Startup founders should interview the first 500 hires
I believe that founders should be a part of the interview process for the first 500 hires.
A startup is only as good as the people it hires, and hiring is hard. Playing an active role in the recruiting and the interview process is the highest-leverage thing you can do as a founder.
Founder involvement ensures the hiring process is solid as the company scales
Founder involvement helps attract and close great candidates
Around 500 hires is typically when a startup has reached some level of significance, most likely via product-market fit or meaningful traction. At that point, it’s also hard to make any significant change in culture without a widespread disruption inside the company.
1. Founder involvement ensures the hiring process is solid as the company scales
Having a founder involved in each of the first 500 hires helps founders ensure that company leaders and hiring managers are effective at communicating and hiring for the startup’s mission, vision, and values.
2. Founder involvement helps attract and close great candidates
Having a founder involved helps candidates feel valued. Great candidates understand that meaningful time with founders isn’t window dressing. This is the candidate’s opportunity to discuss anything and form a bond before she evens joins as an FTE.
“Hiring is a network effect. The first 100 people you hire will define the next 200.”
— Molly Graham
Considerations
This does not mean that founders should be a part of every stage of the interview process.
Early-stage founders are heavily involved with every single hire because they have to be.
For different roles or different stages of a company, founders may need to simply be brought in at the final stages of the interview.
This does not mean that founders should be a part of every hiring process until the company reaches a 500 headcount. Every team sees attrition, firings, and layoffs.
The more senior the role, the newer the team, or the endeavor (e.g.launching a sales team), the more involved the founders should be in the process. It should go without saying, but founders should own every stage and decision for executive hires.