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In an early startup a decade ago we brought in an engineer from a well known (albeit only to engineers) project. A true A Player. But what we learned is that engineers who were A List in _personality_ really wanted to work with him and by extension us…. Even if they were B or C in skill. This is important because we attracted great talent at a market discount, some of which have gone on to lead other startup teams. One mistake I see a lot is hiring purely for skill instead of for harder to pin qualities like ownership and ambition and ability to accept vulnerability.

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