Challenge the 'hire slow' mantra. Hiring is an intuitive guess, so act quickly. Once a person is in the organization, their performance is a known fact, not a guess. This clarity allows for faster decisions—both in removing underperformers and, crucially, in accelerating the promotion of superstars ahead of standard review cycles.

Before hiring for a critical function, founders should do the job themselves, even if they aren't experts. The goal isn't mastery, but to deeply understand the role's challenges. This experience is crucial for setting a high hiring bar and being able to accurately assess if a candidate will truly up-level the team.

Resist hiring quickly after finding traction. Instead, 'hire painfully slowly' and assemble an initial 'MVP Crew' — a small, self-sufficient team with all skills needed to build, market, and sell the product end-to-end. This establishes a core DNA of speed and execution before scaling.

Instead of mandating a return to office, create an appealing environment people *want* to be part of. Use "carrots" like a beautiful office, high-value summits, and flexible coworking budgets. The soft pressure comes from sharing photos and creating a sense of a vibrant, connected in-person culture (FOMO).

Don't hire more reps until your current team hits its productivity target (e.g., generating 3x their OTE). Scaling headcount before proving the unit economics of your sales motion is a recipe for inefficient growth, missed forecasts, and a bloated cost structure.

A candidate can claim they want growth, but their resume tells the real story. Scrutinize *why* they moved between specific companies. A move for a bigger salary versus a move to work under a renowned leader reveals their actual priorities far more accurately than their interview answers.

Employee retention now requires a customized approach beyond generic financial incentives. Effective managers must identify whether an individual is driven by work-life balance, ego-gratifying titles, or money, and then transparently tailor their role and its associated trade-offs to that primary motivator.

In remote, services-based businesses, pressure to deliver quality and the difficulty of junior mentorship make hiring senior engineers a necessity. The cost and complexity of building remote training programs often outweigh the benefits of hiring less experienced talent.