Hiring mistakes are inevitable, especially when you are scaling fast and trying to fill many open positions at once. Here are a few of the most common startup hiring mistakes I’ve seen and some thoughts on how to avoid them.
Hiring people who aren’t passionate about your category and/or SaaS.
When SaaS was just getting started it was impossible to hire an entire team of people who lived and breathed SaaS. But now, that’s not the case. Your team should be comprised of people who are totally passionate about what your company does, and the fundamentals of SaaS. This probably sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many times I meet people in SaaS who just aren’t that into (or who actually dislike) the fundamental aspects of recurring revenue business—like the fact that your customers can just cancel if you aren’t delivering real value. Find people who like SaaS and like your category. You aren’t randomly filling open headcount with quasi-qualified people, you are building a tribe who will help your company grow. Find your tribe.
Hiring too many people
Especially with funding, there is pressure to hire and fill many roles. In the hiring frenzy, it is easy to make mistakes in who you hire, and how many you hire. I hear founders getting advice to “overhire” all the time. Sometimes, it’s necessary. But it can be dangerous, flippant advice. Guidance here will vary depending on who you ask, but I am a cautious person. I usually recommend hiring based on actual need, not on anticipated need. If today I need two CSMs and based on customer acquisition I think in 6 months I will need four, I am not going out to hire four today. I will hire two, and try to identify a few others that I want to nurture and stay in touch with so in a few months when I see the trendline taking shape I can start recruiting for the other two (and ideally already have a solid pool of candidates from the last round of hiring).
Hiring too few people
Everyone knows there will be lots of hard work in the early days, but expecting herculean efforts from your existing staff will burn them out, degrade the quality of work, create resentments and impact employee retention. If your team is nearing the edge of their breaking point you need more people, stat. If you can’t afford to hire more people, you need to look at what’s imbalanced (are you not charging enough, for example?).
Hiring the wrong people
When you are hiring for new roles you haven’t hired before, you won’t always know what to look for. Stay laser focused on candidates with relevant experience and demonstrable success. Look for people who can answer situational questions (“What would you do if X happened, and then Y went haywire…talk me through that…”), and can talk in detail about specifics of their experience. Look for strong fits based on experience and/or aptitude. And if at all possible find a partner who has experience hiring for the roles you are filling and ask for their input during the interview process.
Hiring the wrong people and keeping them around too long
Hiring mistakes happen. But when they do, you need to act quickly. The wrong person in a role can really cost you—lost customers, lost opportunities, lost revenue, lost momentum, lost market share and lost internal credibility. Trust your gut. If you think someone isn’t the right fit, they probably aren’t and the longer you ‘wait and see’ the more momentum you have lost. In my experience, you always know who’s really an A and B player. Those are the people you want. If you are on the fence about someone, chances are they aren’t an A or a B and they aren’t helping you run the ball down the field.
Not nurturing the talent pool
I mentioned in my first point above that I like to build relationships wit...