stay in your lane

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my 2 cents: stay in your lane

i work almost exclusively with early stage orgs (series b and earlier) and they treat hiring, like they do most things; all hands on deck.

the goal isn’t structure and lanes - the goal is execution.

i’m 100% game with that and it’s a perspective i personally prefer to work with. i can’t stand process and structure (just ask my wife). i have no interest in coloring inside the lines or staying in my lane…

that being said, we all have areas where staying in our lane is the best bet… and for technical founders, hiring is one of them

when hiring you're looking at 3 things:

1) track record of success
2) ability to perform the job
3) alignment with team/culture

and while all 3 of these can seem objective things to consider, in my opinion, they’re all subject to context and understanding. where i see this issue arise the most is with technical interviewers, because they often don’t have any real experience in a go-to-market role (outside of selling their own product - not even the same universe).

for technical founders their perspective is heavily bent toward logic, reason, and fact. 0s and 1s. and while there's a ton of value to it, the data only tells a story if you know how to read it.

what KPIs matter and why?
which data has true value and which has surface value?
when does attainment matter and when does it need more context?

while it may feel simple, it’s a lot more nuanced and when your bent is IQ and not EQ, you’re asking for trouble..

so if you’re a technical founder or you’re wondering how to leverage yours in hiring for non-technical roles, here’s how I’d view it.

technical founders are terrible gtm filters, but they’re top tier product evangelists. they're the BEST at selling candidates on why your product, vision and future are supreme. anyone can sell on why you should join a team. that's table stakes. but selling the behind the scenes vision on why your product is all that and a bag of chips? that's the real value they add here. ‘

have them run the demo, talk about competitors, sell the vision of the future and really gas up the product so that the role feels like a no-brainer to your candidates.

do not have them grill candidates about systems, process, sales, marketing etc because while they may feel like they have the hang of it after scaling to 50 customers, they have no clue what they’re talking about.

if you're using your highest IQ team members as EQ filters, you've completely missed the point. every single conversation in an interview cycle matters and every misaligned interview is a surefire way to mis-hire and miss out on great hires.

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