
• Cash is short.
• Sometimes the entire house is on fire, but you’ll need to pick which rooms you’ll save first.

For this to go right, startups need people that care. People that care of things as if they were their own, people that care enough to immediately put out fires as soon as they arise.

Startups need people whose motivations rely on the group instead of on the individual — this is the only way to thrive on a place with so much happening, and with very few structure.

Startups need people that do a lot of damage through surprise and teamwork. People that crush things fast enough to make the company survive and thrive. People that do more than they were expected to, because they care.

Those are the ones who behave like an owner of the company, and they are startups’ biggest advantage. Those are the people you should be hiring.