Hsu Ken Ooi on Startup Hiring
What Startups Look For in Hires
Successful entrepreneur, Hsu Ken Ooi (@hsukenooi) stopped by Tradecraft on Wednesday. He shared his perspective on what startups are looking for, what startups are not looking for and what to care about as we prepare for our job hunt.
Hsu Ken Ooi, is founder of CoffeeMe. He is also co-founder of Decide.com where he led a team of 30, raised $17M from Madrona, Maveron and Vulcan before being acquired by eBay in September 2013.
Here are my takeaways from the Hsu Ken’s talk:
What are startups looking for?
- Attitude
Startups are hard. Things change a lot. Startup people need to learn as they go. They wear different hats depending on the challenge they’re facing at that moment. Especially in the early stages, the tendency is to hire generalists and add specialists in the later stages as the company needs them.
In addition to being adaptive, startups need people of action. With limited resources and plenty to do, startups have a bias and need for action over talk.
By nature, you also have to be optimistic to work at a startup. The reality is most of them don’t make it and optimism is what will keep you going when times are tough.
2. Culture
Building a culture starts with seeking out those with similar values. Likeability and shared values become very important because the simple fact is, you will spend more time with your coworkers at a startup more than almost anyone else in your life. In the end, this group practically becomes your family.
3. Potential
Your potential matters since the startup team is relying on how good you will you be in a few months or a few years from now. The early hires at startups need to be more than just their job description. They will need to grow with the startup.
What startups are not looking for?
1. Experience
Experience matters, but it’s far from being the most important aspect of an early stage employee. It’s far better to hire someone with a can do, learn on the job, get it done mentality than someone who has a lot of experience, but isn’t comfortable with change or uncertainty.
2. Ego
There is no time for ego in a startup. “You’re in the trenches day in day out and there is no place for ego.” And “I know exactly how this needs to be done” is not the always the best response when “I don’t know” can be perfectly acceptable and appropriate response.
Don’t say “I worked in x group in y company. It was like a startup but in a larger company.”
It’s not making the impression you think it is. In my experience from working at both startup and large companies, they are far more different than alike.
What you should care about:
1. The Opportunity to Learn
Getting close to the good people in your field is a great way to learn. In addition to the people, the size of the company also has impact on your opportunity to learn. A big company will offer a depth of learning along with more structure. A small company you will get broader learning and less structure.
2. What about equity?
You won’t get much. Even if the startup is successful, it certainly won’t be a lot of money. Equity is much tougher and less transparent to evaluate than salary so it will depend on your tolerance for risk vs. reward.
Early stage companies offer a high reward at high risk while late stage companies have low risk with low reward. The best of all possible worlds is the company with low risk and high reward. As Hsu Ken said:
“If you find a company with high reward & low risk, just go. But they don’t exist.” — Tweet This
3. What about salary?
Don’t optimize prematurely. Optimizing for salary is not always the best strategy. Consider what you’ll learn at a startup and what you can do with that knowledge later. There’s no better environment to learn something than the pressure cooker of a startup. Balance what you will learn with salary and equity because in the end, what you ultimately want is a fair deal.
Conclusions
It has to be a good fit between the startup and employee. Ultimately what they’re looking for in an employee, who you are and what you’re looking for in a company all has to line up. But knowing what matters to a startup and what you care about is already a good start.
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Currently I am studying UX under Laura Klein & Kate Rutter @Tradecraft in San Francisco and I will be searching for new opportunities at the end of June.
