Hiring

I never thought I’d be hiring a team within my first year, but it’s happening.  Although it was tempting to use some of the grant funding for a couple of weeks in the BVIs, it’s all going to fund other people with talents I don’t have.  Maybe they can use it for a nice holiday.

It’s long been one of my ambitions to create wealth for others.  I’ve always been inspired by business owners I know who help others get on the property ladder, start families and live their lives.  And now, in a very small way I’m going to do that.

I remember the weight of responsibility in hiring at bp, especially as each candidate was effectively evaluated against expectations of a multi-decade career and progression to executive level. Backing an individual at bp made you quite vulnerable, open to criticism and judgement of others.  Who you hire reveals a lot about you.  And some of it has nothing to do with the job requirements.

Hiring for a (hopefully minimum) five month project feels a lot lower risk.  Except for the fact that this is such an opportunity, one I may never get again. If I pick badly, I may blow the money, look an idiot in front of Innovate UK and have nothing to show for it.

But that won’t happen I’m sure.  Firstly because I’ve hired several people I’ve worked with before and trust: a UX designer, graphic designer and an experienced developer.  But whilst each of these individuals will play a key role in the success of the Familiarize product, none plays such a critical role as the full stack engineer I’ve hired.

Full stack engineers are like gold-dust.  It’s a job title I hadn’t even heard of a year or two back.  And I still don’t really know what they do, other than the front-end stuff a user sees and the back-end stuff that makes everything happen.  The advantage of one person who understands the whole thing is pretty obvious if you’re technically inept.

But they cost a lot.  More than my government funding allows. 

When you’re broke you can get quite philosophical:

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.” Henry David Thoreau

I posted on LinkedIn, FoundersList, AngelList, Cofounders Lab, looking for either a full stack developer or a Co-founder/CTO, making it clear there was limited salary, but equity on offer – and I wanted someone to join my mission.

I had more than fifty applications!  Half came through LinkedIn.  In true bootstrapper-style I joined LinkedIn Recruiter for the three day free trial and then cancelled.

I found a bunch of people I’m now talking to about becoming my co-founder.  And some I interviewed for the developer role.

The interview process was pretty different from bp’s.  I had a few questions jotted down (not that ridiculous spreadsheet we had to use that sapped all the joy out of meeting someone new). I just wanted to get to know the individual, trusting my heart rather than thinking how will I justify why I prefer this person over another.

One person clearly hadn’t got the experience I needed.  Even I could tell that.  In bp I would have let the interview continue, ask all my questions to ensure fairness, end the interview politely and then ask HR to tell him no.  In the startup world I know my responsibility is to give first – and provide honest, practical feedback. So I stopped the interview mid-way and said I was sorry but this wasn’t the right role, laying out my reasons.  And we used the rest of the session to talk about what he wanted, which turned out to be a corporate role where he’d get more support and breadth - and where I might be able to help.

This was an interview I felt good about ending; from which we both got something.

So I’ve picked my full stack engineer, Yunus.  He’s Bangladeshi, in London to complete his MSc, able to work 20 hours a week, more during holidays.  I loved his work ethic and his experience building apps for startups from scratch.

Here’s some tips to help if you’re thinking about hiring people:

1. A team can be formed from all kinds of different employee types – check out some great advice here (for the UK).

2. My first job description bombed, but amazingly some candidates told me why – and V2 had a much better response; be prepared to re-write and repost it.

3. We all assume salary matters, but mission, autonomy and purpose matter much more. Spend more time on them in the job description and interviews than on the specific tasks you want done.

4. Try different channels for posting – and get your network to use theirs.  Not just to maximise the number of applicants, but because you might find different kinds of relationships – I had a couple of VCs approach me as well as Co-founders, offshore developer agencies and talent that might be useful in the future.

5. Hiring is a risk, but less than you might think, provided you’re clear with people and fair.  If any of the team doesn’t perform as expected, I’m not compelled to retain them (in the way I felt like I was at bp).  Take sensible risks but be transparent with people.

So the first employee for Familiarize.  Of course it’s not as simple as simply labelling Yunus an employee and then getting to work, there’s a load of flipping admin and legal stuff to go through, but still, it’s a pretty momentous step.  And there are other advantages.

This week, thanks to my friend Nathan’s prompt, I applied to Y Combinator’s accelerator programme – the fact I have a team building the MVP made me sound more credible than I would have sounded just a few weeks ago.  Same for a couple of proposals I’ve submitted this week.

Building feels so much better than planning to build!